We are home at last!!!!!

Well,we are home and very exhausted. We arrived in Columbus about 9:30pm last night,we were met by almost all of our families, alot of our church family, some of Tammy's coworkers, and friends. Sophie slept about 8 hours of the 14 hour flight, all of the Detroit to Memphis flight, and all of the Memphis to Columbus flight. You see a pattern, yep you guessed it, she went to sleep about 3am, woke at 5am back to sleep at 6:30 until noon. She went down for nap @ 4:30pm and we woke her up @ 7, and we are gonna try to keep her up till 10 so maybe she will sleep tonight. She is in shock of the size of our house, compared to the hotel room. She smiled and grinned real big when we took her to her room and play room. She is a little explorer into everything. She still has a good appetite so we are praying after tonight she will be on a normal schedule. Some friends from our church put up some decorations, and some family stocked our refrigerator and prepared a couple of meals, that included her favorite corn on the cob (hehe), and banana pudding!! Thanks to everyone that prayed for our safe journey, and stopped by our blog. We hope that you continue to pray for us as we all adjust to each other and bond as a family. We are keeping the blog going, so stop by often to check our progress.

May God Bless You All
The Aldridges

Last Post From Mainland China

This wil be our last post from Mainland China. As we anxiously leave Guangdong Province I am so grateful to this country for allowing international adoption b/c without that allowance we would not be here! We are also so thankful for Sophie's birthmother who cared enough to place her safely in a public place to be found. I pray that she has peace with her decision and knows that Sophie is loved and cared for.
Our travel intenerary is:
delta flight 26 from Hong Kong @ 9:15am local time(8:15pm friday night)cst. to Detroit arrive @12:10pm
Delta flight 1556 from Detroit @ 5:30pm to Memphis arrive @ 6:31pm
Delta flight 4973 from Memphis @ 7:50pm to Columbus arrive @ 9:06pm

Another post from Aug 26th

I will post this from a different standpoint than usual as we are getting ready to travel. To rapup my side i say this says it all for me. I looked at these 2 pictures and can truly say that I hope she never has to feel the sadness, the oppression, or the unfruitfulness of serving someone that will never bring her happiness. But then i look at the picture below and hope and pray she understands one day, that God was looking upon her and blessed her mightly. I can say that God has blessed her in a way that many will never take the time to realize that God has blessed us so richly, and to not give Him the glory for all we have at home is shameful. I wish each person that reads this could experience life in another country to realize our blessings. I beleive we would all praise Him more for where we live.

Aug. 26th

Well today I turned 40. I had friends here and on facebook that wished me HB in China time, and some wished me HB in U.S time, I had like a 48 hour birthday so it was Great!!! We didn't do anything special just same routine for most part. Our friends Dan and Michele suprised me with a bithday cake after breakfast and that ws so special and thoughtful of them. I then had to go to a meeting w/ the other parents(one from each family)and CCAI reps. She opened the meeting singing hb to me. Then after meeting they had room service deliver a cake w/some trimmings. We had a day to walk around and burn, basically we are just ready to come home. Some people want to know flights and itinerary so we will post that after breakfast. I hope we haven't bored anyone with the blog but we thank each one that has stopped by to check our progress or to get your fill of Sophiemania. What ever the case i hope you realize this journey is not because of us, but because of Him.Thanks again for the friendships, prayers, and standing beside us when we thought we were alone. This has been an amazing journey for our family of 4.

We Love You All
Rodney

Wednesday, August 25th with Sophie

Well we did the whole US Consulate thing and it went very easily! They did not even ask us a single question. As we stood there with 40 plus families all with our right hands raised taking the oath for our babies I couldn't help but tear up thinking of how blessed and happy I am to have this baby girl in my arms finally. Now all she has to do is touch soil in the US of A and she is an American Citizen!!! Praise God! She can live in a country where she can learn about God freely and choose to serve Him in an awesome way! The rest of our day was typical around here. We walked through the courtyard and island blocks looking at shops just to get out of the hotel room for a bit. Staying in the room will drive you crazy especially with an 18 mth old who is sick of these 4 walls!!! On the way back from the Consulate we got stuck in a traffic jam and the 30 minute ride took way longer! Sophie worked herself up into a tizzy and finally just fell asleep. When we got back to the island we had pizza delivered for supper. Bailee walked down to the cafe and got his lil sis pasta. He is already being a great big brother or ge-ge as it is in chinese (pron. guh-guh). She is totally in awe of him too! Altogether a pretty uneventful day but a great day of family time for all of us! Enjoy the pics of the day!
Love,
Tammy

PS: Look-out Columbus and all surrounding ares b/c my hubby who hates to hop has the bargaining fever!!! Here in mainland China you do NOT pay the asking price for anything so Rodney is loving going into the shops and giving the workers grief trying to get lower prices. One poor girl whom he keeps revisiting about hides when she sees him coming b/c he has practically walked away with her store :-)
No he picks up things he doesn't even care if he gets just to jew them down! So, we may never pay asking price for anything ever again...Yeah!!! As I said look-out USA cause he has the fever!!!

Great Surprise News . . .

Our guide had to go to the US Consulate this morn to turn in and file our paperwork for Sophie's exit from China. If all paperwork is in order, we go to consulate tomorrow for oath cermony but she called and said our families in our group were ready to process TODAY!!! So in a few hours we go and get Soph's walking papers!!! Next step will be tomorrow to get exit Visa and then we can get outta here!!! Praise God for answered prayers and unexpected blessings!
Love ya'll,
Tammy

PS: Don't forget Rodney has a big bday tomorrow (26th) he will be 40 !!!

Tuesday, August 24th Part Two

Today was another free day but it was also the day of the infamous "Red Couch" photos. The White Swan Hotel, where we are staying, has many red couches on the second floor foyer sitting areas. It has become an adoption tradition to have all the babies and adoption families photos taken on the couches. The lobby was rockin' with all the running babies and families. Rodney got one shot of the families as they were taking pics of the kiddos... it was so funny to see... Rodney yelled out to the families no paparazzi allowed! Hee-Hee.... Sophie was the absolute most beautiful and the absolute worst to try and photograph!!! She screamed bloody murder when I put her down and tried to get her picture. One of our guides tried to pick her up (she is a Chinese lady of course)and Soph had a hissy fit! She was done about 10 minutes in... She is a definite red hot chili pepper spicy lil moma!!! Everyone has learned her by her screams... They all think it is so funny. I tell them they will all pay for picking on us when they get home with their little ones lol.
Then we came to the room for her nap... She went down with only one chorus of Jesus Loves Me... however I keep singing to get her sound to sleep cause she will wake up as soon as I put her down most of the time if I don't keep singing and rocking for about 15 minutes. So now all my bunch here give me a hard time and tell me they know now why I am not in the choir haha aren't they sweet!
When Soph got up I fed her lunch and we went swimming for a little while. We couldn't stay in long b/c she is trying to get a runny nose and she won't stop trying to drink the pool water. When we came in we played in the room for a while and then got ready to go out to Lucy's once again for supper. The food is pretty good there but we are really getting sick of the same thing over and over but Lucy's is the only place to get food anything like at home. After supper we made the block to a few of our daily shop stops and I had to get Sophie and bring her back to the room b/c she was about to fall asleep in the stroller. However by the time we got back into the room she had come back to life and was ready to party for a while. So, her daddy obliged and played with her until she crawled up in my lap and wanted me to rock her to sleep. My girl is so precious and I am loving being a mommy to a little one again. All those little smiles, pats, and kisses are filling my cup up with joy! Thanks again for the prayers and for following along....
Love,
Tammy

Enjoy the pics...

Tuesday Aug 24th Part 1

We hope you all have a great tuesday we just had to get these pitures up now so maybe it will brighten your day and give you a smile or maybe even a laugh. We will post more about our day later.


Love Love from Guangzhou China

The Aldridges

A Week Later . . .

Today marks one week with Sophie!!! WOW! How can it only be a week??? It seems like forever! Think of pregnancy and how your love for the baby grows throughout the nine months... with adoption it is much the same except in our case we have had 4 YEARS to love this baby! So, needless to say we can't even begin to imagine life without her! She is such a precious gift for which I am eternally grateful to God for granting my desires. Sophie has already changed so much... I feel like finally she thinks we are her family and would choose to stay with us instead of jump on the first boat away from us. No kidding... just a few days ago she would have been perfectly happy to wave bye-bye to us and never looked back but now look how God has answered all the prayers that are going up for her to have peace with us and actually love us like we love her. Thank you Jesus!
Today was the much anticipated pearl market trip! We went to the wholesale market and got Sophie a beautiful set of pearls for when she is older...a necklace, bracelet, and matching earrings. We then got her a precious pink set to make her a necklace and bracelet for now!!! When I slipped the bracelet on her in the market she smiled the sweetest smile and clapped!!! Everyone in the store loved that and told her daddy to look-out b/c she already loves jewelry! When then went to KFC with some friends for lunch. She would not touch any of the food except french fries. She is already ruined on fries! If they are within her reach that is all she wants....ugh! Like me she would eat fries as her meal anytime!
We then roamed through a few of the stores where I was on the prowl for a Prada bag... no luck yet :-(
We then flagged down a taxi to bring us back to the island which was no small task and came in for Sophie's nap... She was hot and exhausted!!! I rocked and sang her to sleep in about 2 minutes!!! That night we went to Lucy's for supper where she ate rice, french bread, pasta, and tore up some corn on the cob!!! She loved that stuff!!! We then trolled the island shops and had a good time b/c it was so much cooler than in the day. My big baby was thrilled b/c he found the North Face rain jacket he was wanting and had his daddy negotiate it for a good price. We then went into this center part of the store where there was all kinds of artwork and jewelry. The jewelry had bible scriptures carved into it. It was awesome! The designer was there and talked with us a lot. He works in a local orphanage with 800 children. He helps the disabled children and helps to raise money for their care. He freely spoke of the horror and injustice China shows to the disabled children in the orphanages. As he showed us his photo album I teared up and so did he describing the sweet kids and their sad futures without serious help. We have his website so you can see his work and we can all pray for his service and the children!
We then came back to the room for bath time and playtime before bed. Oh and of course Soph conned her daddy into a whole honey bun before bed :-)
Keep us in your prayers. We love you and thank you for sharing in our journey!
Blessings,
Tammy

Sunday Happenings! or Not!

Sunday started as normal bath, play then breakfast. It was a free day, because the agency that we have bragged about being such a great Christian organization decided to plan a city tour that took you to a buddist temple w/ optional child blessing, without saying to much we declined that tour. It breaks our heart to see people praying and opening their heart up to dead man, and expecting great things. While we to pray to The Risen King, who tells us if we have enough faith we can move mountains. In our case He lead us to this adoption in 2006, He didn't tell us it would be in our time He just told us to do it. I really beleive He has chosen the perfect fit for us and we will pray each day that one day she will repent and accept Him as her Lord and Savior. While we stayed on island Bailee and Paps went to a hugh amusement park that had all kinds of roller coasters and thrill rides, they had a blast and were very tired when that got back to hotel. Keep praying for us and attachment , travel mercies as we will start Friday at about 4:30am your time and land in Columbus at about 9:00pm Saturday night. All in all it will be like 37 hours of travel gaining 12 back for total of 25 straight hours.
Love
The Aldridges From China

Saturday, August 21st: Day 5 w/Sophie

Yeah!!! I got some sleep. Sophie only had two night terrors so it was a much better night to rest. She is doing soooooooo much better! We still have a way to go but at least we know prayers are being answered b/c we do see progress. She will now let Rodney play with her some, smile at him, point that sweet little finger and yell something at him, but she still will not let him hold her. She reserves that right to me still and as much as I love it I will be glad to share cause her 22 lbs are killing my left arm As I sit here and post w/one hand, she is asleep in my good arm so peaceful and angelic. She is so funny and cute. She has a cunning little smile that will melt the toughest heart. God amazes me with His wisdom and care in creating my children through other peole's DNA but so ultimately made for us to raise as a part of our family! I am so grateful to God for loving me enough to give me this awesome gift!!!
About our day:
When we woke up Sophie is ready for a bite of something immediately! So, I fed her a mini bowl of cherrios and she ate every bite including the milk! Next, I got ready between her playing and hugs. Then we went down to breakfast and this chic will cause a scene... she can eat and scream and throw the best Tammy fit ever!!! Her favorite foods so far are bananas, scrambled eggs, toast and jelly, chocolate muffins (that's my girl), & french toast with banana smothie to drink! And yes she does eat all of that in bites at one meal!!! We then went to the lobby to meet our group and guide for the clinic visit. First we headed to the photo shop to get Sophie's Visa photo taken and then straight to the clinic. We were dreading this and knew it would drama! Our guide knew Sophie would show out so she put us first. We had to go to three stations to get the clearance for VIsa paperwork. She started screaming and flopping all over so the chinese nurse grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to the table to take her b/c they couldn't handle her (hee-hee)! Once we left there we walked back to the room to let Sophie calm down and decompose! Oh, me too! After a nap and calming down we headed to the island shops to stroll around and pick up a few things to take home. Then Sophie and I went to the room to play while the guys went to the bank to exchange money. We then got a taxi and went into the city to eat at McDonalds and check out the five story shopping mall. My girl had lots of first today! Hopefully you will see most of the happenings in the pics of our day. We had a good day with few meltdowns once the clinic visit was over. Then before bed we went on our nightly swim in the pool to play and work off some energy. I had such a hard time holding on to Miss Prissy Pants that we stopped early and went in to play in the tub instead. I can handle her in the tub b/c I can just sit with her while she plays. Anyway, good day in all... Keep praying for us and know that we truly thank you and love you for following along, encouraging us, and praying for our time together!
ALl our Love,
Tammy and the bunch

Pics...