Our Journey to Mia Mei Xia MacCormack

2011-02-17T07:38:00.000-08:00

Can't believe today makes two years since Mia came into our lives.

What a journey......

February 15th marked the two year anniversary of the day we were handed the most amazing little girl we could have dreamed of, also known as "Gotcha Day" in the adoption world.

It is so hard to believe that two years have passed to the day, since Mia was place in our arms. She has changed so much, heck, Scot and I have changed so much....I can't imagine our life without her now...You know, when you go into this parenthood thing (again), you go in with all kinds of expectations of what kind of parent you are going to be. I was no exception to this rule, but I realized it doesn't matter what parent you thought you would be, as long as you are the parent she needs you to be. Some days I get it right, some days I get it wrong, but I hope I am growing in that aspect every day. I love how being Mia's mom, makes me WANT to grow, to change and be a better mom, a better person. Amazing how one tiny human can make such a difference, and here I thought that I was going to be the one helping HER to grow, lol.

Here are some pictures of Mia, as she was then and as she is now....a miracle!

Holding Mia for the first time, Feb. 15th 2009...

This was the only video we have while in China, the first few minutes with her back in our room after getting her. So, wish we had more video of her then. I just veiwed this video for the first time a few months ago, I could never get it to play until now.

Last Aug. 2010

Mia~ January 2011

Mia absolutely loved trick or treating this year. What's not to love......ding dong, trick or treat, thanks for the candy

2010-10-16T20:01:00.000-07:00

Can you tell things have been crazy busy as usual? It's been too long since I posted!
Since Scot has to travel again this month and wouldn’t be here for Halloween, we had Mia’s party early. We had a Halloween Party for Mia and her friends from school and dance class. She was so excited and had a great time; they were all so cute dressed in their costumes. We plan on doing this every year.

It was very different than last year, she didn’t know what Halloween really was but liked dressing up like a little Lady Bug This year Mia knew just what she wanted to be…Ariel, The Little Mermaid Princess.

She had a few weeks of celebrating Halloween, she had a great time at her party, her school party, trick-or-treating at the mall and playing games/trunk-or-treating at our church’s fall festival. After Halloween at Church we headed home to meet Daddy, he was just getting home from his trip.

Our first family 5k Run/Walk

2010-09-11T15:15:00.000-07:00

Before the race...7:30am

We did the Johhny Casa 5k Run/Walk today at SML and had a great time. Mia was excited to do this and was ready to run! She started out strong with running and walking, I had to beg her to ride in the stroller so we could catch up with everyone. She did great, and yes, she finally decided to take a ride but wanted to finish the race on her feet- Go Mia! We are making this race an annual event for us.

After the race with our friend Kim.

MIA'S FIRST YEAR, February 2009 - February 2010

2010-09-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

I had this done back in March and I am just getting around to posting it...life has been busy and now im trying to catch up.

Mia's first year by Luci MacCormack | Make Your Own Book

Check out my first book...It's finally done!

2010-04-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

I made a book of our Blog/Jouney bringing Mia home from China. I had it printed and just got it back:)

Our Journey to Mia MeiXia MacCormack by Luci MacCormack | BOOK INFO

1 Year Anniversary

2010-02-15T12:52:00.000-08:00

A perfectly heart-filled Valentines weekend

February 15th marked the one year anniversary of the day we were handed the most amazing little girl we could have dreamed of, also known as "Gotcha Day" in the adoption world. This has been an amazing first year with our little sweetie! She has brought unexplainable joy to our lives thus far, and we look forward to many wonderful years ahead to love her and show her what a precious gift she is!

Today we had a small party for Mia to celebrate her special adoption day. She had one candle to blow out on her cake (the cake had a picture of her sitting on the famous red couch at the White Swan Hotel in China). Before eating cake, she opened a few gifts, and later we went outside and released one red balloon—In memory of her birthmother to remember her and the magnificent gift she has given to us. We can never thank her enough for bringing this special girl into this world, and we can never thank God enough for bringing this special girl into our family! We are so, so blessed!!

A few pictures from our celebration

Happy Birthday Tigger!!!

2010-02-02T16:33:00.000-08:00

I told Mia it was Tigger's birthday today. The next thing I know, she is getting party hats out of the pantry that were left over from another party.Then she tells me that we are having a party for Tigger...So we did! She had a great time and I think Tigger did too:)

Our family Christmas 2009

2009-12-27T15:46:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2009 was one of the most memorable and special Christmases yet!

To have our family together was truly an overwhelming feeling of completeness and joy. Last year was hard for me because I thought we would be traveling to China in December to bring home our little Mia. So, of course all I could think about was her during the holidays and wishing she was here with her family.

This year was so nice having the whole family here. Mia home for her first Christmas and having Jason, Matthew, Kristen, her husband Max and our Grand daughter Emma all here was especially nice. Mia and Emma had such a great time together and opening gifts in the morning was really fun to watch. Mia loves Emma and she adores her big brothers and big sister. It was just nice being all together, it’s a rare treat anymore. They are all growing up and moving/living in different cities in VA. So it’s great to actually have family time together.

The rest of our families (grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins) come to our house every year to celebrate Christmas together. Scot’s family and mine combined so we have a big crowd and a great time together. We have a big Christmas dinner and then we always play the White Elephant game or Chinese gift exchange. The younger kids play their game and then the older kids/parents play a separate game.
This year we still did the White Elephant but we added a new spin to it…you had to make a home made gift-made by you. This was so much fun and we were all so surprised with the amount of talent this family has. I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with next year.

The idea was to take the money that we normally used buying a gift and donating it to a charity instead. I think this will become a new family tradition

Look who's 3!

2009-12-06T19:35:00.000-08:00

Mia turned 3 today!

We had a family get together to celebrate Mia's first birthday in the USA and turning 3 years old:) She had a great time having everyone sing Happy Birthday to her and opening her presents. The tissue paper from gift bags were a big hit with her as you can see from the pictures.

It has been so fun watching her learn about each holiday/celebration this past year. My baby is growing up so fast; I can’t believe it has almost been a year since we brought her home to her forever family.

Mia's first Halloween 2009

2009-10-31T07:39:00.000-07:00

Portraits by Kevin Hurley

2009-10-24T05:00:00.001-07:00

We finally went and had Mia’s portraits done. This was a gift given to me at my baby shower before we went to China to bring Mia home, I think I was just waiting for life to slow down a little so we could take some time and go see Kevin Hurley. With adjusting to her new home/family and Mia’s surgery, recovering from surgery and my work-it just had to wait.
We had such a great time and Kevin was wonderful with her, he really captured her personality in these pictures.

Mia's first dance class

2009-10-13T16:33:00.000-07:00

Mia's first trip to the Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-03T19:10:00.000-07:00

Prayers answered...Mia's home

2009-09-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who has prayed for Mia this week. God has been so good and gracious to us! Mia was in surgery for 5 hours Tuesday morning. We were told that Mia’s VSD (hole in her heart) was much larger than they expected.

While we were in the waiting room we got the call from our wonderful surgeon that things went well and Mia was on her way to the recovery room. About an hour and half later she was taken to ICU where we could then visit her. We went in to see Mia and she was not a happy camper to say the least. She was scared and MAD!!! The nurses were able to adjust her pain medication to make her a bit more comfortable and to help her sleep.

Mia did much better when we weren’t in the room, every time she heard my voice she got all upset and wanted to be held but we couldn’t hold her, this was heart breaking. She slept most of the day and really did amazingly well throughout the night.

Wednesday Sept.9,2009 Wednesday Morning we hurried over to the hospital to see Mia but we were afraid she might react the same way she had on Tuesday but she was very calm and we were able to sit with her and comfort her. She was doing so well.
Every hour that went by Mia was feeling better and they were able to remove one of the IV’s from her hand and the catheter.
It was also nice for all three of us to see Mia’s Grandma Penny, Poppa and big brother Matthew, Sheri and John Moore came to visit and got a few smiles out of her today

Thursday Sept.10,2009By Thursday she was even better and getting more lines removed and the drainage tube and IV in her neck was finally taken out. This was in no way a pleasant moment for anyone-especially Mia, at this point she was just ready to go and hated to see the nurses walk in the room because that meant someone was going to do something else to her again. She was just fed up! We did have a little fun today; both Grandmas’,Shirley and Penny were here to visit today-so she enjoyed them. We also were able to give Mia a ride in a little red wagon they have there for the kids. We pulled her around her floor and took her down to the cafeteria for dinner with us. After dinner we headed back to the room and our friend Sheri was there to visit us

The doctor’s came by and check Mia and told us that she was doing so well that she should be able to go home Friday morning! We were thrilled, two days earlier than we expected.

Friday Sept.11,2009 Were going home today!!!!
After the doctors did there last check on Mia we were able to leave. We left around 10am and got home and we all just crashed and took it easy all weekend.

God has been so good! We thank Him for all that He has done and for His hand being upon this entire process. How blessed we have been to have a truly AMAZING surgeon repair Mia’s heart and all the nurses and staff at UVA were all truly wonderful.

We want to thank everyone for your support and prayers during this time.

Heading to UVA to have a broken heart mended...

2009-09-07T15:21:00.000-07:00

Mia is scheduled for surgery in Charlottesville, VA at UVA Children’s Hospital on Tuesday, September 8th. She will have open heart surgery to repair her VSD heart defect. Please pray that Mia will respond well to all that's ahead of her. Please pray that the surgeons will have skill and precision and accuracy in all they do for Mia and that this surgery will be successful. Also pray that she will recover well and have no infections or illness during this time.

We thank God that we have so many who love us and will pray for us at this time. I will be updating our website to keep everyone informed. I will post an update here when we return.

Mia's Baptism

2009-09-06T05:26:00.000-07:00

Mia was Baptised today at Church of the Holy Spirit, it was such a beautiful service. She wasnt sure what was going on but she did great. We were so happy to have the whole family their with us.

You have come into the world so tiny,
Yet with such great promise for the future.
Before you were even born,
God planned wonderful things for you.
As you are baptised,
May you feel His love
And the love of those around you,
And may you always follow in His way.

2009-08-04T13:27:00.000-07:00

Free scrapbooking design generated with Smilebox

Happy 4th of July!!

2009-07-05T08:37:00.000-07:00

Summer Fun with Mia -June 2009

2009-06-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

The Month of May 2009

2009-06-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

Easter came twice this year:)

2009-04-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

Today we spent the day at Grandma and Poppa Maccormack's, since Scot was in China on Easter we had Easter this weekend with his parents and the rest of the Maccormack crew. Mia had a great time on the farm and had a great time hunting Easter eggs.

HOME SWEET HOME...

2009-04-25T11:37:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe we have been home for a little over a month already. The time is just flying and Mia is doing fantastic. She is adjusting to her life remarkably well and is such a happy child. I’m sure you can tell by the pictures.

After being off work for 7 weeks I headed back to work April 6th and what a tough day that was, I missed Mia all day and couldn’t wait to pick her up from daycare. We have been going for two weeks now just getting her use to it and she really seems to enjoy it. Mia has turned into a mama’s girl, though she gets really excited when Scot comes home from work. She has gotten used to our dogs, Tinkerbell, Tigger and Daisy which is quite a relief. They follow her everywhere; I think Tink thinks she is her mother-Sometimes she will pet them on the head ever so nicely.

Mia absolutely loves being outside. Whether it is a ride in the stroller, playing at the park or walking in the back yard watching the boats go by, she is happy as can be. She loves to dance to her music and play with her little people and puzzles. She is still a good sleeper and is taking naps now and sleeps about a 1 ½ hours. We are having no problems figuring out what she needs. She will belt out a “ma-ma” if I get too far away and she does a lot of finger pointing to let me know what she wants. We think she may be a lefty; she seems to always favor that hand when eating and drawing.
She also says (in Chinese) Ba-Ba /Da-Da. She loves to call our dog Daisy and she says pretty, ball and uh oh. She says uh oh a lot. She is also a pro at feeding herself, both with finger foods and a spoon and fork. Her favorite foods are noodles, rice, scrambled eggs, bananas and watermelon. Mia isn’t interested in television, though she will watch some Teletubbies off and on. Trust me, it’s worth it to get some dishes and laundry done or get food on the table.

We feel so blessed to have this beautiful, fun loving little girl in our lives and are enjoying every minute.

Happy Easter Mia:)

2009-04-12T08:20:00.000-07:00

Mia and I had a great Easter together but we missed Daddy,he is in China for a few weeks working. Everyone on my side of the family went to my sister Cynthia's house for the day.Mia had her first Easter egg hunt and had a blast playing with her cousins.

Life is good...

2009-03-19T12:01:00.000-07:00

Happy 70th Birthday Nai Nai (Grandma Penny)

2009-02-25T04:22:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Grandma Penny! She's known around China as the young Grandma, I just nicknamed her Hot Grandma:) We are so glad she made this trip with us to experience this amazing journey. We love you and Happy birthday!

We are on our way home!!

2009-02-25T04:04:00.000-08:00

Today (2-25-09)was our last day in Guangzhou, it’s been an amazing trip but we are ready to get home. We had our last appointment to finalize our adoption, the US Consulate appointment and swearing in ceremony. We packed up everything this afternoon to prepare for an early departure. We can’t wait to get home and for everyone to meet Mia. We will have a very long trip home; we fly to Beijing first where we have a 5 hour layover -UGH! Then head to Chicago and then on to Roanoke, about 24 hours or more of traveling. I’m looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and in my own house.
We loved getting all the messages from everyone; they meant so much to us. We are so blessed to have such supportive friends and family and cant wait to see you all very soon!
We love you.

Mommy,Mia and Grandma Penny at the park

2009-02-24T04:46:00.001-08:00

Today Grandma Penny,Mia and I spent the day together shopping for the famous Chinese squeaky shoes and playing in the park.Scot had his driver pick him up this morning and headed to work today, so it was just the girls today. We found Mia several pairs of squeaky shoes and she loves them and so do we. I know the dogs will go crazy when she is running around the house in them- they sound just like a squeaky toy-so cute and you always know where your child is. We met a lot of the locals in the park and had a great time talking with them and playing with the other children. The other ladies would talk to Mia in Chinese, I could tell she understood them but was shy to respond. She is picking up english,she understands more and more each day what we are saying and she has started to say a few words now like "Momma", this took my breathe away and melted my heart all at once:) she now waves and says "Hi" she just started that today and it's only been a week.We went back to the hotel to rest before Dad came home from work to meet us for dinner. Penny and I played with Mia in the room,she loves hiding behind the furniture and having us call out-where's Mia? and then she pops out from behind the chair laughing. She's just so sweet:)
We met Dad at the park tonight and walked to the restaurant for dinner and then headed back to the hotel for bed-Mia had a big day today and we were all so tired.

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

2009-02-22T15:25:00.000-08:00

Today is Scot's Birthday so his favorite girls will be taking him out tonight to celebrate. We are also amazed that it has been a week today since Mia came into our lives-What a blessing and gift she is for us...

We are loving Guangzhou!

2009-02-21T18:02:00.000-08:00

We flew into Guangzhou the afternoon of the 20th and WOW what a difference from Nanchang:) This is like a vacation now, there are beautiful parks,you can hear the bird chirping and its warm! its just a leisurely place to walk,the side walks aren't covered with people and we can walk around with out worrying about all the people and the crazy driving.
We started our day (Feb.21st) with breakfast at the hotel and then waited for our guide Bob to come to our room to do paperwork for the US consulate. We then headed to get Mia's passport photo and then to have her medical exam, she did so well-we were so proud of her. She now weighs 24.3 lbs.! After we finished all official work we went shopping at a local mall, Penny and I had a great time shopping and Bob,Scot and Mia were good sports. We loaded up and headed back to get lunch at Lucy's restaurant, we had a good ole American lunch-hamburger and fries! the rest of the day we just strolled around town sight seeing and checking out all the great parks. We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant last night that was great-Mia loved it too, she loved looking at all the other babies there and she would get so excited she would giggle and scream with excitement. She is such a happy little girl now.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and went through the parks, the parks really come alive in the evening with families and lots of kids out playing and learning the traditional dances. They even had a group of kids learning a dance with swords, even little one's were doing this. We are really enjoying ourselves here and I know Mia is too.

Out walking with the locals in Nanchang

2009-02-19T01:28:00.000-08:00

We had a nice leisurely day today. We had a good time seeing how the locals live, we are just glad to be heading to Guangzhou tomorrow-it should be a nicer area and warmer:). Mia has been so great today,she has so much personality now and is so loving with us, I'm loving every minute of it!

We are so in love!

2009-02-18T01:28:00.000-08:00

Mia is doing so well adjusting, we are just so in love with her. Everyday her heart softens and she lets us in a little at a time, if she could only know how she has filled our hearts. She is so smart and very observant of what is going on around her. Her appetite is getting better everyday-thank goodness, she is so skinny. When we first got Mia she had on 3 pairs of pants, 4 sweaters and a big jacket –which were all soaking wet from her sweat. When we got her to our room and got all her clothes off it was shocking to see how skinny she was. We had hoped that they were feeding her more than the last update we had gotten 5 months ago but the paperwork we got listed she was eating pretty much the same things-rice, rice milk, biscuits… no mention of meat and vegetables. We have found that she loves chicken, bananas, apples and well just about anything we have her sleeping in our bed with us for bonding and it’s wonderful and wouldn’t have it any other way!She is sleeping better now, last night we all had a great nights sleep-yahoo! We had a great day today shopping on the walking street and we went to a beautiful local park where the locals practice tai-chi and fan dances, it’s great to watch. My absolute favorite thing about today is hearing Mia’s big laugh- it’s so cute!

WE HAVE MIA!!!

2009-02-16T19:18:00.000-08:00

We have Mia! She is so beautiful and such a sweet heart. She was brought to us at the hotel at 5pm on the 15th,she was scared and didn't show much emotion-our hearts were heavy that night just thinking about what she was going through. We pray that her heart is comforted through this transition.
Our first night we all had little sleep, Mia fought going to sleep and we were there comforting her. She finally fell asleep around 5am and slept til 8:30am,we hated waking her up but we had appointments for adoption paperwork all morning starting at 9am (Feb.16th. After a full day-Mia was ready for bed, she went to bed at 6pm and woke up at 6am! Of,course we would wake up and just watch her sleep. When she woke up she was such a happy little girl:)
Mia is getting a little more comfortable and a little more trusting of us, we keep seeing a little more personality as the day goes on. She is just an amazing little girl that just needs a lot of love affection. Everyday is just a new adventure with Mia.

We are in Beijing!!

2009-02-12T16:46:00.000-08:00

We made it! Our flight got in yesterday (Feb.12th) at 4:30pm , it was such a long flight-no big deal to Scot but Penny and I were beat.
We came back to the hotel and had a little something to eat and went to bed by 9:30pm((9:30am in US) we were so tired but it was hard making our selves sleep,it will take a while to get use to this time change. Im using the free internet in the lobby so I wont be able to post pictures until we get to the Hotel in Nanchang-too expensive here. Hope everyone is well and I will post again soon, we are going on our Beijing Tour today,we have a 12 hour day of touring so I will have plenty to post later.

Beijing Tour- Day 1

TianAnMen Square, Forbidden City, Lunch at a local family's house, Hutong Rick Shaw. Dinner. Acrobatics show.

Beijing Tour-Day 2

Great Wall, Lunch at the enamel market,Jade market, Summer Palace. Dinner.

Here we go!!!!!!!!!

2009-02-11T03:36:00.000-08:00

We are leaving for China this morning and we are so excited to finally have our little Mia. I don't think I slept much last night, I kept having those dreams that you have forgotten something:( I know I have packed the most important things (all the paperwork) so if I forget clothes or something,well, you can buy it in China!

Trip Itinerary

2009-02-02T16:10:00.000-08:00

Feb.11:Leave for China! fly from Roanoke to Chicago,then to Beijing.
Feb. 12: Arrival Beijing with UA851 at 4:25pm. Upon arrival, guide will pick you up and transfer you to Novotel Peace Hotel. Rest for the day.
Feb. 13: Breakfast at hotel. TianAnMen Square, Forbidden City, Lunch at a local family's house, Hutong Rick Shaw. Dinner. Acrobatics show.
Feb. 14: Breakfast at hotel. Great Wall, Lunch, Summer Palace. Dinner.
Feb. 15: CA1511 at 10:55am to Nanchang, arrive Nanchang at 1pm. Upon arrival, guide will pick you up and transfer you to Gloria Plaza Hotel. Gotcha at 5pm. Gotcha is when we get Mia!!
Feb. 16, 17, 18, 19: Paper works days. During these days, your guide will help you to finish all the China side paper works and make sure child's Chinese passport ready on time. If you would like to do some local tours or want to visit orphanage, please work it out with your guide and pay your guide for the expenses.
Feb. 20: Passport ready. Taking CZ3536 at 3:20pm to Guangzhou, get into Guangzhou at 4:40pm. Upon arrival, guide picks up and transfers to Victory Hotel.
Feb. 21, 22: Free.(we might try to visit Scots business)
Feb. 23: Medical check.
Feb. 24: Consulate Appointment at 9am.
Feb. 25: Around 2pm, your guide will take you to Consulate for Swearing In Ceremony. Your child's American visa will be ready around 4:30pm.
Feb. 26: CZ345 at 10am to Beijing, then take UA850 at 5:20pm back to States. We should be back in Roanoke by 10pm.

TA Arrived Yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-01-20T11:20:00.001-08:00

Hip Hip Hooray! We're almost on our way!!! TA (Travel approval) came on Monday!

With that said though, we will not be able to make our travel arrangements until our consulate appointment has been made and our agency is working on that. Hopefully we will know the consulate date later this week.

Our agency is giving us a tenatative departure date of February 13th. We had hoped and prayed for a December departure date, but I'm so happy to just have a date that we will take whatever we can get!

It won't be long until Little Miss Mia is with her forever family!

Mia's room is almost done!

2008-12-30T19:37:00.000-08:00

Enjoy the pictures

We started Mia’s room in September 2008- and Wow has it grown since the beautiful baby showers my sister-in law, Julie,and my sister, Cynthia and long time friend, Ashley had for us.
We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family that have been so supportive and very, very generous. We are so thankful to everyone and overwhelmed with their thoughtfulness.

We just can’t wait to have Mia home, but until then we continue to go in her room and dream of the day we can go in and our little angel is sleeping peacefully in her bed.

2008-12-25T07:22:00.000-08:00

Well, it looks like another Christmas without our little Mia. We hope to travel in January 2009. God always provides, and I felt this song from Third Day's Christmas Offering CD was a gift from Him. It so reflects our feelings of the heart right now. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas
Words by Brad Avery (also adopting a little girl from China)
Music by Third Day

There's a little girl trembling on a cold December morn
Crying for mama's arms
At an orphanage just outside a little China town
Where the forgotten are

But half a world away I hang the stockings by the fire
And dream about the day when I can finally call you mine

It's Christmas time again but you're not home
Your family is here and yet you're somewhere else alone
So tonight I pray that God will come and hold you in His arms
And tell you from my heart
I wish you Merry Christmas

As I hang the tinsel on the tree and watch the twinkling lights
I'm warmed by the fire's glow
Outside the children tumble in a wonderland of white
And make angels in the snow

But half a world away you try your best to fight the tears
And hope that Heaven's Angels come to carry you here

Christmas is the time we celebrate the Holy Child
And we celebrate His perfect gift of love
He came to Earth to give His life and prepare a place for us
So we could have a home with Him above

It's Christmas time again and now you're home
Your family is here so you will never be alone
So tonight before you go to sleep, I'll hold you in my arms
And tell you from my heart
I'll tell you from my heart
I wish you Merry Christmas

We finally got our LOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-12-14T07:03:00.000-08:00

We finally got our LOA! We got a call from the agency on Wednesday Dec.9th that they had received our LOA and would FedEx overnight to us to sign and send back.
Thursday we signed the Letter of Acceptance that tells CCAA (China Officials) that we want to accept Feng Mei Xia (our Mia)as our daughter. When they receive our letter they will then FedEx it to CCAA. After that our agency can ask for our CA (Consolate Appointment) and TA (travel approval) that is when we will finally know when we will be traveling.
We are very excited!

Our first pictures of our daughter Mia MeiXia Maccormack

2008-10-18T07:51:00.001-07:00

Thia is the information we have gotten to this point on our little girl-Mia Mei Xia

Feng Mei xia, female, was born on Dec. 6, 2006. On Nov. 13, 2007 she was sent to our institute, and her DOB was estimated by doctors according to her physical features. She was short, with sallow complexion, and was named by the children’s department of this institute. On admission, she was 75cm in height, 6.5kg in weight, 44cm in head size and 42cm in chest size. She was raised in this institute since Nov. 14, 2007 and is up to date on vaccination program.

Feng Mei xia was 11 months old when admitted. She can sit and play alone, is shy in front of strangers, would smile hearing her name called by people she is familiar with and turn her head to the direction. Her other physical development is normal. At 12 months, she shows the will of crawling, would reach out to get a toy nearby, and sometimes cries or shout loudly. At 13 months, she can walk by the go-cart, is closed with the caretaker. She would stare at other kid who is crying. Her bone development and growth are well. At 14 months, she could point at something she wants, hide the toy in her hands when you ask for, and push your hand away. She can roll over on the bed. She can walk following you with one hand being held, but is not bold to loose her hand. At 14-15 months, she can pick up a thread or some cloth on the ground, and would make the sound of “yiya” at happy. She would lower her head and cry in front of strangers, but is active and acts freely in front of familiar people. At 15-16 months, she has a pair of smart eyes, knows something around, could burble following under the direction of adult. She has good physical development and normal appetite. She has 4 meals of milk, once for 200ml. She has an egg each day, supplementary food with rice. Now, she develops well at all aspects. She is pretty and lovely. She responds to any words you speak. She would walk to you by the go-cart with shouting as long as you call her name, and wish you could hold her or give her something to eat.

Feng Mei xia still has milk powder plus rice cereal as staple food now and 4 milk meals per day with 200ml for each meal. Mealtime: 7:00-14:00-19:00-23:00, supplied with rice cereal, crackers, egg, etc. she loves crackers best, and is fond of taking warm water. She gets up at 6:30 per day and the rest time in the day is 10:00-11:00 and 14:00-15:00. She goes to bed at 19:30. She cries when sleepy. She likes to sleep on back in her cradle alone with lights off. She likes to sleep in a quiet circumstance. She wakes up at night for milk. She likes to take a bath. She is active, fond of listening to music, playing toys, quick in reaction, and extroverted. She likes to play with rag dog and run by the go-cart. She is closed to the caretaker.

Sender: XXX
Social Welfare Institute of Fengcheng City (seal)
Apr. 26, 2008.

On October 30th,2008 we got this update from Ann with www.RedthreadChina.com
Dear Luci:
Below is feng mei xia `s update measurement:
height:85cm
weight :10.5kg
head :46.5cm
chest :48cm
feet:13cm
teeth:up8 down7

She lives in the foster family
Nickname is :Xia Xia

That is all I got for you,love,Ann

" The Pregnancy"

2008-09-15T17:28:00.002-07:00

Our journey towards parenthood is not filled with pre-natal appointments, childbirth classes and maternity clothes...and it doesn't last nine months!

As of today (9/14/08), the current wait time to receive a referral from China is 24-30 months, and this time continues to change.

Until we receive our LOA(letter of approval) and can share a picture of our little girl we thought we'd share our ultrasound picture :)

“Not flesh of my flesh,
Nor bone of my bone,
But still miraculously my own.
Never forget for a single minute,
You didn’t grow under my heart
But in it.”
~Fleur Conkling Heylinger

Legacy of the Adopted Child

2008-09-15T17:28:00.001-07:00

Legacy of the Adopted Child

Author Unknown

Once there were two women who never knew each other

One you do not remember

the other you call Mother

Two different lives shaped to make you one

One became your guiding star the other became your

sun

first one gave you life

and the second taught you to live it

The first gave you a need for love

The second was there to give it

One gave you a nationality

The other gave you a name

One gave you a talent

The other gave you aim

One gave you emotions

The other calmed your fears

One saw your first sweet smile

The other dried your tears

One sought for you a home that she could not provide

The other prayed for a childand her hope was not denied

And now you ask me through your tears

The age old question unanswered through the years

Heredity or environment

which are you a product

of?

Neither my darling neither, just two different kinds of

Love.