The Party

Finishing touches on the crazy cake....

I still like the paper better than the gift, sorry Eh Pa (the friend in the pic)

Caleb and Sophia waiting for the 'fireworks'



How old are you, Sophia? Just kidding, she is actually pointing to the light. She also points to the light when you ask where mama or dada is. Hmm...

THE DETAILS:

Sophia hardly ate all day. I think she is teething, or still fighting a cold. It was as if she knew she was in for something sweet later. We had just a few friends over for cake and ice cream. Sophia tasted the icing with just one finger and slowly, eventually really dug in. But she still did not eat too much. She really didn't like all the sticky gook on her fingers. We also bought her two balloons that she loves and she actually sounds like she can say the word balloon when we say it enough to her. She walked a lot today too, with me running behind her, of course. She still is not stable enough to completely be without 'just in case' support... but she is moving. The cake topper is something that always amazes at every party I have been to here. The flower is lit and then eventually it opens up and it looks like a sparkler for a few seconds and then each petal has a small candle that is still lit when it fully 'blooms,' all the while it is playing the music to 'happy birthday.' Truly incredible. Sophia thought it odd I think. The little contraption must be using energizer batteries because it is almost 3 hours since we lit it and our garbage can is still singing 'happy birthday.' Altogether it was a good day, and we thank God for our Sweet Sophia and the privilege of living in this place.

Two views

here sophia is peeping through our couch that separates in the middle, and she loved playing peek-a-boo with David, who caught it on film

the makings of a cake

Sophia's birthday here will be real low key, but in my pride I thought I wouldn't be a good mom if I didn't make a cake. Here I am in the land of no ingredients and attempt a cake. I started yesterday by powdering the sugar for icing, which worked great in our new Philips brand juicer/blender/food processor/etc. But it smelled like real cane sugar (because it is, one of the biggest crops in this area), and tasted that way too. Can sugar taste bad? It wasn't bad just different. Today the cake making began. Though I had no butter, I have a great stock of shortening (thank you TCC folks), so I randomly chose a Silver White cake and made it a marble cake. I thought my pans were 9 inch, but no, 8 point something or other, so three layers, not two, oops. Then one layer (of the three), stuck bad to the pan. So we are back to two. The icing still looks a little grainy, I had to make the baking chocolate with cocoa for chocolate icing. It turned out looking okay and tasting okay, nothing to write home about (even though I am for the comedy of my attempt). But then... I thought I had to write something on it. All the bakeries here use whipped topping for icing, so I thought I would just mix milk with some of my powdered sugar (like for icing cookies), and add food coloring (pink). It turned out pepto bismal pink (yuck). The whole thing is hilarious, you can hardly tell what it says, poor Sophia, I promise by the time you can read, I will get better at this whole cake making/icing thing. I told David we can't take pics of it, but of course we will, with the candles and hoopla. Party starts at 6:15, expecting just a few. Wish everyone could be here. We will of course post pics, etc. (minus the cake :) )

bed shopping

It is almost bed time here, and speaking of... the second night we were home, we had Sophia in bed with us as she babbled and tried to play. It was around 3:30 a.m. or so, when suddenly our bed went crashing to the floor. It was somewhat hilarious, but we were too tired to laugh, we just moved the mattress to the floor. As we have been shopping around we were reminded of one of the best features of this friendly country: One sales clerk will whisk Sophia away to play and show her to all her co-workers while we look around, it is quite convenient, Sophia doesn't mind it either as long as someone is walking her somewhere...

curious george

This stuffed animal, a monkey, was the very first toy that we bought Sophia. That along with her 'my first soccer ball' were purchased at Toys R Us in Hong Kong last February (2007), when we had to fly there for David to get some rabies shots (awful). She loves little George, named after the curious monkey in the famous children's books. Here she had figured out his arms could reach around her waist, and then played 'peek-a-boo' after I had done the same thing with her. Her brain is a sponge these days. She keeps us laughing, and extremely tired.

"don't look at me, you gave it to me"

This was at her birthday 'rehearsal.' We actually had two of them before we left. The rings were given to her by the Bugnars, must've come from a seasoned mom, she LOVED them.

walking, kind of

Sophia walked across her room today. The problem is she gives you no warning, she just takes off. But it was quite an amazing feat. I hope to post a video real soon so you can see her in action. Bear with me on that. Until then I will try to post more random pics.

Birthday countdown

check out the 'ticker' at the bottom of the page. It is counting the few days left until Sophia turns one. June 30th also happens to be market day around here, which is always fun and interesting, we may just have to go and drink some Pao lu da, a drink that has coconut, milk, ice, broken up pieces of bread, sugar, and little jelly-like bead things, it is awesome though it sounds gross.

sleeping thru

We are unpacking and trying to get settled. Sophia spent 2 nights playing from about 3-5 am and last night finally slept until 5:30, a blessing. She has taken a few steps and then proceeds to topple over. The problem is she thinks she can walk, so we have to watch her every move or she will take off from the ottoman and crash onto our hard tile floor (no more American carpet). She is quite the explorer of her new world in Asia, I wonder if she remembers her first six months were in this very same place? I have not downloaded any new pics so here are a few old ones, in the one on the right she is in Aunt Laura's suitcase, wrong one girl.

Our first full day

We arrived home at approximately 6:30 pm, Monday, June 23rd (our time), no real delays, nothing too eventful on our travels and for that we are so grateful. Out of NY to Vancouver, Sophia was already way past her bed time, and too tired. On that five hour flight she wiggled and fussed some and would not settle down no matter how much we said 'night night, Sophia.' We looked at each other despairingly and thought: "we have 30 more hours of traveling, ugh, this is awful." Somewhere during that time David said to me, 'tell me what Cathi said again, I need to hear it.' Earlier that week Cathi, from TCC, told us that she had woken up at 4:30 one morning, thought of us, prayed for us, and knew from the Father that 'we would have all the strength we need.' And at that point we clung to those thoughts! The next leg, the long thirteen hour stretch, Sophia did awesome. She slept for about the first four hours, woke up happy, played well in her seat, ate well, slept a few more hours. Perfect. David and I were able to sleep some, and watch a few movies.

In our hometown we were welcomed at the airport by our wonderful friends and their son (who greeted Sophia with a sweet Kiss). Again, we were so incredibly blessed by their service and love. Our apartment was clean, there were meals in the fridge (even food made for Sophia), awesome poppy seed bread, and much more. We were astounded! Our first full day was spent unpacking, and we will do it all week, but we did sneak out for some 'over the bridge noodles', that we had been missing so much. And yes, everyone once again has taken to Sophia, but this time she can talk back (babble). The friends we have seen are amazed at her growth, and she has not been shy. One neighbor kept saying how fat she was and asked what she ate to make her so fat? I just laughed and said 'everything.'

It is sticky hot here, but refreshing too, refreshing to be where you are supposed to be. We love this place. The rice fields are wet with the week's rain, making the greenness seem unreal. The pineapple is like candy, and the mountains seem even bigger. We know this 'wowness' will wear off as we grow weary with daily life, but for the moment we are enjoying the heightened sense of purpose and love that comes with returning home.

Our Last full day

Today was our last full day, filled with packing, talking to family on the phone, etc. etc. This time is so much harder than our first time leaving. Watching Cynthia ('CC', David's mom), play so tenderly with Sophia, knowing she won't see her for a while, brought instant tears to my eyes. We are taking one so dearly loved away from them and it is hard. It is hard to think I won't be there for another (number 4!) one of Julie's pregnancies. Those thoughts linger and the emotions stir. The dichotomy of feelings is crazy. I long to get back to Asia, our home, our friends, our studies, and I ache at the loss we are about to experience. And so goes our life, our calling, I wouldn't trade it for anything.
We leave Raleigh tomorrow evening and arrive home exactly 36 hours later. We ask for mercy as we travel. Enjoy these photos of the lovely little one, they are random and not photo-shopped, but the one with Uncle Bobby is one of my favorites of the year ...

Welcome to our Blog

Hey Everyone, welcome to our first blog post. This blog is intended to give you a glimpse of our life in Asia, especially the wows and wonders of Sophia Grace. Bear with me as I learn how to do this. A special shout out to Nicole for being patient and talking me through the basics of the blogging world. Thanks Nicole!
We leave for Asia in exactly 3 days!!! Please think of us as we traverse the big pond with an 11 month old. bye for now...