Go Pats!!

Well, today officially is Mia's first Patriots gameday! Daddy is so excited to be able to watch the games with his daughter! We hope Mia will love football as much as we do or the next several seasons will be torture for her : ) We also just got back from a trip to Grandma and Ji chan's house in Northern California which was a much needed getaway for all of us!! We just relaxed, ate, shopped, ate, played, ate.... you get the drift! Mia did great on the flights and could not have had more fun there! She still amazes us daily with how quickly she picks things up and how much she understands. She can say a few words like 'ball' 'night night' 'up' 'hi' and is still so friendly. Mia was greeting everyone waiting for our flight in Oakland like a hospitality hostess. She would walk up to them, cock her head to the side and say "HI!" then wait there until they responded. This is so out of Mommy's comfort zone, but I love her enthusiasm and independence. We were also able to meet her step-cousin Ella who is only 2 months old and adorable!! We are also quickly learning that with an outgoing child comes a very strong head : ) She is a determined, strong, alert and happy child who continues to bless us and everyone she touches!!

Mia turns One!!

Well, today, our little girl turned One! We still can hardly believe how quickly she is growing up! Mia is now walking most of the time and the most curious and observant child ever! She still only has two teeth and we are wondering 'where's the rest???'. She is talking a lot more (baby talk) and definitely getting good at pointing to show what she wants or where she wants to go. She not only points, but accompanies it with a loud yell or scream. Mia does not understand the concept of indoor voice but most people just smile or laugh (yes, most). Today I thought a lot about where she was one year ago on her "birth day" and how her birth mother must be thinking about her today. I truly hope her birth mother knows in her heart how much we love Mia and how we appreciate her unselfishness so that Mia could be with us forever. She is the greatest gift from God we could ever ask for and we are absolutely thankful everyday! People ask me all the time if I feel she has bonded. She is our daughter in every way. She knows we are Mommy and Daddy without question and we cannot imagine life without her, so I say "yes!".

Mia is a BUSY girl!!

Mia has been having a great time and keeping so busy! For Father's Day, Puppa and Uncle John came all the way from Massachusetts to meet Mia for the first time! We couldn't believe how quickly she became comfortable with both of them! Uncle John was teaching her wrestling moves, and Puppa was singing to her and making her laugh so hard! The physical distance of Kevin's family has never felt greater now that we have Mia. We wish everyone were closer so they can feel the joy she brings us every day! I guess we will have to make more trips : ) We are so thankful Puppa and Uncle John were here for Mia's baptism. It was such a special day for everyone and even Grandma and Ji chan came from up north! Mia did fantastic and looked like an angel in her dress. Mia's cousin Adam came all the way from Chicago too which just made the day perfect!
Mia is growing up sooo fast we can hardly keep up. She can crawl at lightning speed but now is standing up a lot and has taken a couple of steps. She will be walking SOON! Still only two teeth, but she is trying to talk a lot more and is able to bring us things we ask for (her kitty, her baby, etc). Mia is starting to give kisses, waves hi and bye and loves music (especially ABC's) Her first birthday is coming up and the time is flying by so fast I wish I could slow it down but we are trying to savor everything going on!

Our Little Girl Has 'Personality'!!

Well, everything is going well and Mia is showing her true personality! She is still the happiest baby ever, but now is more comfortable letting us know when she doesn't like something. Really Comfortable!! Our little girl is not shy at all and has great lungs!! She is having problems understanding "NO" and just smiles and laughs as if we're saying "good girl!!" She is crawling super fast and will be walking soon! She stands without holding on if she is playing with something that requires two hands and we don't bring attention to it : ) Mia is also starting to eat more table food. She still only has two teeth, but can chew small pieces of meat and has scrambled egg for breakfast. Oh, our girl is growing up so quickly! A lot of people comment on how big her feet are so maybe she will be tall! Around the appropriate groups of people, I say "maybe she is Yao Ming's child!" Let's see....what else? well, she hates her carseat, still fights sleep like crazy and is now the public greeter. Whenever she is in public, she waves at everyone and anyone! And she definitely knows Daddy! I say "where's Daddy?" and she will look around 'til she finds him and give her heart melting smile. Papa and Uncle John will be here soon and we can't wait to see her with them!! Mia and I also had our shower and were so blessed with great friends and gifts! Auntie Lynn and Auntie Jill did a GREAT job planning!!

First trip to Chuck E Cheese!

Well, it didn't take long for Mia to make her first trip to Chuck E Cheese! We took Luke, Grant and Cash and were so curious as to how she would react to all the stimulus, and she did great! Mia is more interested in the peope there than the rides and games. She enjoyed her first "rides", but mostly enjoyed people watching and trying to get people to look at her. She also loves spending time with her cousins! The bottom picture is Mia in her "1'st Red Sox hat" from Uncle Frank, Auntie Michelle, Stephen and Adam! She also received her first Patriots onesie, hat and booties! Mia is now officially 'ready' to accompany Daddy on the sofa! Funny enough, this hat stayed on a long time when she pulls all the other ones off immediately : )!

Mia continues to amaze, surprise, overjoy, and charm all of us every single day! She has been deemed very healthy by her doctor (after 5 shots and 4 vials of blood : ( ) and now has two bottom front teeth. We are so happy to be able to see so many "firsts" of hers! She is now pulling herself up, trying so hard to crawl and claps when we say "Yeah Mia!!" Our happy girl loves to go visiting and entertains everyone. Now, if we can only get her to understand that if she sleeps we promise she won't miss anything exciting!!! The great news, though is that bedtime is now 8-9pm.

Daddy has been awesome! He washes bottles, changes diapers, helps feed her and just cannot believe how we've been blessed with our gift from God! Ahhh this life is so good, I can't stand the thought of her growing up but yet cannot wait to see the wonderful woman we know she will grow up to be!

Life at home

Well, I know I have been lagging at posting since we've gotten home. We have been doing lots of visiting, adjusting to the time change and easing ourselves back into "real life". It was so nice to be in China and not have to worry about ANYTHING except Mia : )! We love introducing her to everyone, though. She has met some of her cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma, 2 grandpas and friends who have all been waiting so patiently (yeah right!) for her to come home. The resounding comment we get is "She looks exactly like you!!" I knew if the Chinese women thought we looked alike, we most likely do! We are still working on getting Mia adjusted to US time and she is almost there. She started by going to sleep at 5:30am and tonight fell asleep at 9:30pm. We always hold our breaths not knowing if she is out for the night, or just a short nap. Mia has already attended 2 of Grant's Little League games and loves being out and about. We are so proud of our little girl for being able to hold her own bottle now!! She has one brand new tooth coming in and oh my gosh is already growing up too fast!! It won't be long now before she starts to crawl and then walk. Mia already had a welcome party and is so lucky to have so many relatives who have shown her so much love!! She loves her younger cousins and Daddy has already enlisted their help to keep the boys away from her until she is 21 : ) Can't wait til she can meet the rest of the family. There could not be happier parents anywhere! Kevin says everyday that he knows she was a gift to us from God. It makes my heart happy to see him with his little girl! She already has him wrapped around her little finger!! That's all for now, but I promise I will keep posting!!

Farewell to China

This will be our final posting from China. Today we check out at 2:30pm and go to our swearing in ceremony promising to take good care of Mia and then we are off to the airport. Yesterday we spent more time walking around the island trying to soak the last bit of China in. We were both reflecting on our trip and before we left, we just wanted to get Mia and come right home. Now, though, we are so glad we were able to spend this time in her country and so much time with just the three of us in close quarters with nothing else to worry about but our new family. We believe this has been invaluable bonding time. A few things we have learned about Mia are; she has to look at everyone and everything around her and has big smiles for anyone who will look at her : ), she is a good eater and will eat pretty much anything (so far), she fights sleep furiously (I think it's because she's afraid she will miss something), her favorite greeting is "eh" (sometimes she uses it to check in and make sure she has your attention). Of course as new parents we find every one of these things the cutest we have ever seen, but truly we are the most blessed parents in the world to be Mia's mommy and daddy. We have also met so many wonderful people here, both adopting parents and locals. We have met quite a few families on their second adoption from China and they all have great insight. We will miss China but hope to be able to bring Mia back here some day to show her where she came from. So farewell from China we will see you soon!!

We go home tomorrow!!

Well, tomorrow is the big day. We are coming home!! No posting yesterday because the humidity is killing us and we did lots of walking around, so we just relaxed last night. The White Swan Hotel is on Shamian Island. I will make an album of the hotel and island. We walked around a lot and were able to see lots of families playing yesterday (Sunday). We also found the Catholic Church which you will see in the pictures. People on the island are so kind and everytime we tell them Mia is from the Jiangxi province, they say, "Oh Spicy Girl!" The baby doll above is from Jordan's. Jordan is in the above picture and she was so sweet to Mia! We bought her this doll then figured out since she is teething, she was trying to eat the hair so we had to take it away from her til she is done teething : ( Today we went to get her medical exam which was quick and not very invasive and she did great! It is raining today with lots of lightning and Judy is at our Consulate Appointment. Tomorrow we will have her swearing in ceremony and then come home. Judy ended up having to go back to China Southern yesterday because she had zero luck with the guy from the other day. She said we will have the bulkhead seat which will give us more space. We have run into a lot more adopting families here which is nice because we know what we have all had to go through. I guess there are a lot less families here right now, though, because of the trade fair. Today we took laundry to a place outside the hotel. The hotel charges a lot and we were not able to stretch the clothes out one more day because we have spit-up, drool and so much humidity, we really cannot fathom re-wearing anything. Then we will have the real task of re-packing with a few more things than when we left. Now, we wait for Judy's phone call to let us know the Consulate appointment went ok then it's all downhill.

In case I do not get a chance to post again, we both want to thank everyone so much for their love, prayers and support through our whole journey to meet our baby girl Mia who we already love so much! She is so lucky to have all of you sending her good thoughts and I know when she is old enough to understand, she will truly know how blessed she is to have all of you!!

Off to Guangzhou!!

Well, today Mia had her first plane ride and did GREAT!! Now let's hold our breath for the long flight home. We woke up early and went to the airport where we had to say goodbye to Echo. As soon as we hit security, I think my mommy hormones kicked in and tears just started pouring down my face. I couldn't really even consciously tell you why I was crying, but I was just sad. I felt like I was mourning for my little girl's past and her leaving and I couldn't help but think of her birth mom. I was a mess! Cried and cried and cried. I am so so blessed to have our perfect daughter and yet I think this made it so clear that we are taking it from her "home". The only home she has ever known. Mia on the other hand did fabulous! As soon as we took off, she fell asleep and when she woke up we were still in the air and she was happy. The biggest difference between Nanchang and Guangzhou?? The HUMIDITY!! Guangzhou is so humid, you could feel the air around you. Ick! In addition to that, our allergies have kicked into high gear so we are really out of sorts. Thank God Mia has been an angel today as mommy and daddy were very irritable : ). We met the infamous Judy who is our guide here and she got all of our paperwork in order. We went to 7-11 right next to the hotel (yes, the same 7-11) and bought a stroller at a shop since the hotel does not have any available. It was less than $20 and is really cute! Then we had to go to China Southern Airlines to see if we can secure the bulkhead seat with the bassinet for the way home. 1 1/2 hours later, we were still there because Judy was trying to deal with a man who had no idea what he was doing and the other co-workers would not help him. She felt bad and sent us in a cab with a guy who spoke NO English and she would stay to finish. About half way back to the hotel, it dawned on me that we could end up anywhere and we would be helpless. That was a bad feeling since we had Mia with us. But not to worry, we made it back safe and sound and poor Judy is probably stil l at the airlines. I will post pics of the hotel tomorrow. It is very nice and has a waterfall in it. Off to bed since Mia is sleeping.

Be Careful What You Wish For : )

OK for all you who are not mom's this is your warning! Poop talk coming up!! Last night was pretty rough as actually most of the afternoon and evening yesterday as well. Our little Mia was so miserable and inconsolable. She had not pooped in 2+ days so we knew that may be one problem, and she is teething not to mention being put into a brand new environment with new people. Our instinct was to call the doctor, but of course...we are in China. We gave her small doses of baby Tylenol and decided the rice cereal/formula concoction was probably not helping her poop situation any. We consulted with the internet and Daddy was trying hard not to panic as I think at this point he would do anything not to see his baby in pain. We were a couple of wrecks and finally got her to sleep longer than 15 minutes by putting her in the Babyhawk carrier (not the one in the pic). I think it makes her feel secure and sure enough after only a few minutes crying, she gave in to sleep. I'm sure in the pictures taken today that you can see the boogers and drool : ) As for the poop situation, I tried to give her water and she did not want it. I called room service to see if they had prune juice and could not get them to understand what I was asking for, then gave her some apple/apricot jar food and said lots of prayers. "Please poop soon!" So today, this morning, she was grunting and grunting, pushing and pushing and my prayers were answered! I felt so bad for her, though because it was so hard!! Today was a resting day which worked out so well since Mia was not feeling good. Then she ate a great breakfast of steamed egg, watermelon and I watered down some apple juice which she liked. Then she was pushing, pushing, grunting, grunting and voila! Another poop!! Mommy, Daddy and Mia could not be happier!! I switched to just formula and no rice cereal since she was also eating so well. Mia had also taken 3 really good naps making up for lost time! After nap number three, we heard a loud noise and she had pooped AGAIN! So I guess case solved! Since then, our old happy, laughing Mia has returned even though she is teething. Yea!!! Well, tonight we are packing and off to Guangzhou tomorrow. Oh yeah, thank God for Echo!! She called because our flight tomorrow has been cancelled and she had booked us on another flight phew!! Overall, we have loved our time in Nanchang and hope to one day bring Mia back to visit. The hotel staff is phenomenal and Echo has truly been a blessing for us!

People's Park Outing

Today we went on a leisurely outing to People's Park. This park was beautiful and the weather was perfect! It was sunny with a slight cool breeze....ahhh! The park is literally an oasis in the middle of the city. There were a few things that struck me while we were there. There were lots of older people walking, doing tai chi, playing chess, exercising on equipment and using the paddle boats. The people here are so active, they are an inspiration for us lazy people : ) Also, the people who trim the trees, landscape, etc. put all the brush onto big wheelwarrow carts and pull them through the park to where they dump it. We told Echo that in California, the park workers drive around on little carts to get trash. She was amazed! We put a picture of Echo above. She has been the BEST guide we could have hoped for! She is patient, understanding, speaks english very well and best of all, loves our little girl! She has made our stay here so easy and fun! Without Echo, we don't know what we would have done. I will post another album of our day. Before the park, we went to a porcelean shop. Nanchang is known for its eggshell porcelean and we were able to pick up some treasures for Mia when she gets older. After the park, we did a little more shopping then came back to the hotel. Our poor baby is teething BIG TIME!!! Poor thing! Her little nose is running non-stop and she is fighting sleep even when delirious. Last night was not a good sleep night and she has not napped for longer than 15 minutes today. Not a lot of pictures of Mia today because she is not feeling well and we thought we would spare you the booger pics. Tomorrow is a rest day, so we hope she will feel better before we have to get on the plane to go to Guangzhou on Saturday.

Sightseeing Day

Isn't she so cute?? She is such a good girl we are so blessed! Last night she did cry some, but as soon as I held her tight, she really calmed down and kind of sobbed. We believe these are her mourning periods which are normal and so heartbreaking. She has been sleeping well, though waking up at midnight the past couple of nights for an hour or so. We bought her some formula and rice cereal from Wal Mart yesterday and she LOVES it! We give her the rice cereal mixed into her formula. She also like fruit, congee (watery rice) and this morning she had some of mommy's steamed egg. Mia still has no teeth and we believe she is teething. Today we went to the Tengwang Pavilion which was beautiful! There were lots of newly adopted babies there. This was the first major contact we have had with the local people and they were all so kind and curious. In the shopping area nearby, a woman stopped us because she saw Kevin and I but thought Mia was my biological child because she looks just like me : ) Next thing we know, there was a whole crowd around us looking at the similarities. Kevin had people staring at him all day which took some getting used to. They all think I am Chinese so I get none of the "glory". We purchased 2 traditional Chinese dresses for Mia and a scroll with her Chinese name, birthday, place she came from and 'good luck' characters. I will create another album so you can see all the pictures. We are staying at the Galactic Peace Hotel which is new and very nice. I will show a few pics of this too.