Home Sweet Home!

Matthew says:

Arrived home! We were met by our great neighbor, Don Stupica, at the Detroit airport, and Mia got her first ride in a car seat today. Thankfully, she likes car rides because she always has to be in perpetual motion, and was unfazed by the car seat, so we figured she was in the right family (keeping in mind our tendency to take really long car trips). We also received a very pleasant surprise when we got home. On the airplane, we had developed our ‘to-do’ list, but when we got home, there was a wonderful welcome home and welcome Mia poster signed by all of our neighbors, along with a sign made by the Stupicas, who had also decorated the interior of our house. Aunty Lynn, another one of our neighbors who watched the house, had left us a great basket of baby toys, and a wonderful welcome home poem and two meals! The Stupicas also gave us a gift and a card, and also filled our refrigerator with fruits, salad, veggies, and even a couple meals. Now we are nocturnal because of the awful jet lag, but our busy schedule has started back up already. We are leaving to attend my mom’s godson’s first communion in Erie, Pennsylvania at 6:30 am tomorrow morning, and will be starting school again on Monday! In closing, I'd like to make the following acknowledgements:

- Thank you to Uncle Manny (my mom's brother) who posted all our blog info during our time in China (we couldn't open our blog site for the duration of our China trip!)

- Thank you to the Gathard/Thaman family for letting us use their net book computer for the duration of our trip.

- Thank you to Leanne Leong-Fern (and Kristin) who helped my mom shop, prep and pack Mia's suitcase full of everything she needed during her first two weeks in her first two weeks with us.

- Thank you to the Ross family for the bag full of wonderful clothing Mia has been wearing.

- Thank you to the Stupicas for picking us up at the airport and making our return home a very happy and comfortable one.

- Thank you to the Dunns for watching our house and taking care of everything for us.

- And last but not least. Thank you to every one of you, our faithful followers that supported us throughout our entire trip!

Homeward Bound

Matthew says:
We checked out from our hotel (the White Swan) today and left for home. The first leg in our return journey was a private shuttle from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, where Lola returned to the Philippines, and we left for San Fran. We flew halfway around the world, and it took less than a day! We left Hong Kong early Saturday morning, and arrived home at about 7 am on Saturday also, even though our total flight time was about fifteen hours. Can anyone guess why? Answer: The International Date Line and about 12 hour’s worth of time change and jet lag. We jumped the pond (the Pacific Ocean) at 12:30 am on Saturday and arrived into San Francisco at 11 pm Friday. Here the immigration officer opened ‘The Brown Envelope’, and Mia became a citizen of the United States of America! From there we took a 4 hour domestic flight to Chicago and then one last hour-long flight to Detroit.(This is really confusing for me, but I am going to talk about arriving home in the next day even though I already talked about Saturday twice, I will elaborate on the second Saturday more in the next day.?

Having a new family member is hard work!

Maria says:

We enjoyed our last breakfast together at the hotel, packed our bags, and said goodbye to the White Swan, Lucy our guide, and China. Here begins our 35 hour journey home: a 4 hour shuttle van ride from Guangzhou to the Hong Kong international airport, a 12 hour flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco (we depart Hong Kong at 12:30 am Saturday morning and arrive in San Francisco at 11:55 pm Friday night!), a two hour layover in San Fran, a 4 hour flight from San Fran to Chicago, a one hour lay over in Chicago before our one hour flight to Detroit, and a one hour drive home from the Detroit airport (thanks to the kind services of our dear friend Don Stupica who offered to pick us up from the airport!)

Mia did fabulously on the plane...much much better than I could have expected. What is even better is that we arrived home to a wonderful, warm greeting from neighborhood and friends: welcome home banners and signs balloons, gift basket of books and toys, a STOCKED REFRIGERATOR! (fruits, vegetables, milk, juice, bread, yogurt, hummus, salad dressing, homemade chocolate chip cookies, homemade chili, chicken casserole, greek stew ...WOW!!! (thank you neighbors, Auntie Lynn and Uncle Tom, and the Stupica family! We love you!)

We are so thankful to all of you for your warm wishes, thoughtfulness and prayers. WE FEEL SO BLESSED! We ARE blessed! We have a wonderful, beautiful new daughter and are surrounded by kind, helpful, generous, supportive friends and family.

So...our travel journey (and blog) ends here, but the next phase of our life now begins at we settle into our life here in Sylvania, Ohio....

New American Citizen

Matthew says:

Today Mia took the oath of petition to be an American citizen. This means that as soon as she sets foot on American soil, she is naturalized, but we figured that we carry her around so much that she might not set foot on the soil for a whole month! To celebrate this occasion, we went on a dinner cruise down the Pearl River, a tributary of either the yellow or Yangtze River.



Maria says:
We spent a leisurely morning enjoying a wonderful breakfast buffet at the hotel, and then went to the American Consulate, where Dale and I took an oath on behalf of Mia, swearing her in as an American citizen. We were told that she is not officially a U.S. citizen until her feet touch U.S. soil and we hand her official documents (in a sealed brown envelop) over to the U.S. Consulate officer at the San Francisco airport.

We spent our final evening on a dinner cruise up and down the Pearl River, enjoying the beautiful sights of the city.

Wow. It's hard to believe this is our last night in China before returning to the states with our new daughter!

Safari Park

Matthew says:
We visited the local theme park here in Guangzhou today, and went to the safari. It was a cool zoo that was themed after the African safari. The first thing we went on was a mini-train ride through a large ‘free range’ animal area containing everything from blue deer to peacocks to lions and giraffes. We also saw an amazing elephant show where the elephants did relay races, walked on balance beams, played basketball, soccer, and even bowed down to their ‘king’. We saw quite a few more giant pandas and had lots of fun looking at how they were interacting and relating their behaviors to ours. Then we saw a bird show where lots of prehistoric looking birds and eagles did fly-overs, parrots took tips from the hands of the audience, and birds talked in Chinese. We also went to the animal nursery where Mia got to see little tiger and bear cubs that were her size get bottle-fed just like we do with her. The last show that we saw was the White Tiger Show. In this show, two trainers were in a cage with 10 or 12 tigers and had them crawl under each other, jump over each other run laps, walk on two legs, walk backwards on two legs, run up a ladder and jump over a gap, jump and break through hoops covered in cloth/paper, and one of the tamers even put her hand into a lions mouth and kept it in there for a while. We all thought this was spectacular, which it was, but what we saw next made everything we had seen look like child’s play. Our next stop was the Circus. Contrary to our early ideas, this circus was not so much an animal circus, but more like the Cirque de Soleil. The opening stunt set the scene for more even more amazing displays, a diver jumped from the ceiling five stories up, into fire on top of a moat full of water. Spectacular. There were the typical standing on horseback tricks and we saw a group of five men make a pyramid standing on each other’s shoulders while the horses galloped around the stage. A bear walked a tightrope on two legs, while more rode bicycles and even motorcycles. There was also an incredible compilation of trapeze ticks. The artists were almost three stories of the ground on platforms, and did amazing combinations of flips and turns before catching another trapeze that was thrown to them. They jumped, twisted, and swung, usually letting go of their trapeze and flying through the air to catch another one or to grab onto a swinging persons legs. It was incredible. The craziest stunt we saw was a giant four-leaf clover metal thing with pipes on all arms. Acrobats would walk in them like hamster wells and when they got to the top, they would jump, being able to float inside their ball for half a rotation. Then they walked on the outside, being four stories off the ground at the peak without safety nets. Then they put on blindfolds, and jumped rope. After they had taken off the blindfolds and gotten back inside while still moving, the main acrobat jumped and got hang time on the outside of his ring while it was on fire! Super crazy in my opinion. While they were changing the set for the last scene, we were distracted by cute little people puffballs, unicyclists, stilt walkers and contortionists. The last scene was pirate themed with a central diving structure with two high dives and one super high dive. On the sides it was flanked by two gymnastics trampolines with a ‘backboard’. Clowns dressed up and did funny stunts off the diving boards holding umbrellas and the like, while acrobats on the side bounced and did flips on the trampoline, periodically disappearing and reappearing through doors in the ‘backboard’. It was spectacular. If you are in China near Guangzhou, it is a must-see. We're a little worried about what seeing a show like this will do to Mia's psyche... we're sure she has seen nothing like this ever before, and being exposed to these stunts so early in her experience of the greater world might have an undesirable influence on her. We're hoping she doesn't think stunts like this are normal!



Maria says:

Mia's newest tricks are giving people high five's and running. Well, not really running. More like leaping. If you put her on the ground, take a few steps back from her, hold your arms open to her and call her name, she takes a few steps in your direction then kind of takes a flying leap the rest of the way, right into your arms, with delighted squeal and giggle. She is quite daring and trusting...you'd better make sure and look in her direction to see if she's coming your way, or she'll end up doing a face plant at your feet!

For our first (and only) full day in Guangzhou, our guide suggested we might enjoy the local safari park. She said the international circus performance in the evening is really something our family would enjoy. We listened to her suggestion, and had a fabulous day. My favorite part of the safari park was the Giant Pandas...they were very active and entertaining to watch. Mia seemed fascinated by the tall old trees at the safari park--she kept pointing up to them all day long, as if she had never seen mature trees before. The Chimelong International Circus performance in the evening was fabulous...something like a Cirque de Soleil.

When we returned to our hotel room tonight, we found a "Going Home Barbie" (a blond haired, blue eyed barbie holding a little Chinese baby in her arms) on our desk. It turns out that the play room in the hotel is sponsored, designed and outfitted by Mattel as a special place "where you can relax while your child enjoys playing and learning with many of Mattel's toys and videos." The back of the the "Going Home Barbie" box reads "This souvenir is presented by Mattel Ltd. to adopting parents of Chinese orphan children staying at the White Swan Hotel, Guangzhou, China".

I never played with dolls as a little girl; I was amazed to see how starry-eyed Mia was as she gazed at the Barbie doll placed in front of her. When the boys saw how enamored Mia was with her doll, they immediately decided they needed to up the level of testosterone breeding toys in the household! I don't know if I'd go that far, but we will certainly do better than blond-haired, blue-eyed Barbies (Benjamin's comment to me after his first encounter with a Barbie up close: "Barbies are weird, Mom...they sort seem out of proportion because their legs are almost double the length of their torso!)


Tomorrow, Mia will attend her swearing in/oath taking as an American Citizen at the American consulate tomorrow. Better get her to bed so she is ready for her official duties!

First Airplane Ride

Matthew says:

Mia rode an airplane for the first time today. I wouldn’t say she enjoyed it though, because she screamed until we got her to sleep, and I think some of the other passengers wished they had brought earplugs. We realized that this is a super- huge overload for a 15 month- old little girl, and that just about everything that we do will be new to her. When we landed in the city of Guangzhou, the place where Mia gets her visa, we had to take her to a medical checkup. Lola waited with us boys in the van while our new guide, Miss Lucy, took Mama, Papa, and Mia inside the clinic. When they came back out we asked them how it went, and my dad replied, “Didn’t you hear? We thought the entire country would have heard Mia’s report. That’s why it went so quickly, because the doctor couldn’t wait to get her out of there!” Mia came to life again this afternoon, she has started walking on her own, and even runs a little bit (even though she cheats a little bit), but still can’t crawl. I say she cheats though, because she will take a slow step until she is close to you, then she will start cracking up, and will run a tiny bit and lunge and fall into your arms and give you a hug and start laughing even harder. She has the same mentality about crawling, because she Chinese babies aren’t encouraged to crawl, Mia doesn’t really know how. If you put her on the bed and hold out your arms, she will struggle until she inches close enough to just lunge at you, trusting that you will catch her, and laughing the whole time. We think she is the cutest, funniest thing that has ever walked on two legs, and she knows it. She has become a little fireball and comedian and has started copying other people.




Maria says:
Mia's first airplane ride went relatively smoothly, thanks to the fact that the plan was half empty and Dale had the freedom to walk her in the aisles in the back of the plane, out of earshot of everyone seated at the front of the plane.
On the way to the hotel from the airport, our guide took us to have her picture taken for her visa, and to have her checked by the doctor. According to our guide, the doctor said she passed inspection.

We are staying at The White Swan Hotel, a beautiful hotel right on the river here in Guangzhou. Dale has renamed it the international baby hotel--it seems like everyone on our floor is an adoptive family. This hotel even has a play room which is specially outfitted for adoptive families.

Buddhist Temple

Matthew says:
Today we visited the only Buddhist Temple in the city of Nanchang. As Buddhist temples go, it is considered small, but we thought it was huge! It was shaped like a long corridor, and had a string of four buildings, kind of like little chapels, with trough like incense burners in between.


Maria says:
Just as Mia started getting accustomed to her surroundings and routine here (and unleashed her energizer bunny persona), we are moving on (she received her Chinese passport today). We spent our last day visiting a Buddhist temple,learning about how porcelain is made (since Jiangxi province is known for their porcelain), and getting prepared to leave this place which has been our home for the past 7 days. I will always remember Nanchang and will have very fond memories of this place because of all the great bonding time we had here with Mia.

A Visit to the Countryside and an Emerging Personality

In front of the hotel

These are children from the Cao village we visited


Super Mia! (This when I hold Mia on her belly and fly her through the hotel room saying "Super Mia!")

You can't tell, but this is Mia hula dancing on her chair at the restaurant


This is one of the precious faces Mia experiments with...her drill sergeant mode

It may look like she is in pain, but this is Mia in a full-fledged giggle mode


Meet our sweet little girl Mia!!

4-11-10

Matthew says: To complete our China experience, we took a private bus out to the countryside today. Even though ‘countryside’ has a different meaning in China, it was a cool place to visit. China’s countryside looks more crowded than most suburbs, with the exception that their backyards are rice paddies. Another funny thing is that everybody in the town shared the same family name, and that name was the name of the town, apparently this is very common here. Kids in the countryside love it when foreigners like us come to visit, because it is an unspoken rule that you bring candy as presents for the children as a thank you for them letting you visit their village.
Attention! Does anybody know where Mia went and whose kid we have now?! You had better look out, for Mia is on the loose! We don’t know where our quiet and reserved Mia went, but now all we have is a little aspiring hula dancer/ baseball player/ professional comedian/ ‘attitudinal’ two- year old Mexican Jumping Bean all in one. She is still cute and cuddly, but life just got interesting, and that’s one big understatement! We don’t know if Mia threw off a mental depression in the past few days or if it was something she ate, but the Mia that used to sit contentedly in our arms is merely a memory. Now we can see the Mia that is like the Energizer Bunny and the life of the party. Now she is laughing hysterically, pounding a computer keyboard, pushing elevator buttons, flinging around mini champagne bottles from the mini bar, sticking her tongue out at me, practicing making funny facial expressions that range from full-flegded giggle to confused to mad to well, drill sergeant looking. She has been expressing her own ideas in a language nobody understands, holding conversations with me in her sleep, and jumping all over her chair when we stand her up at restaurants. She really made a scene when we stood her up with her holding on to the back of chair at the restaurant, and she started hula dancing, talking to us and making her hilarious faces, pushing my hands away when I tried to make sure she didn’t fall (we have to be really carful, because she has super-fast reflexes and can move just about as fast as any of us) laughing all the while, and sticking her tongue out at me. She wasn’t walking on her own as of today, but at this rate, tomorrow she might be running the 100 meter dash.

Maria says:
Watch out Theis Family! Don't know what caused it, but the shift in Mia's personality has been like from night into day (or from sleeping into a super charged caffeine buzz!) The change came on suddenly, like someone flipped a switch. Who knows what unleashed the hilarious little personality we witnessed at dinnertime, but I'm eager to see what tomorrow brings!

Dale and I decided that Mia is the best cure for Matthew's grumpy-itis. (He stayed up pretty late last night trying to meet a deadline for his online Biology class, and when Matthew doesn't get enough sleep, he is a completely different child! We have never seen anyone be able to get him out of his sleep deprivation induced mood like Mia can. She adores Matthew, and Matthew adores her. It brings great joy to my heart to watch them interact with each other.)


The small countryside village we visited today was called Cao. Even though Mia came from an orphanage in the bigger city of Zhangshu, our guide said it was likely her family came from the countryside to deliver her to the orphanage in the city of Zhangshu.


Karen told us there are about 1,000 residents in the village, and everyone knows each other. As we walked through the village, every door was open, and children and adults spilled out into the streets. As we peeked into their homes, many families were playing Mahjong.

There are no landowners in China. Every square inch of the country is owned by the government. Houses, of course, are owned by the people. A typical house is made of brick or cement, with the first floor used for cooking, eating and gathering. One or two bedrooms could be found upstairs. Beds are usually very hard, made of wood without any padding, because it is believed this is better for one's posture. Even babies are laid to sleep on hard wood because woman whose heads are flat in the back are seen as beautiful. (she assured us that this doesn't affect their brain power!)


Both of our guides (Linda in Beijing and Karen in Nanchung) have talked about how dramatically the numbers of children in the orphanages have declined as a result of the family planning emphasis. The bumper year for Chinese adoptions was 2006 (the year we began this process!). Now, there are not as many children in the orphanages, and most of the children that remain in the orphanges are special needs children.


We have one more day here in Nanchang. After Karen talked about the more cosmopolitan life in the bigger cities of Shanghai and Beijing, we realized that life in Nanchang is much more of what real China is all about. It will be interesting to have the opportunity to experince one more city in China when we move on to Guangzhou.

Karen says she will be able to pick up Mia's passport in the morning. After that, we will visit our last sight in Nanchang, a Buddhist temple. We will spend the rest of the day packing and preparing for our last stop (Guangzhou) before our (long) journey home! We hope Mia likes flying...the first leg of our journey home is a 12 hour flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco.(If not, she's going to have lots of opportunity to learn to like it!)

The Peoples' Park

Our wonderful guide, Miss Karen, giving us a lesson in Chinese character writing

The entrance to Peoples' Park

My Lola ("Grandma") exercising

Mia practicing her walking

Inflatable beach balls that allowed us to walk on water!

Matthew says: We had so much fun at the People’s Park today. Because going to the gym in china is so expensive, the government put in an exercise playground for all ages. We had to try out everything, and even though it was definitely fun, it did give you a great workout. There were things that helped you give yourself a massage, chin-up bars that rolled, monkey bars, leg exercisers, ski and walking machines, all made in robust playground style and free for everyone. Even though this was fun and we got to see Mia stand on own (she seems behind in her gross motor skills, but okay in her fine motor skills), this was far from the highlight of the day. After our playground workout, we went down to the lake and walked on water. Just kidding, we mostly just rolled on the lake, but there was a little walking too. We stepped inside inflated gigantic clear beach balls, and rolled onto the lake. It was awesome. It was as if each of us was in our own little hamster ball and we ran and rolled and crashed into each other and flopped around and laughed our heads off until somebody figured we were running out of air and hauled us in. It was so cool, and we are going to try to get some of our own to play around with and if we can figure out the liability issue, we might even try to start a business.

4-10-10

Matthew says:

Maria says: As Mia becomes more and more familiar with us, we are seeing more and more elements of her natural personality emerge. Through observation, the boys have decided that she fits right into our family...she shows good evidence of being a very sensitive, strong willed woman who loves to be on the move, just like her mother. It's fascinating to watch her. Because many of the things she is seeing are completely new to her, everyday it seems like she is eager to see more and more. She is observing and absorbing everything: the river, the busses, the goldfish in the pond, Dale and Michael playing catch. If the person holding her stops for a moment or sits down, she makes a slight protest and moves her body in the direction she wants to see. I told the boys that it is their job to be her narrator...they need to narrate everything that she is seeing. She is like a new born infant taking in the world for the very first time, but supersized (both in her physical size as well as in her ability to actually master new skills.) We've watched her transfer things from one hand to another, put things into her own mouth, take a few wobbly steps after standing on her own for about 10 minutes, etc. (We know these are things she should have mastered long before now...we were told to expect that she would be developmentally behind but she would catch up quickly.) Everything seems new for her, and she seems eager to grasp and grab at it all.

After our super fun morning at the People's Park, Karen told us about a foot refloxology/acupressure/ massage place right by our hotel. Because I couldn't pass up the opportunity, my mom and I enjoyed an hour long fabulous foot reflexology/foot massage for 30 yuan, which equates to less than 5 US dollars!

Each day, Mia seems to be eating better and sleeping better and pooping better. Thank you, God!

Tomorrow, Karen said we would be travelling into the country side to see the kind of village Mia was likely to come from. Tonight, my mom and I went to the local grocery store to buy some treats and gifts to give to the children in the villages upon the recommendation fo Karen. I'm looking forward to our excursion!
--
Matthew Theis

The Teng Wang Pavilion

Clothes fit for a king (or Emperor!)

Getting ready to ring the huge bell in the pavilion

Our visit to the Teng Wang Pavilion

4-9-10
Matthew says: Today we went to the Teng Wang Pavilion. It is a beautiful house built by a son of one of the emperors who was banished from the capital because he didn’t agree with his father’s policies. It is a wonderful structure; it has green upturned roofs, red walls, and gorgeous, lush gardens containing statues of all of the zodiac figures. My zodiac sign is the mouse, and I took a picture by it and everybody else took a picture by theirs. Inside the Pavilion we saw a traditional Chinese dancing and music performance, and it was really cool actually. One of the instruments was very interesting, it looked like a row of different sized cowbells all nailed to a piece of wood, it had a nice sound though. I don’t know what Mia though about all of this though, but she was really scared when my brothers and I dressed up as emperors to have our picture taken on the prince’s Dragon Throne. She doesn’t know us well enough yet to recognize us in costumes, no matter how simple, and was crying for the picture. There was a great trade- off to this though, tonight she gave us a real treat and fell asleep within 15 minute of a bottle and walking. Aahhh.

Maria says: Our third day with Mia! We all enjoyed our outing to the pavilion today. The biggest bonus (apart from having Mia in our family) is learning all we can about chinese language, culture, and history form our fabulous guide, Karen.She taught us a Chinese lullaby today. She told us all about the Chinese zodiac signs based on the lunar year (we learned that Mia was born during the year of the golden Pig...a very lucky year because it comes only once in every 100 years. She says that the characteristerics of a Golden Pig child are wealth and good promise of promotion during her life. the jury is out about whether or not becoming a part of the Theis family would be considered a promotion or not!) w e learned that the city from which Mia comes is known for their herbal medicines, and Jiangxi province as a whole is know for their green tea and fine porcelain. We learned that when babies are left by their parents at the orphanage, the director of the orphanage names the baby, mostly in a random fashion. Zhuang (Mia's surname) is actually the name of the Welfare institute from which she came. Qi (Mia's first name) means start, or to teach. Chen (Mia's middle name) is a fairly common name, often given to boys. After hearing this, I didin't feele so bad about moving her Chinese name to her middle name.

Although all of our paperwork was officially completed on Tuesday, the day we picked up Mia, we are scheduled to stay in Nanchang until Mia's Chinese passport is processed. (Our guide tells us she will probably be able to pick the passport up on Monday). Once this is completed, we will be travelling to Guanzhou (another city almost directly south of us, very close to Hong Kong), where we will wait for her American visa to process, at which time we will be free to fly home (because China doesn't grant dual citizenshiips, it will expire as soon as her American passport is issued, and her Chinese passport become a nice souvenir... ).Since we have no official business to do, the time here in Nanchang is ours. Therefore, we have been enjoying our daily routine of breakfast in our hotel, meeting our guide in the lobby for a nice little half day excursion (Walmart one day, the zoo the next, 600 year old famous plaza the next...all met with equal levels of fascination as you can imagine!), and an afternoon of napping, card playing, reading, walking down to the river, going to the local grocery store, doing some schoolwork. Although our hotel roms aren't quite home to us, and the city of Nanchang isn't a bustling metropolis full of fascinating, historical sights to see, these days full of family bonding and getting to know Mia are priceless.

The Zoo

4-8-10

Mia and I are buddies!

Matthew says: We went to the zoo today. On the way there, Mia fell asleep in my arms. During the animal show where lions rolled over, tigers balanced on big rolling balls, and monkeys rode bikes, she woke back up. Mia was a little scared by the wild animals, but then we went back to the beginning of the zoo and showed her the animals that she missed while staring at the inside of her eyelids. We saw elephants, camels, monkeys, wolves, snakes, alligators and crocodiles, and even a panda, the animal Michael is studying for his school P.I.Q. (a ‘personal interest quest’ ). When we got back to the hotel, and Mia had taken her second nap, we saw her in prime form. It all started when Mom was giving Mia kisses and she was smiling, so everybody tried it, and in the end, everybody was in a circle in the hotel room, taking turns giving Mia smooches, with me carrying her around while she was giggling and having a ball. I was a really happy night, and Lola, who came with us from the Philippines, had the honor of getting the first laugh, and now because Mia thinks she is so funny, Lola will probably also get the last laugh too. Unfortunately, as Mia got sleepier, her good mood wore off, and I had to walker her back and forth in the hotel room for over an hour to get her to fall asleep. And guess what, a little later, she was awake again and this time Papa took over so I could get some sleep. Now we know why God made babies so darn cute, because if they weren’t, they are so much work that it wouldn’t be worth keeping them. I’m just kidding of course.

Maria says:
Another wonderful day with Mia! Mia has been a part of our family for just over 48 hours now...it's hard to believe. We are certainly experiencing a lot of adjustment issues and are continually learning about Mia and she about us, but it truly has been wonderful. One of the things I noticed today: even though she is 15 months old now, when I hold her, she seems to have minimal leg strength. And we have not seen her make any attempts to crawl (that could be because we have not let her feet hit the ground since we took her from the arms of the orphanage director two days ago!) After asking our guide about this, she told us that this is very typical for Chinese babies. Chinese babies are not encouraged to crawl...they go from lying on their back to rolling over to walking! Part of the reason for this is that she said Chinese babies are carried a lot. My feeling is that Mia probably spent a lot of time on her back in her crib at the orpanage. After reporting my observation to Dale, he proceeded to take her out for a walk down to the river and reported that he had her standing on her own without support for about 10 minutes!

It is so fun to experince a whole litany of first experiences with Mia (I'm sure she has done all of these things before, but they are the first time we get to see her doing them): her first giggle, her first unsupported spell of standing, her first solid poop, the first good meal she's eaten with us, the first fairly uninterrupted night of sleep, etc. Every little thing feels like such a victory!

Enjoying our second day with Mia Qi Chen...we can't take our eyes off of her




Mom and Mia learning together (Mom's learning Chinese, and Mia's learning English)








4-7-10
Matthew says: Mia got her first look at the big wide world today when our guide suggested we go with her to the Chinese Wal-Mart where she fell asleep in my arms. We really needed to buy clothes and socks for her, because we had no idea how big she was when we were packing to come over here, and filled our biggest suitcase with stuff for her. We are hoping that she doesn’t get spoiled and think that she can pack this much when we go on other trips with her! She is the smallest one in the family with the biggest luggage...Papa thought this was a bit foreboding. Feeding Mia is another adventure unto itself. Because they don’t have Cheerios here, Mia was completely new to them. When Mia wasn’t sure what we were trying to put in her mouth, she would turn her head away, and we would have to sneak it into her mouth. After it was in there though, she loved it. Now this has begun to be a game, and unless she is really, really hungry, you have to chase her mouth around with a spoon, and force the food in through her smile. She does fit right in with her appetite, and thinks she has as big a mouth as me too. Whenever you feed her with one of those big, high sided, Chinese spoons, she scrunches up her face and tries to get her mouth around the whole entire thing, something I even have trouble doing. She is already eating solid food, and drinking out of a glass, although she takes two bottles a day. Mia is hilarious when you try to let her have a drink. She opens her mouth as wide as it can possibly go, and then looks like she is trying to fit her head into the cup. She tips her head down so far onto the glass you are holding; you have to lift her head to tilt the glass enough for her to slurp a little liquid. She is a very cute and cuddly little princess already and is comfortable with any of us holding her. We have been arguing over Mia privileges, but I always seem to get the ‘on the road nap’ shift when she develops a ‘jello’ consistency and you have to carry her 20- some pounds around with you for hours on end. The bright side is that she thanks you by drooling all over your shirt, but you can also always tell yourself that you are her favorite too.

Maria says: Mia is as precious as could be! I will admit that she seems somewhat shell-shocked today. I am trying hard to refrain from making any assumptions about what orphanage life was like for her, but I am virtually certain that she is not accustomed to 6 pairs of adoring eyes staring at her all day long, kissing her adorable cheeks, jumping to her beck and call at the slightest little whimper, elbowing and jockeying for position to be the next person to hold her. I tried to tell the boys that we need to try to give her some space so she can get accustomed to all the new faces, but it's futile. I don't blame them...it is hard to resist an urge to want to smother her with hugs all day long!

Dale was horrified that our first outing with Mia was to the Chinese Wal-Mart. Our guide suggested we go...I'm not sure if it was because she saw the outfit we had thrown together for her when we had to return for paperwork signing yesterday afternoon, or if she takes all her American families there. I just had to take a picture, which Dale tried to confiscate...he gave me strict orders to be selective with who I show it! (Consider yourself lucky if you are actually reading this before it gets censored!)

Just to clarify my comment about the outfit we had thrown toether: when the boys and I left for our trip almost two months ago, I had a whole suitcase packed for Mia before we left (diapers, wipes, formula, etc.) I didn't choose any specific outfits for her, but simply instructed Dale to go through one of the bags of clothes our friends the Ross' passed along to us (thank you, Rosses!), and choose a few outfits to throw in. He picked out an assortment of very cute skirt/top combos, but there were no tights, socks or shoes in the bag. We were given strict instructions by our guide to cover all exposed skin except for her face. So, when we returned yesterday afternoon, we had her in a cute two piece jumper dress outfit, which we stylishlly placed over her purple pjs (which the orphanage had dressed her in when they brought her to us), because they were the only thing we had that covered her legs and her feet.!

We Meet Mia!

4-6-10
Matthew says: We met Mia today, she is sooo cute. Contrary to our expectations, she cried for less than a minute, before just sitting there in mom’s arms looking at all of our new faces with a confused look on her face. We are extremely happy to have her as a part of our family. Life just got very interesting and exciting, but there will be plenty of time to show her off and make visits to see all of you, because it has been such a long time since we have see you guys (and girls)! Right now I don’t really know how to describe Mia, but more will be coming along with as many pictures as we can.

Maria says: WE LOVE YOU MIA!!! These were the predominant thoughts and words that entered my mind and heart today. You know when you have a neworn baby and you just can't take your eyes off him/her because they are the most precious, beautiful thing you've ever seen? That was what it was like today.

We were ushered into an office building, brought up to the 6th floor, asked to go ahead and take a seat in this big room. We saw a beautiful little girl sitting on a woman's lap, and my mom said, I wonder if that's her. My sentiments exactly! Would someone please tell me if that is our Mia Qi Chen so we can start loving on her??!!A nod from our guide told us yes. From that moment on, precious Mia Qi Chen was ours! (Well not officially, since we were expected to be back in that same place in a couple of hours after some bonding time with her to decide if we wanted to make it official or not...?! Dale's comment at this point would be: does a pig have a tail?!)

Seriously though...after a few minutes of hugging and thanking, we were sent back to our hotel and asked to return in a couple of hours to sign some paperwork, get an official picture taken which would go in our "Red Book" which is our official adoption document, go to a notary office to pledge that we would care for her and never abandon her, and have an opportunity to talk with the orphanage director and director of care services staff and ask them any questions we wanted. Did I have any questions?!!! Those of you who know me know that I had endless questions. How many children live in the orphanage? What are the ages of the children? Did she have one caretaker or many? May I have the name of her primary caretaker? Would a visit to her caretaker be welcomed at a later date when she is older? (Needless to say, Dale had to nudge me to tell me that they seemed eager to return home and that I should let them go...)

Beijing to Nanchang

Sunday 4-4-10 to Monday 4-5-10

Maria says (author's note): I have a tough act to follow! I'm a little intimidated by the thought of trying to capture my thoughts and experiences of meeting Mia on the heels of the great job Matthew has done with our travel blog to this point! Even though I have been right by Matthew's side experiencing all the same things he has been experiencing through our journeys, even I look forward to reading his posts at the end of the day. Thank you to all our faithful followers who have encouraged him and commented on his descriptive accounts. His confidence in his writing ability has skyrocketed through this experience (I must admit that I have not always been the biggest fan of his writing ability, so hearing from all of you has helped tremendously). Thank you!


Maria says: After attending a beautiful Easter vigil service at my parents' church, we slept a little bit before leaving for the airport at 3:00am to catch our 6:30 am flight to Beijing, with a stopover in Hong Kong. It was very moving for me to watch the sun come up at the Hong Kong International airport, realizing that just as the sun was coming up to begin the new day, and just as we were celebrating the fact that Christ rose from the daead so that we may have new life in Him that gloroius Easter morning, we were journeying to begin our new life with Mia, and Mia was beginning her new life with us.

Our adoption agency arranged a day and a half sightseeing trip so that we could see the highlights of Beijing. Even though it was incredible to see Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall, I must admit, my mind was elsewhere. As we shared our Easter meal together that evening at a local restaurant famous for its Peking duck, I was painfully aware that it was going to be the last meal we would be sharing together as a family of five. Looking around the table at each face...wondering what changes tomorrow would bring to each person's life...feeeling blessed by the life experiences we'd shared together as a family up to this point, questioning what made us consider this life change anyways...ultimately finding comfort in the realization that it was only after long, prayerful discernment and putting our trust in God's plan for us that brought us to this juncture. It was this realization that gave me confidence and security (and comfort from my worries and anxieties) which allowed me to enjoy the best Peking duck I've ever tasted (followed by a pretty decent night's sleep!)

On Monday, after our day of sightseeing, we departed Beijing on a 7:20 pm flight to arrive into Nanchang at 10:55 pm. Once on board the plane, I kept dozing on and off as I waited for the plane to take off. Every time I woke up, I found we were still on the ground! It seemed like hours before the plane finally left the ground. I was very pleased by the fact that during my interrupted sleep I had dreams...happy dreams of a sweet baby girl being full of joy to be a part of our family. (I am actually prepared for a lot of crying and unhappy times in our early days with Mia, but my dreams assured me that at least my subconscious mind was not spending any time worrying about the fact we were going to have to endure some massive crying spells!)

When we arrived (half dazed, especially Dale who had to make a 12 hour jet lag leap in the last 24 hours) into the Nanchang airport, we were greeted by our newest and bestest friend and guide, Karen. Nanchang, pronounced Nanchung by Americans, is the capital city of the Jiangxi Province, the province from which Mia comes. It is a province located a little bit more than halfway down China, towards the eastern coast. (Since our flight originated in Beijing, which is toward the northeast corner of China, our flight took us almost directly south). Mia's orpanage is actually about a 2 hour drive further south of Nanchang, in a town called Zhangshu. We were told that the orphanage director and the woman in charge of all the caregivers at the Zhangshu Welfare Institute would be driving the two hours early the next mornning so we could meet Mia first thing in the morning. The directions given to us before our guide left us in the hotel lobby in Nachang City at 1 am in the morning: "You will meet Mia at 9:00 am tomorrow. I will meet you in the lobby at 8:50am. Bring your passports. Have a good rest! " (Actually, she gave us a lot of helpful information and was absolutely wonderful, but those were the only words I heard!)

FYI

Some of you have discovered this already, for those who didn't, if you would like to see the full story behind our pictures, please double- click the link at the bottom.
Thanks! "Management"

Time to meet Mia count- down calender!

Countdown- 4 long days