Christmas recap

We had a very merry Christmas complete with presents, family, and lots of good food! The boys woke up at 4am on Christmas morning all ready to open their presents. Call me a scrooge but I told them they needed to go back to bed for a couple more hours until they tore into their presents. I *think* they ended up camping in the living room and not so patiently waiting until we woke up and gave them the go ahead. Mia woke up around 8:30am and saw her presents and was all ready to dive into the fun! Santa was very good to the kids this year and I think they were all happy with their gifts.

We spent Christmas day at my parent's house. My sister and brother in law were there along with my grandma. This was the first time my grandma has met Mia so it made Christmas even more special! My sister and brother in law surprised us with a video of Mia's homecoming and of the last few months with her. It was so special and I cried watching it remembering everything that has happened in the past 5 months and how far Mia has come. I can say it over and over again but it is nothing short of miraculous how much she has changed and grown. Looking at the video I was reminded of the fragile condition she was in. To look at her now I am so amazed by her and in awe of the work that God has done in her life and continues to do. How blessed we are to be part of her story!

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 I'll tell you from my heart I

wish you "Merry Christmas"

~ Merry Christmas

Third Day

Mia update

It has been 5 months since we have been home with our sweet little Mia. It feels like she has always been here with us. I remember praying during the wait that Mia's little heart would accept our love and that she would bond supernaturally to us. God has blessed us beyond all expectations! Dan asked me the other day if I ever "forget" that she is adopted and I answered him "all of the time." I am not sure if this makes sense but I do not even think of her as being "Chinese" meaning that is not what I see of when I look at her. I look at her and just see "our beautiful, strong, amazing, daughter." She is and always will be our daughter first. So what has little Mia been up to?

~She had her cardiologist appointment last week and she is officially off all of her medicines. She also has gained 3 lbs since surgery! Still a tiny little girl but she is gaining! Her EKG showed that she was not using the pacemaker and was making her own heart rhythms! She still has a very small VSD but her cardiologists expects it to close on its own and has said that even it it doesn't it is so small it will not affect her. She was very happy with Mia's progress! Our next checkup is in March.

~She does both occupational and physical therapy each once a week. She enjoys when we "go play" and is making great progress! She is up on all fours and we are hoping she starts crawling soon. In the meantime she has her own way of being mobile. She sits on her bottom and scoots. It is hilarious to watch! I am sure we will wear out the bottoms of many pairs of pants!

~Her language is also exploding! She says mama, dada, bye bye, Dora (as in the explorer), Bob Bob (as in Spongebob), mine, all done, thank you and the list continues to grow daily.

~Her eating habits have also improved. No more chipmunking her food~yeah! She will eat pretty much whatever is put in front of her but when she is done she is DONE! She loves banana cream pediasure and drinks about 2 1/2 a day!

~Her biggest entertainment besides her brothers is iCarly. Yes iCarly. Not your typical toddler show but she prefers iCarly to any other show. Gotta love those brothers and an extended hospital stay which =lots of TV!

We have had so much fun preparing for the holidays with her!. For the past two Christmases it has been hard to decorate the tree with the ornaments we have been collecting for her. This year her ornaments were the first ones placed on the tree. I was teary eyed holding her and letting her decorate the tree. She is FINALLY home! Praise God!

Family pictures

We returned to the photo studio this past weekend to have our family pictures taken. It had been (gulp) six years since we have had our family picture taken and since we now have our sweet little Mia we were in desperate need of a new photo. Oh how I dread, seriously dread, getting family pictures taken! Did I just type that!? I love the result (usually) but it is so much work! Coordinating outfits, getting everyone dressed, trying to keep outfits clean and ironed until after pictures, and oh yeah getting six people to smile or at least make it appear that we all like each other (just kidding!).

Anyway I really should go downstairs and scan these pictures so the "kiddie kandids" stamp is not on them but truth be told I am too lazy and I need to get Mia to PT. I also need to do an update post on Miss Mia because she really is progressing nicely but I will save that for another day very soon I promise.

*Ugh and I just realized "the stamp" is right across Mia's face in the kids picture!

Thankful

As I reflect on all of God's many blessings in my life I am overwhelmed by how good He is. I have an amazing husband who supports me and loves me everyday of our lives. I have four wonderful children who fill each day with joy. Our amazing church where we are free to worship and grow under the Word. Our extended family and friends who are such a blessing in our lives and have gone above and beyond this year. Our home that is filled with love and laughter and yes sometimes the of arguing of three boys and whining of a little girl (I still love it!). There is so much to celebrate and be thankful for!

Mia's first photo shoot

I took Mia to have her first professional pictures taken today. Her red velvet dress matched her ivory cardigan sweater that matched her ivory tights with the tiny red bow on the back of her little ankle. She had a coordinating red velvet bow in her hair and shiny black shoes on to complete "the look". Yet the only added accessory you will find in her pictures is the red hairbow! Our photo session started out a little bumpy with Mia crying at the sight of the poor photographer. Tears streaming down her face (and dress!) and I thought there was no way we were going to get a decent photo. As I started to "de-accessorize" her she slowly warmed up and we got some great smiles out of her!

I am really happy with her pictures! So happy that all six of us get to do it again in a couple weeks when we return for family pictures!

Happy 8th birthday to my sweet boy....

You bring more joy to my life than you could ever imagine with your sweet smile and zest for life! I love you so much!

Like mother like daughter

Hey where is that music coming from?

I am going to figure this thing out!

I am putting this on my Christmas list! I have been a very good girl!

Update on appointments of the past week and random pictures

It was a busy busy week with all of Mia's various appointments. Her cardiologist appointment went well on Tuesday. She still has a small VSD but her heart was making its own rhythms when her pacemaker was checked. That is very good news because the hope is that she will eventually regain her own rhythm and will not need the pacemaker. Time will tell but it is great news! We are also going to be weaning her off of her medications over the next month and we will go back in December for another checkup. Her incision looks great and is healing nicely!

We also had an appointment at the local adoption clinic. I "heart" this clinic because they really get it when it comes to caring for the needs of adopted children. Her developmental skills were evaluated and she also had a medical exam. She will be starting PT soon and what I love about the facility that we will be going to is that it is family based meaning the parents are part of the PT sessions. We also met with a psychologist to address any social or emotional needs she may have. We are not having any bonding or attachment issues that we can see at this time. Praise God and praying that this continues! The doctor felt that based on our conversation Mia was doing very well bonding to us. Her medical exam went well though we are going to meet with the feeding team. Mia has started to "chipmunk" her food. She will eat a couple bites of food and then keep it in the roof of her mouth for sometimes over an hour. This just started after her surgery. The thought is that since her hospitalization was so long and difficult on her and that she had no control over what was happening to her that she is now controlling the food in her mouth. It makes sense, right? It doesn't happen every day but is frequent enough that we want to address it before it becomes a real problem. If she wasn't underweight we would probably wait to see if this phase would pass but she really needs every calorie she can get.

In a nutshell, there you have it, our past week recap! Lots of progress was made and I am looking forward to more to come!

Happy Halloween!

Can you believe all of our leaves? Seriously. We just had them cleaned up less than a week ago. It gives our Halloween photo that extra "fallish" look don't ya think?

Floor time

We have a couple appointments scheduled to have Mia evaluated for physical and occupational therapy. Unfortunately the one center that offers for the therapists to come out to your home for the therapy has a wait list of 2-3 months. We are going to fill out the paperwork to get on the list but in the meantime have another appointment at a local international adoption clinic for a second evaluation this week. Tommorow Mia has her 6 week cardiologist appointment at 8:00am. Oh how I dread, dread, dread, walking back into that hospital. The memories are still too fresh in the mind. This will definitely be a Starbucks worthy morning and it will be my first stop at the hospital. I might even order an extra shot and a venti just to get me through the morning full of test and what I am sure will be a tired and uncooperative girl!

We try to have alot of floor time at home. Most days Mia is all for it and cooperates. She is generally a happy little girl but today she fussed and I decided it was camera worthy and deserved to be documented. Of course the fussing didn't last long especially after she noticed the camera was out!