A Word From Sherry

Family and Friends,

I'm finally going to try and say a little something, although words can hardly express the joy that I have right now. Tears are filling my eyes as I'm finding it difficult to believe that I'm posting on this blog on the other side of getting my sweet Sophie Mei. She is the most beautiful thing I've ever laid my eyes on. I never could have dreamed that it would feel this good to hold her and kiss her. She is such a "cuddle muffin" (that's what I call her), she loves to be held and doesn't mind if we kiss her a million times. I'm just so full.

Marc is at Wal-Mart with some of the other dads and Sophie and I are just here in our beautiful hotel room. She's sleeping right now, I'll add her picture in a minute. Yesterday, was a big day. We had three different appointments with officials. The first was the most important. Each family had an interview with someone at the Civil Affairs office in the adoption department. We were interviewed briefly. It was just formality but some of the questions we were asked were, "What is your age? How long have you been married? Do you have any biological children?" Then the last few stung my heart. "Are you satisfied with this baby? Can you promise that you will never abandon her?" My heart wanted to jump back and exclaim, "Are you kidding?!!" but I knew I had to show respect so both of us just responded with a matter of fact, "Absolutely, we promise." Oh, do I ever promise. Its unreal how quickly my heart has fallen in love. This is a supernatural thing. I know there is no way I could love this beautiful baby any more if I had bore her. God's wisdom is so sweet and precious, it gives me incredible peace knowing that He holds our lives in His big, strong hands. This has blown my mind the last couple of days. As things have been so busy and hectic I haven't had any time alone with Him. I hope I can articulate this but its like I said, "oh yea, hey Lord, sorry I haven't spent time with you." and He responded, "Pschhhh, are you kidding, I'm right here, behind you, in front of you, beside you, underneath you. Every step you take is laid out by Me. I haven't gone anywhere. Just keep walking with a restful heart and believe that this is my good for you." I did have a sweet few minutes of prayer a while ago while Sophie was alseep in my arms. It feels so good to feel so needy for the Lord. Wow, am I needy. I've never felt so peacefully needy. And don't you just love the name Sophia! Wisdom in Greek, remember? I love God's wisdom, I need wisdom from Him and I'm desperately praying that He will grow Sophie up into a woman of wisdom. Praise Him, Praise Him.

Anyway, I said I was going to tell you what we were doing, I got carried away. The rest of our appointments were fine, it just got a little stressful being on a bus from place to place in rainy weather. And then we all (15 families) went to the Chinese Wal-Mart. We had an hour to get everything we needed, hence the reason Marc and others went back today. I have never been so happy to get back to a hotel room. Marc and I had not eaten very much in the last few days so we ordered pizza last night from Pizza Hut (yes, Pizza Hut is here too). Usually, Marc gets pepperoni and I get some sort of veggie pizza, but last night I was going to eat whatever he put in front of me. I tore up some pepperoni with extra cheese last night. Pizza has never tasted so good. Thankfully, today is a free day to allow everyone to get some rest. I know that Sophie is wore out, she has been sleeping alot today. She and I are going to go walk around the hotel in a few minutes. We will be here until Saturday (Jiangxi province) we have nothing else official to do here but wait for her passport. Then we fly to Guangzhou and will be there until next Friday. We have to do some paperwork there at the Consulate. We will spend Christmas there with all the families (22 total). I know we will have many more pictures to share with you all.

Last but not least, the emails and comments that you all have made have been way, way encouraging. Marc has been reading them to me everyday. He usually starts crying first, then I do. We might not can respond but I want you all to know that your comments mean a lot to us during this time. Please don't stop. We love you all and can't wait for you to meet Sophie!!!!