Home Sweet Home!

We're back! And we are tired! Very tired. But doing great!

Our trip home began Friday morning, your Thursday evening, and we arrived home Friday night. Yep, 28 hours of travel. The kids did really great. 4 different airports and 3 flights home, one of them 13 hours long. Whew!

We had a great greeting at the airport at home. Mia was all serious faced. Not too many smiles - until we arrived home. She had a blast! She walked around looking at the house and even found some birthday presents mommy had forgotten to hide away! Guess more shopping is in store this week. :)

This weekend we just stayed home and played, and napped, and ate some yummy southern food that we missed so much while gone! Sweet tea, can we ever leave you again?

The boys have had soooo much fun playing with their new sister. The first thing they taught her? How to make tinker toy swords. Yep. They did. And I just giggled.

Mia is doing great. She is sleeping well, loves bath time and loves to play with her new toys. This girl can eat! She gobbles down just about any thing we give her. She eats very fast and we have to stop her to make her drink and take a break. There are soooo many cute things -

* she turns her head if we try to feed her anything green
*she does this cute growl thing when playing with you - kind of like an "ahhhhh" sound
* she wiggles her backside on the carpet when naked after her bath - not sure if she has felt carpet before
*peek-a-boo is so sweet - she holds up her hands to her face with fingers spread wide open and then moves them away to say, "boo!"
*she loves to dance - any time she hears music, she waves her arms in the air and shakes them like crazy

Honestly, she is just a cute, fun and spunky little girl! We can't wait to see her show us more of herself as she feels more comfortable.

Pictures are below! We are home, but will still be blogging about our new family of 5! Please stay with us - it is sure to be fun!

Not sure which airplane this was! :)


Our welcome home airport party!





the discovered birthday gift


Seeing her pictures in our home


getting to know cousin Preston


first cookie cake - at 1:00am!


Yum!


checking out her new room


Love this cute China shirt! Find great stuff here - http://pitterpatterart.wordpress.com/page/2/


Her first Saturday morning cartoons - Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!



Welcome Home Mia - To Your Forever Family! We Love You!

Fun Times!

Hello again! It is morning here and we are about to begin our last day in China. I can't believe it. The time has gone so fast! We are ready to come home though. I have already put in a request to my mother-in-law for fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and carrots. :) Yum! We have been on Shamian Island for almost 2 weeks and we are sooooo tired of the same food. Can you believe I am almost looking forward to the airplane food tomorrow?

Tuesday was so much fun! We went to the Safari Park in Guangzhou. It is the largest zoo/safari in China. You begin with a 45 minute safari ride to see lots of animals - kind of like the one at Animal Kingdom, but much bigger. After that, there is an entire zoo to see. Huge! We all had so much fun! The boys got to hold a baby tiger and feed a giraffe. Mia loved seeing all of the animals and just talked and giggled the whole time. At one point, near the white tigers, there was loud music playing and she started dancing and waving her arms around. We have a little fire ball and are just beginning to see her little personality.

Yesterday, we went to the US consulate for the oath taking ceremony. It was interesting - about 50 families all in a large room. They do a passport check and then we sign our name one more time. After the checks are all complete, the oath is taken in group form. Essentially, we say that all of our paperwork is correct to our knowledge, and that we will love and protect our child. That's it. Today we go back to the consulate to pick up Mia's passport and visa and the all important "brown envelope" for immigration and we are done.

Today we will be shopping and packing! We have an early start tomorrow and a very long journey home. Counting it down!


the famous Red Couch photo


our travel group


Mia with daddy


new friends


hugs from brother


feeding the tiger!


busy dad!


the best shopping find ever? Chinese Pokemon cards!

Mia's First Home

Our time here is going by so fast! We have loved China so much and every day try to soak in all we can. Saturday we had a free day, with the exception of a two hour paperwork meeting I attended. Keith and the kids went exploring around the hotel. Sunday we went to the Six Banyan Temple. It was really neat, but what I really want to tell you about is the orphanage visit we did Monday.

We had thought all along that we would want to visit Mia's orphanage. But when you get here, it is really a hard decision. She has been doing so well we were terrified that she would somehow regress. But, at the same time, how could we not take the opportunity to see where she has lived her whole life thus far. So, we went. And it was great.

We left the hotel a little after 1:00 in the afternoon. We were told it is about a 1 1/2 hour drive, add in a flat tire on the side of the road and it becomes 2! Yes, our van had a flat tire on what is similar to our interstate. Just remember the driving around here is Crazy. It was an interesting experience to say the least. We took so many pictures as we entered Heshan City. We saw a park like area where some of her pictures had been taken. Motorcycles are the main mode of transportation in some of the smaller cities, so they were all around. Her orphanage sits just right off the main road, just a small drive up and through a gate.

I will never forget the moment we pulled in. The orphanage director, assistant director and nannies were all waiting for her. Her favorite nanny, Mrs. Wang, was calling her name. Jia Jia, (pronounced guy, guy). She just lit up! It was something! I took her out of the van and handed her right over - you could tell Mrs. Wang had missed her and couldn't wait to get her hands on her! Mia was just adorable. She was talking and laughing. So sweet. Everyone was just loving on her and talking to her. You could tell she knew exactly what they were saying. And you could tell she was very loved. From a parent's perspective, we couldn't have asked for anything more. Anything else was just icing on the cake.

We spent the rest of the time there, about an hour, letting her play on her playground and just visiting with the staff. It was great to see the boys play with her there. They brought out a boy that was a special friend of hers. He was probably 8-10 years old. It was sweet to see them play together.

Leaving was tough. I just about lost it. It was one of those "ugly cry" moments, but I held it together the best I could. Mrs. Wang said goodbye and quickly slipped away. I know it was to protect Mia from a harder goodbye. We told them how much we appreciate all they had done for her, that we love her very much and will keep in touch and send plenty of pictures. I was sad for Mia, but because we know she will be ok, I think most of the emotion was for the orphanage staff. I just can't imagine how hard it must be to let her go. Mia cried for about 10 minutes but held tightly to the apple they gave her the entire ride home.

How is she now? Fantastic! Somehow, I think that trip might have given her some closure. She has been more open, playful and engaged with us since we left. It's like somehow seeing us all together made it all ok in her little brain.

Now for the fun stuff - pictures! I know that is what you all really want to see! :)


Mia and Mrs. Wang


Receiving the apple


Seeing friends in a window upstairs - they were calling her name


Showing her brothers the playground


She knows how to work these toys! Crazy girl!


Playing together


Seeing another nanny and more friends in the window above


This row of ride on toys was in just about every picture we received of her.


Everyone together


Goodbye Mrs. Wang and my first family

Hangin' out in Guangzhou

Greetings from Guangzhou! It's Keith writing again and I thought I would give Tracy a blogging break and whip up a little ditty to give you the skinny on what's happening in our neck of the woods.

I'm gonna give you a whirlwind tour of life on this side of Gotcha Day. In random order. With no real flow. Just energy and action! Exactly the way our life with THREE kids appears to have become.

Remember how Linus (a la The Peanuts) has his blanket? Well Mia has her sippy cup. That girl goes everywhere with her sippy cup and will not part with it unless it is empty (or there's a cool toy around).

Each morning is extremely cute. She wakes up with this look in her eyes that seems to say, "Okay, I'm still with you weird looking funky talking hairy people," and she stands really still with her back against a wall or piece of furniture and won't move! She definitely needs to warm up to us each day. The good news is she LOVES Tucker and Tate. So as soon as they appear in our room, she starts playing with them.

We've been amazed at how, in just a few days, she is trusting us and doing so great with us. Just think, for her, she is seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling a constant barrage of new things. Yet, she's not crashing from over-stimulation. She just rolls with whatever is happening. She's started waving bye. And we've heard a couple of "uh-ohs" from her when playing with her brothers.

A couple of days ago, I took Tucker and Tate on a hike around Shamian Island. When us boys go out together we call it, "Just the guys!" So we a had a "just the guys" adventure. It was great spending time with my boys, talking about China and having a sister. And listening to them talk about the things THEY wanted to talk about. Priceless. Here are a couple of photos from our walk.



Yesterday we took to the kids to a local park with exercise and play equipment. We got our first glimpse at what a little fireball we now have in our family. Tucker is very cautious and protective. Tate is a ball of fire and energy. Mia hit the playground slides like a pro. That little munchkin would bang it up with the big kids, climb to the tallest slide and JUMP, yes JUMP down the freaking thing. Laughing all the way. Tracy and I both were wide (and wild) eyed.

Here's some photos from our playground adventure.




Today (Friday) was a dreaded day for us. Thanks to the U.S. government, Mia had to have SEVEN shots in order to come home. As I write this, she's not spiked a fever or had any concerning reactions. Yet.

We started today with Mia getting her Visa photo taken.



Then she had her medical exams.



Here she is (with her sippy cup) waiting for her shots.



And here she is back at home (after a LONG nap) playing with her brothers again.



Tonight we ate at a local Cantonese restaurant. No we didn't order insects or snake! But fried cow brain rocks! Just kidding! Tucker has about mastered eating with chopsticks.



And Mia didn't wait for mom to feed her. She shoveled down her rice bowl by herself.



This has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I've never been more proud to be a father. My kids amaze me. And I just keep looking at Tracy (this beautiful woman who held my hand and jumped with me into this crazy life) and I cannot imagine what my life would have been like without her.

This trip has reminded me of what the wise Ferris Bueller said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

Getting To Know Our Girl

I will first start with an apology for taking so long to get another post up. I love to follow others travel blogs and it drives me absolutely bonkers when they don't write everyday. I am starting to figure out why they don't. :)

Mia is doing great. Really great.

We had a pretty rough first night. She had a terrible cough and temperature which made her very restless. I am sure being in a strange place with strangers didn't help either. We took her to the doctor on Tuesday. Poor little thing has bronchitis. We got an antibiotic and some cough medicine and she is already feeling a little better. Last night was better. She is sleeping well, but has this sad little whimper when she wakes up and looks around. I know it is hard for her. I tell her all day what a brave girl she is. Tonight seems to be even better so far. We are able to rock her in our arms for 5-10 minutes and she just goes right to sleep. It has been a couple of hours and she hasn't woken up yet. Fingers crossed for a good nights sleep. :)

The mornings and periods of transition seem to be the hardest for her so far. In the morning she just looks around. Kind of in a "I need my space" way. She is fine when we leave the room and are out and about, but cries for a short time when we come back to the room. She seems to like being in the carrier and this is how she has napped so far.

She has really taken to Keith in the past two days also. And the boys. Today she really started playing with them. They got the first smiles and a couple of giggles. It is so sweet to see them all together. The funny thing is that she plays the best when Keith and I are not in the room. This morning, we were getting ready for the day and had both walked into the bedroom. Next thing we know the boys are saying," she's playing with us, she kicked the ball, she laughed." Of course Keith and I walked around the corner to watch. She completely clammed up. As soon as we backed up around the corner, back to playing. We were able to sneak and watch. She did the same thing this evening. It is so fun to see how things progress. Just a little here, a little there. We can tell she is loosening up. She is exploring more and beginning to talk to us. She is just stinking cute.


Tomorrow is a free day - no appointments scheduled. It is also supposed to be nice weather so we look forward to exploring a little more. The playground is definitely a must and I am sure shopping will work its way into the day. :)

We have been so blessed. This whole experience has been over the top incredible. It is just a miracle. This little person hand picked by God for you, all the way around the world. You stare at the pictures for what seems like forever and then one day, there they are. We can't stop staring at her. It is just incredible.

A Few Fun Things About Mia:

*She often stands with one foot crossed over the other
*She is so cute when getting dressed. She knows just what to do and will push or pull her arms just the right way to get her shirt on or off.
*When she sees the boys putting on their shoes, she walks right over and starts putting her feet in hers.
*She will eat just about anything we give her. So far broccoli has been the only head turner.
*She loves Gerber Puffs and Cheerios. You have to be careful to just give her one or two at a time because if you pour some out for her to pick up, they all get crammed in her mouth at once.
*She eats pretty quick and if she has to wait too long for the next bite, she picks up the spoon and hands it to you and points to what she wants.
*She likes her hands to be clean. After every bite that she has picked up a food and fed herself with her fingers, she brushes her hands together to wipe them clean.
*She also likes the tables and plates to be clean. We ate at Subway for lunch today and she continually wiped the bread crumbs from the paper wrapping of our sandwich. It was so cute.
Yesterday at breakfast, she bit my finger while I fed her some toast and jelly. She saw the jelly on my finger, pointed to it and then pointed to the napkin, wanting me to wipe my finger clean. :)

Hope you love the pics!



Time with Mam-maw



First Bath Together



Cuteness



Playtime




Just Beautiful