Aug.17th pictures

Tuesday summary that we didn't get to last night, started off quickly because we had appointments at 9:00am to leave the hotel. Sophie woke up, gave her a bottle, took a bath with moma in bathroom sink(poor mom hasn't showered since Monday) go,t dressed in her first new outfit from home with you guessed it a Huge Bow. She did great at breakfast eat everything we gave her. We then went to our appointment got back at 11:00. We went to Michaels(the place that let us have a stroller for free till we go home) to pick up laundry, and to buy her some shoes, Chinese outfit, tea set, jade bangle braclet, tee-shirts for her and Bailee .... you get the point. Then as we were leaving it was starting to rain the owner was coming in, she gave Tammy her umbrella told her to return it when we was leaving. Later we went for a walk found a place to eat(more on this later) and Sophie took a nap in stroller. Went back to room for alittle while then went to another shop, the owner found out she was from same town he was from, he sat us down for hot tea and shared about her town and some other stuff about her hometown(pic above), and then we ordered take out for supper.All in all i felt like we made some progress in family time today. Hopefully you all will keep this lifted up in prayer as at this time it is so hard to witness her struggles emotionally. I hope this is not too boring for you to read, we just want to keep up how this blessed time actually went down to show her one day.

More Pictures from Gotcha Day

(1)This is Ms. Jenny Smith the Exec. Director of True Children's Home, this is the home that gave Sophie her first surgery, and took care of Sophie for us until July 23rd when she went into Foster Home under the supervision of their foster care coordinator.It was so wonderful to set with her and talk about Sophie, she told us it was going to be tough! (2)Bag that contains all of Sophie's belongings,(3)Sophie's life captured in a book with pictures of alot of her milestones,(4)this a caligraphy(spelling) pen made out of Sophie's first haircut. Thats all for now please keep praying for bonding and peace for us, it is alittle better today. I have another post of pics about today i will get to in a bit.

Sophie is officially Ours

Well yesterday didn't go as planned, we had our hands full after we got Sophie. She is having a hard time bonding w/us right now so if the post is a little short for the next couple of days please understand. Maybe we will post some more pics to satisfy your craving for Sophiemania!!!!! Seriously please keep us and Sophie lifted up because w/God's help we can make it thru. He is the Great Provider for us all and He and only He can answer prayers. She will not let anyone besides Tammy hold or even touch her and honestly probably don't want her too either but we will survive and come out stronger because of it. WE Love You All, we are reading all the comments and emails and we are so thankful for all you who have stopped by to check our updates now to more pics from yesterday:

Gotcha Day!!!!!!!!!!

We are new parents of Sophie Brooke Hai Jun Aldridge
will post more about today later but here is some pics
Thank You God!!

One More Day!!!

It is 7:11 am China time on Sunday morning here right now...
We leave for the province Sophie is living in today... in about 8 hours!!!
We will not actually get her until tomorrow (Monday) but I am about to jump right out of my skin just knowing that in a few short hours I will be in the same area she is in... This day is so special to me... All my prayers are being answered in live action form. I say this to get my point across.... God is so good to me even though I totally disappoint Him so regularly. That should show all of you out there that God loves you and wants to be your Father. I serve a God that loves me and wants what is best for me despite my unlovedness and faults. I am so thankful that once I got saved He now sees me with different eyes... not as a lost child that He wants to come and submit to Him anymore but as a part of His family, His child, who He loves in spite of my disappointments. Isn't that the way we love our kids... they mess up or disappoint us but we keep right on loving them and don't even see them through tainted eyes but see them as we hope for them to become! Thank you God for seeing me like that! One of my lifelong prayers has always been to get to see miracles right here on earth like the Bible times people got to see when they walked with Jesus daily. Well I am getting to see that first hand. I am living it! Bailee is a miracle and that whole experience was an awesome answer to prayer and now precious Sophie is the same way. If traveling across the world to get your children whom you know the Great I Am created especially for you to be a moma to is not miracleous then I don't know what is. "I will sing of His love forever!"
To all my family and friends that are living in doubt or disobedience: Please Please Please look at how great God is and just how much He only wants good for you! Look at these miracles and let them soften your heart to a God who loves you so much!!! I just do not want to be in Heaven one day missing you and wishing that I would have said one more thing or done something differently to help you submit to a gracious and loving God! Please repent and be saved.... It is really just that easy... you cannot buy salvation, earn salvation, or keep salvation... you can just believe with all your heart that God is God and that it is through His Son Jesus paying for your sin debts that He can be your Savior! Can't get any easier or better! I so hope and pray that God working in my life and showing all of you these miracles will help soften your heart to Him now!!! I love you and want you to have peace, assurance, and the perfect will of the Father in your lives too!

Dear God, Thank you for loving me in spite of myself! Thank you for your miracles being displayed right before my eyes and for not giving up on me! Thank you for this experience and for having this plan for me before I was even born! I love you Lord and I will sing of your praises forever!!!!!

Blessings from China,
Tammy

Hong Kong Day Two

Ok today was another crazy day for me... My body is still on usa time but i am in china... not so good!!! we got up at 6:15 am to get ready to go meet our group and guide in the lobby at 8:30 to have an organized tour of hong kong
i did not get but 3 hours of sleep during the night ugh!!!!
anyway the tour was pretty lame... i mean we got to see some neat stuff but did not get to stay at the places i wanted to stay at very long and stayed at the ones i did not want to stay out a long time!!!
we went to the highest point in china called victoria's peak it is about 1400 meters above sea level we could see the beautiful south china sea from one side and the cities and new territories from the other side we have pics that i will post from all of this at the bottom of the post. Then we went into the mall here to meet to leave but i wanted to stay b/c it was the best shopping mall we have seen and looked so neat it was very western not at all like the others we have seen that looked like flea markets. but no we had to rush off to go to next stop...
then we went to a little fishing village called aberdeen... really neat it is old school china at its best... i even rode in a sampan and did not get motion sick at all yeah for me and group (heehee)
after that they took us to a jewelry market complete set-up i might say they took us in the workshop to show how they create jewelry then into the jewelry store where they jumped on us like piranhas funny funny no one in group bought anything we all CHEAP lol
then we went to the traditional china market... it stunk... i was hot, tired, and ill!!! after that adventure we went back to room to REST and then go out to eat in a different town ha that did not happen.... i laid down to rest and the guys decided to lie down too after a little while and we all fell asleep again this time we woke up about 5 hours later which was too late to go to the other town to eat so we ended up having to order pizza to be delivered to hotel at 11:00 pm for supper let me explain first we went to hotel restaurant to eat but did not like menu or prices so we one by one snuck away from table and ran out the door laughing... second we went around the corner to look at another restaurant only to be ran off by owner for hanging out too long in front of his establishment and then back to room to order online pizza that would not let us and had to send rodney to lobby to pay a deposit to use phone in the room to call and order pizza so finally about 11:40 we were eating supper but it was good!
then of course since i slept all afternon i could not sleep at night again so here goes the cycle again UGH!!!!!!
Ok now for the pics....



This is the peak we were going up to... view from bottom in city...


Jackie Chan's House and I am so not kidding. I was so happy...all i wanted to do was to quote Rush Hour lines like "Lee, Lee get back here... or do you speaka English" heehee all you who really know me know that one of my leading responses when I am agitated is "Don't make me Jackie Chan you!" lol My friend Aaron would be so proud right now so if he or his sweet wife Charla read this he can smile!!!
The people here really like Jackie Chan and think he is a big deal to Hong Kong!!!


China scaffolding... they make from bamboo... so cool...
















Floating Restaurant... will seat over 3000 people for dinner... Whoa!








P.S. lots of you have asked me about the smells... Let me try to explain in my Tammy kinda way...
It smells like a chinese restaurant dumpster; raw sewage; and B.O. (they do not believe in deo evidentally)
Mix all of that together and you get "Gag me with a spoon!"

P.S.S. I got to talk to my BFF Christy on facebook; I am so happy :-)!

****ONLY ONE MORE DAY TILL I SEE MY BABY FACE-TO-FACE!!!I already feel the tears coming.... I am so grateful to our AWESOME God for His plan for me as a moma and for the two beautiful children He has given me!!!