Introducing Our Beautiful Daughter Sofia Marie!

Chinese Name: Yu Hua (Yu means "Jade" and Hua means "China")

DOB: October 4, 2006

Province: Gansu

Personality: Active; Has a Ready Smile; Quick in Reaction; She's a heavy sleeper (YES!), loves music and also loves being held by her caregiver!!!

Also, look at all that hair! She's only 5 mos. in the picture above and already has a head full of beautiful hair.

You won't even believe the exciting day we had yesterday. Actually, let me go back a few days to tell you the whole story.On Saturday my hubby John kept saying to me "I have a feeling that our baby is on the next special needs list that comes out". He said it a few times over the weekend and I just humored him, because I know that whenever the list comes out, people call so fast for the baby's info that there would be little chance for us to find a baby on the list that had a special need that we could handle. I decided to keep checking my email yesterday because I was hoping that the list would come out. Well, I got it as soon as it came and I looked down the list and the a baby by the name of Yu Hua looked like she had a need we could handle. We did not have a picture yet, but the her medical need looked manageable. She has a harelip & palatal fissure. It looks to be a lot like a cleft palate. So, I sprung into action and was so nervous I forgot my agency's number and had to look it up online (duh). I asked if I could please have Yu Hua's information and the woman from the agency said "what number is she"? Five I blurted out and she says "we have not had anyone call about her yet, once Lashonna (the Admin. Asst.) gets back she will forward you her information".

In the interim, John arrives at my work to pick me up for lunch (this all happened a few minutes before noon) and I told him that I called about Yu Hua and we were the 1st ones so we will receive her info. 1st. So, we went to lunch and tried to stay cool about the whole thing because we didn't want to be let down and feel sad about it if it didn't work out. Of course we could hardly eat and we wanted to race back to my office to check my email to see if the info. came over yet. So, John left and went back home and at 3:30 (FINALLY!) I get the info and forward it to John and I call him to let him know I emailed it to him. So, we both got on our computers while we are on the phone and we open her pictures together. I start crying and couldn't believe how beautiful she is. I shut my door since I am crying and my boss Les calls me from the office next door and asks if I am okay, I tell him I am beyond okay (lol).

We are going to get her lip and nose taken care as soon as possible and I hope that we can leave to get her soon. Our agency is saying that we will probably travel within 3-4 mos. Of course, we have not done anything to her nursery yet. That's just the way it goes, but we don't care. She's ours.We have to fill out a letter and send it back to our agency asap. She was born October 4, 2006 in the Gansu Province (northwest China, kind of below Inner Mongolia). That means she may be only around 11 or 12 mos. old when we get her. Our doctor told us today that from a scale of 1 to 10 for medical severity, this is a 1 or 2, so she encouraged us to go for it. She did tell us that she may have to have a few surgeries, but we don't care - she is our daughter! Also the rest of her report is perfect and they say that she is a hard sleeper and loves music, how great is that? We are over the moon!