Minority Museum Nanning 12-7-06

Here are some pictures from the Minority Museum, honoring the Drum people.


2000 year old copper drum, used to celebrate the harvest.


My sleeping beauty!


Very old chinese baby clothes.








Ritual dancing at the museum...ending with rice wine for the men. They gave Barry two cups full!




Sophie with Mommy and Daddy :)

More soon...Love to all,

People's Park Nanning 12-6-07

These are all from our visit to the People's Park. It was beautiful. There were many elderly people that meet up to practice their writing, play cards or musical instruments, do Tai Chi (sp?). We all had a great time, especially Sophie! She was in rare form that day with many smiles and waves of hello and bye bye. People just seemed to be drawn to her. Two groups even came over to her with gifts, one was a doll and the other was a couple that gave oranges. The people here couldn't be nicer!


Just a few bicycles/mopeds...only 2.5 million people in Nanning...


First stroller ride with Mommy!


This man appeared to be in his 70's! What balance they had..


Scenery at the park.


Cool looking instrument...the music was so soooothing...


More beautiful scenery...


Isn't Barry a cool lookin Daddy!!!


Two girls that gave Sophie a doll. How nice!


This boy was adorable. He was dancing to some authentic chinese music...in his split pants. He was quite proud and not shy a bit!

Love to all,

Grins, giggles, and more than you probably want to know...

Well, our precious, quiet little angel has sprung into action! She's a talker, a busybody, on the go, and her expressions are hilarious. She likes making us laugh...Barry's sister, Vicki, had said she didn't want the big Blake clan to scare her. Not to worry! She'll fit right in!



















And to answer some of the questions I'm getting...As you see from the pictures, much more smiling going on, no snoring, and pray for this to continue - at nap time she gets a bottle and goes down easy for at least 2 hours, then at bed time (between 7:30 and 8:30, I'm trying to narrow that down) a bottle and she's down for about 12 hours!! She's sleeping well through the night. She's eating eggs, toast, and congee (best described warm soupy rice pudding) for breakfast, cereal (with added fruit when we can sneak it in) for lunch, and noodles, veggies, and congee for dinner and 4 bottles a day (sometimes a little extra) She absolutely LOVES Cheerios throughout the day. Uh...how can I put this nicely...she "recycles" very well - no troubles there, Nana :) And lastly, no rashes anywhere!! She did have very dry, itchy skin on her legs, but I've been giving cornstarch baths and using the lotion Kim gave me. It looks so much better.

We miss everyone so much and can't wait for you to meet Sophie. She may be shy at first, but it won't take long for her to show you her bright personality. We learn more about her every day.

Good night and Love to all,

Quick pics from Sophie's Birthday

Here's some pics from her day...yes, I cried...a little less each day, though.

Catching up!

We've had internet connection issues..and still can't get Skype to work, so our phone calls are very limited, since Barry needs to use the phonecard for business.

On the actual Gotcha Day, there is very little paperwork. The chinese officials match paperwork, to baby, to parents and presto magico - we have a baby. It's the next day when we go back for the interview that the adoption becomes official in China. Each family goes into a room where we are asked questions about why we wanted to adopt from China...do we still want to adopt this child (duh???)...do we promise never to abuse or abandon her. Again, it was hard for me to hold it together. The orphanage director sat in on the meeting and all I wanted to do was jump up and give him a huge hug. They took such good care of our daughter...of all our daughters! They truly are so healthy, in mind and body. Turns out they had moved each of our girls from the orphanage to foster homes, I think at the end of September. This was intended to get them used to family life, more attention, maybe less production line feeding, etc. Brilliant!!!

This first picture above is right after the meeting, the next two on the bus ride home, then all the families back at our hotel, and yep, it was all final on Sophie's 1st birthday!

Love to all!!

Especially, to the another new addition to our family - Katelyn, Mandy's new daughter. We hear Mandy and Katelyn are doing well, and can't wait to see you both! Hey Mandy, Sophie loves her thumb just like Rilyn...

Happy 1st Birthday Sophie

We were able to have a little party in the dining room of the hotel. Five other families were able to join us. The cake was delicious and Xixi said Jackie Harrah covered the cake for us! It was beautiful - Thanks, Jackie!!

More pictures to upload soon.
Love, Love, Love...

Hours after Gotcha!

Here's a quick little video..only two hours after Gotcha. She's doing so well and we are so in love with her.

Love to all,