Successful Bathtime

Sophie Mei 01.01.08

Thank you so much for all of the suggestions on bathtime. Yesterday was our first successful bathtime with no tears. Sophie's cousin, Isabelle, gave her a bathtime Cabbage Patch doll named Quinton. We started off by sitting Sophie on the edge of the sink, fully dressed, while I gave Quinton a bath. She slowly started playing in the water with her feet. I filled the other side of the sink with warm, soapy water and let her put her feet in there. It was a good thing I wasn't on a time schedule. I took off layers of clothing little at a time and finally slid her in. She whimpered for 1/2 a second but then resumed playing in the water. I thought this was such good progress that I didn't wash her hair. Then, today she had so much banana wiped through her hair I decided I would take the plunge. But as you can see she was all smiles with a sudsy mohawk. The tears and screams came when I tried to rinse her hair. She doesn't want even one drop of water to touch her face or eyes. I know this will get better with time. The time of day was better too. I'm going to continue giving baths in the daytime for now and we'll move to nighttime later. Thanks so much for your suggestions. This blog thing is way too cool. Don't be surprised if I post many questions for you.

The other pictures were from the Rocker girls coming to visit. Mary Elle has been dying to see Sophie. Everytime I have seen Mary Elle for the last two years (on atleast a monthly basis) we have the same short conversation the second she sees me, "Where is Baby Sophie?", "She's in China.", "Why?", "Because that's where she lives right now?" "Why?" "Because that's where she was born.". "Why?" "Because that's where God wanted her to be born." "Well, go get her." "I will.", "Go get her now." ..... That conversation always made me smile. Mary Elle was also adopted and her intense interest in my bringing Sophie home was beautiful to me. It meant something more deeply to her than the other kids her age in our family. I know that was from the Lord. When I say intense, I mean intense. The day we got our referral picture on the computer she and her mom came over and I thought she was going to run over her mom to get through our door. She ran through the door yelling, "Where is she? Where is Baby Sophie?" She was a little disappointed when she found out it was just a picture. She did the same thing when she walked in the door today, "Where is Baby Sophie?" She came around the corner, saw Sophie and let out the biggest, "Awwwwwww." She started asking her, "Did you come from China?" Sophie proceeded to tell her all about our flight home. :-) I was unable to get that initial meeting on video. I'm not as quick as Marc is.

I'm not sure if many people are still reading our blog now that we're home but its pretty therapeutic for us. Right now its 12:15 am and Marc and Sophie are asleep. I'm hoping both will sleep through the night.