Friday Night Favorites version of Sophiemania !!!

This is the first night of a new project i have come up with. I will do my best to post every Friday night Sophie's video of the week. We captured some great video as she seems to open up more and more each day.
She has done great this week with the exception of 1 day. That day she just seemed to really (in our opinion) wonder if Tammy was gonna leave her. The next morning she was back to her new self.
Last Friday we received a call the IAC(International Adoption Clinic) and Dr.Kizer informed us that her stool samples was positive for the intestinal parasite Giardia. We have her on meds for the next ten days that should clear it up. We take her back Wednesday for hearing and follow up with Dr. Kizer on her other blood test.
Paps update: He has been home for a week now and they have him on the same meds as Sophie only his is a pill version. He has been weak and slow to recover been, but he was better this afternoon.
We received our proof from our family photo session with Amber's Photography. Sophie done really well ae want them all, but we will be narrowing the list down to a few.
Sunday night we done a little presentation to the church about our journey with a slide show. A big crowd showed up and i was as nervous as a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs. We have the best church family anybody could ask for, they have really been supportive of us and have been lifting us up in prayer daily.
Hopefully i can get this video to work!!
I have encountered technical difficulties therefore pics will have to do till we get the video straight !!!

Because He Lives
The Aldridges

Today Marks One Month With Sophie ! ! ! PTL ! ! !

Wow!! We had a friend who said,"time goes by so slow while we waited for our referral(4+years), then its rush rush rush,then its over and we are home w/ our baby." That is exactly how it went for us. When we got home we had to take a deep breathe and take a dose of reality that we were in our home as a family of 4. We have lived as hermits for the past 2 weeks trying to give our girl some time to adjust to life at home in the U.S.A. We have had a lot of visitors and she has had her moments. She just seems to go in panic mode by the smallest of things. The outpouring of love, support, and prayers by our church family, friends, and family has really overwhelmed us. Thank You All for all that you have done and continue to do each passing day.
Bailee returned to school on Tuesday,and I went back to work that Wednesday. Sophie and mom had their time to bond the rest of the week. She was pretty much on Tammy's hip all the first week.
Week #2 We had our first appointment at the International Adoption Clinic in Birmingham,Al on Wednesday the 8th. Sophie did not like the 2 hour car ride in her seat , but we made it there fine. They done alot of test on her and took about 5 or 6 viles of blood to check everything out. We came home to do stool samples every other day for 5 days. They will test these for any stomach parasites. We will go back Sept. 29th for results and treatments. Then we go to The Cleft Clinic in Birmingham on October 21st for Cleft visit, dental, ENT and Cosmetic surgeon visits.
The next day is big news. She reached up for me to hold her for the first time. She is getting more and more comfortable each day. We had our first family pictures taken Friday by Amber's Photography. Saturday afternoon we had some rain and it give Sophie the opportunity to play in a little puddle for some photo ops. Yesterday(Wednesday) she and i went outside for about 20 minutes without momma and did fine. Her night terrors have dropped off alot this week, with only a sporadic outburst. We have been to church on two Wednesday nights and one Sunday night so far. She has picked up a few words so far: momma, ba-ba(daddy), guh-guh(brother), not nice, no,night-night, and amen. Paps has had a stay in the hospital in Columbus from Sept. 4th - Sept.14th with dehydration, an inflamed colon and stomach problems, Tammy's brother and sister-in-law had their baby Friday night in Amory. Her name is Ansley Lynn Harris. So we have been busy since coming home.
Please pray for us as we continue this bonding and transitioning phase in our life that in God's Way and Time we will be able to move forward as a family.

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