Hello U. S. of A!!! (happy thanksgiving too!)

Okay so pics are out of order but I wanted to be sure I got some posted today - sophia is doing great here is her first meal at home in a high chair - not to bad...easy mac!

My mom and sophia and I. Please excuse my appearance in these photos as I had been on a plane, taxi or in line for over 24 hours with no freshen up opportunites but sophie steals the show anyway :)

First time in my new room - i LOVED it -

Family of 3 - HOME AT LAST!

Look at all these welcome home decorations! It was awesome,,,sophia loved them and i'm sure she's thinks she's joining the party house!

Fresh off the plane to meet Grammy, Grandpa and uncle bo

One of my favorite pictures - captures her sweetness, we'll keep this for when she is a teenager and just has to have that coach bag huh? LOL.

Grand Hyatt Taipei Lobby - absolutely gorgeous, raining again hence the rolled up pant legs but our little cutie patootie had a picutre opp she just could not resist!

She loves to Head Butt - and it HURTS!!!

Daddy and baby takin a snooze

Right after my first bath

Happy Thanksgiving! Okay so it's a day late but Thanksgiving for us took on a whole new meaning as we welcomed Sophia to the US! For us it was an entire day of taxis, airports, immigration and well our Thanksgiving meal consisted of chicken and noodles :) It will be a Thanksgiving we will never forget. We are thankful for this experience, especially for Sophia and for all our friends (bloggers too :)) and family who have supported us throughout this entire journey. All of your thoughts and prayers for us have been answered. We breezed through the visa process (AIT), had no issues with her passport or immigration, and we are home free! It's never felt so good to be home!!!! It truly feels like a home now :)

We had a wonderful homecoming - my girlfriends and sister came inside while we were away and decorated the house in a sea of pink with balloons, decorations , presents, food and FOOD! Love you guys - it was such a surprise and to come home at 2:00 am and see the whole house decorated, was so awessome - once again you have left us speechless. We love you so much and thank you, thank you I'm leaving these up as long as possible - they may still be up in january for her party - LOL :)

Sophia is doing AWESOME. She has done a complete 180! She is so sweet and a lot of fun - our last day in taipei we went to the park with the beach ball we took (we had 2 hours after checkout until we had to leave for the airport) and she was so happy and wanted to throw the ball and play and this was a good bonding time for her and chris - she even slept on daddy! She loves the attention and is bonding nicely. She know takes her bottle from a new US bottle which is a big step in th right direction she also loves the new pacifier we have too so it looks like we may be moviing form the SLC pacifier soon. She did great on the plane - the first 12 hour flight was she only up 2 hours and slept the rest of the time. The last leg - was another 5 hours and she was up for a lot fo this one which proved a little challenging as her new game is to the throw things and have us pick them up (yeah I know a 1 year old crowd favorite!) but on an airplane with a seatbelt on well that's another story. The poor man behind us got a few things thrown his way too! It helped there were 5 other babies on the plane so there was always some sort of commotion and everyone was understanding.

Sophia is really coming around! the first few days she wanted to be touched only by me and looked at only by me - if anyone else looked her way she would cry and if anyone else touched her the same reaction - she still takes a while to warm up but she is really coming around to our families which is so nice to see - she's always an arm length away from me though :)

Last night she met my mom, dad and uncle bo and although a little shy at first by the time we all got home and she was on the couch playing, she was no longer a shy girl and really came out of her shell - laughing, smiling, and doing all of her previous tricks. She also started playing with all the great toys I had packed for her on the trip - LOL better late than never that's what I always say...haha Today she met cousin Madeline and really liked watching her play and started to play with her - this is a HUGE step as she was a little more than an arms length away and SHE TOOK HER FIRST STEPS WITHOUT HOLDING ON - now I'm not sure if she has done this before but for us it was a first amd we arer excited!. She also met Chris's parents and Great Nannie tonight too and she did really well wtih all of them. Chris and I were worried but she did GREAT and has slept in her crib the past few nights albeit a few hours at a time

Today Sophia met WINSTON THE PUG today also - let's just say both of them were less than thrilled with each other at the first meeting :) To say Winston warmed up a lot quicker due to dirty diaper would be an accurate statement but Sophia really did not want to be bothered - and then about 20 minutes later she got her first pug kiss and well she smiled and laughed and thought if was funny -- she watches him go everwhere. They will be bff's if no time :)

Chris is sleeping after figuring out what we did wrong with the baby monitors that just kept beepin g and beeping and beeping but he got it and still has time to snuggle with Winston.

Overall, life is good - every new day is a new experience forSophia and it just amazes me how she adapts and discovers things. I love it! We got home to a packet from the agency - MORE PAPERWORK this time is medcal report and our readoption papers for the State - - We will need to readopt her by May 20, 2008,

I'll post more tomorrow - we only had 4 hours of sleep last night - it's 1:30 pm and just put sophia down ...again! Looking forward to those full nights of sleep. I have awhile huh? :)