Happy adoption day, baby Sophia!

My friend Lara and her husband, Todd, just sent the good news that they are finally the proud parents of Sophia, their baby daughter from China.

Here is Lara's blog entry: At 11:10 am today, we received our daughter! She is absolutely precious and of course, seems perfect to us! We got back to the hotel, gave her a bottle, and fed her some cereal. She sat on the bed and played with her stacking cups for 30 minutes, watched some Chinese soap opera, and then went down for a nap. At 3 pm we returned to the Civil Affairs Office to have our family photo and Sofia’s passport photo taken. It was hot and chaotic, as there were lots of other families there as well and many babies crying. We then went to the notary's office, signed some papers, and received our official adoption certificate from China! Sofia had a really hard afternoon during all of this and was crying throughout. Our next stop was the giant Wal-Mart for more baby supplies....this place was huge, complete with two stories and escalators for the shopping carts. Sofia loved being out and about, and of course picked out a few toys for herself that we had to buy! Next door to Wal-Mart was a dumpling restaurant where we ate for a total of $2.50. We discovered that Sofia loves drinking from a cup and being fed from chopsticks. We also found out that she doesn’t like confined spaces including vans and elevators....this doesn’t look good for our plane ride home! Once back at the hotel, we gave her the first bath, which she enjoyed and even smiled for the first time. She’s still pretty scared of us, although she has been letting both of us hold her and feed her which is a good thing. We are praying that each day will be a little easier for her (and us) as she gets used to her new parents. We have been so blessed by God to receive this sweet child as our daughter! Thank you for sharing in our joy!

We're rejoicing with you, Lara! Congrats on becoming a family of three! ;-)