It's been just over seven weeks since we brought Mia home. What an amazing and joyful time it has been. Mia never ceases to amaze us with the depth of her adjustment and the speed of her development. This is largely her doing. She has an iron will and is quite driven when it comes to mastering new skills.

Confirming our suspicions, her pediatrician's assessment is that she is a "remarkably healthy, robust and alert child". We are extremely grateful to her caregivers, their management and the leadership of her social welfare institute (SWI) for the loving and high level of care she has obviously received.

Initially, separation from Kate and getting to sleep were quite difficult for her. They both perservered and worked patiently on these issues, to the point where now she is now much more accepting of bedtime and separations. Last night Kate went to back to a limited work schedule and there were no problems for Neil getting Mia to bed. Getting an afternoon nap in, however, is still hit or miss. Even when she doesn't nap, Mia clearly enjoys this private time in her crib --- she uses it for practicing vocalizing and gymnastics.

As part of her weekly routine Mia and Kate get together with other local families with children adopted from China for play in neighborhood parks or recreation centers. Mia also enjoys outings to indoor shopping mall play areas (and likes all forms of shopping) and really loves participating in a weekly "music for kids" class. She has also developed quite a fondness for canines from encounters with friends' and neighbors' dogs and a menagerie of beloved stuffed animals.

In our home state of Virginia and in many other states readoption for foreign born adoptees is a good idea because it provides a legal basis for rights of inheritence . Our preparations for applying for readoption began shortly after our return. We've had our first of three visits over six months from our agency social worker. We've also filled out the first of three detailed questionaires, required by the state, on her health and development. After six months, when all three home-visits, questionnaires and several medical reports are completed we can file the readoption application. These should also help us document her progress for the six month post-adoption report to China (the first of two required reports for China).

Other milestones so far have been obtaining her certificate of U.S. citizenship (accompanied by a letter from W) and her social security number. We soon plan to apply for a U.S. passport.


You may wish to check back occasionally. We hope to update the blog from time to time in the coming months.

Kate & Neil

Today marks a week after we began our trip home . We are all doing very well and our bodies are pretty close to being aligned with local time. Mia is adjusting very well. In spite of a minor cold and significant teething discomfort she has slept pretty much through the night for the past couple of nights although her nap times are still variable. We have not had any issues changing diets. She appears to sense that things are about to settle down considerably for her and as her anxiety diminishes her personality (with an enormous sense of fun and individuality) continues to emerge and her comfort level with folks other than Kate has greatly increased. Neil has completed tasks such as daiper changing in Kate's absence without significant objections. Today she made her first attempts (suceeding once!) as our daughter to stand up without any props. In the past few days she has also learned how pivot and crawl with confidence. Fine motor skill development is the other major focus of her play activity.

The trip home could have been smoother. Kate was beset for the duration by the bug Neil experienced earlier. We were on schedule up through an uneventful five hour layover in Hong Kong. We then waited five hours on an aircraft through various stages of departure before the flight was cancelled because of mechanical difficulties. After a long wait to retreive our checked luggage we sacked out in the Airport Hotel at about 1:30 AM Thursday. Thankfully our flights the following day were uneventful and we arrived at our doorstep at precisely 1:30 AM Friday the 15th. Apart from some distress at times when her Mama was incapacitated Mia was quite resiliant throughout and even managed to coax baby expressions from members of the Macau men's professional roller hockey team . We are so proud of her!

Now that we're home the next steps in this process are a re-adoption here in Virginia and the preparation of post-adoption reports at six and twelve months for China.

-Neil

Sorry for the delay in updating. We made it home early Friday morning but right now we are all still in another time zone. We will give a fuller account of our return and how Mia is adjusting in our next entry.

Love,

Kate & Neil

Hello everyone from Hong Kong International Airport. We bid a bittersweet goodbye to China this morning and are now awaiting our transfer flight to Chicago. We really enjoyed our stay in China, for the fascinating country and people; the amazing support and all around friendliness of our guides Anli and Li Feng; and the growing friendships with our travel companions, the Dunns and Smith Eubens. We hope to see them soon in the US and have a reunion of the Shaanxi Ladies. Anli told us today that Shaanxi adoptions are rare in her experience. We were just very lucky! Another thing we really enjoyed in Guangzhou in particular is being able to meet many, many other adopting families and comparing experiences and observations about our children.

Neil succumbed at the last minute in Guangzhou to The Bug. Us foreigners were dropping like flies into bed with various viruses. Neil virtually never gets sick, so when he does he really feels it. He was able to make it for the highlight of the day, the family trip to the US Consulate where Mia received her visa. Now when she lands on US soil she will automatically become a US citizen. It was a group ceremony, with about 50 other families. It was very moving for all the adults. Not sure what the babies made of it!! After the ceremony Neil went to bed and Kate and Mia successfully completed an intensive round of shopping. She's showing great shopping skills.

Mia has been stressed out and quite fussy for the last couple days, probably sensing that something big is going down. She is a very perceptive little girl. She has just squirmed her way through a meal of Taiwanese noodles --- very cute seeing her suck very long noodles into her baby mouth. She is a fearless eater of grown-up food.

We got free internet time for buying our noodles, and I think it's just about to expire. Our best to everyone and we'll see you soon with the new little citizen!
Kate

Greetings from the White Swan Hotel, Shamian Island, Guangzhou (formerly Canton). We have very busy here. When we arrived Friday night there were over 100 adoptive children and their new families staying in the hotel. The following morning Mia had her medical checkup for her U.S. VISA. We then completed many forms relating to the VISA. We've also done a lot of sightseeing including trips to the Guangzhou Zoo, jade, pearl, fine arts and traditional medicine markets.

Shamian island, in the Pearl river, features colonial era european architecture with tree-lined streets, quaint parks dotted with sculptures of children and many small shops catering to adoptive families.

Because of the high cost of internet access at the business center we will upload more pictures of Mia and the sights we've seen in China when we get home. Our advise to future adopting parents is to bring a laptop. It makes access much cheaper and more convenient with a new child.

Mia is doing very well. Tomorrow we all go to the American consulate to complete U.S. VISA processing.

As foreigners and as adopting parents we have had a very positive experience here in China. Official matters have been conducted in an extremely professional manner. Our agency in-country representative has simplified things for us as much as humanly possible. The Chinese people clearly greatly treasure and love children. We have found people welcoming and encouraging wherever we have gone.

Love,

Kate & Neil

Hello once again from Xi'an. One of our highlights today was a really fun walk (dodging traffic!) and mini tour of the city wall. This should be our final posting of the trip from this historic place. Tomorrow it's on to Guangzhou for the U.S. VISA process.

Today while Mia napped Kate took an opportunity to compile a list of some of our fond and precious observations of Mia:

1. Her two tooth grin. It could melt the polar ice caps.
2. Her devilish sense of humor.
3. Her herculean efforts to reach big people plates at meal time
4. Her frequent repetition of the word "Mama". No "Dada" (or "Baba") yet. This baby's learning things in the right order.
5. Her penetrating stare when she is trying to figure you out.
6. Her wave, which she starts up on random whims when she is out and about.
7. Her ability to carry a cracker in her mouth for long stretches so she doesn't have to put down the toys she's clutching in both hands.
8. Her insistence on climbing furniturewith 2 toys in her hands.
9. Her choice of a big squeaky carrot toy as her teething relief. We're still trying to get a photo!
10. Her incredibly strong will to make her legs to get her places.
11. Her musical repetoire of coos and little bouts of singing Mia songs.
12. Her insistence on sleeping perpendicular to or upside down from mommy. Quite the bed hog!
13. The way she clutches a piece of Mom's to use as asnuggle blanket when she sucks on her thumb before sleep.
14. Her ability to win hearts wherever she goes. Each day at the Hotel buffet the hostesses sneak a moment to play with her.

Some photo's of today's action:

Greetings from Xi'an once again. Today Mia is desperately trying to help us type the blog. She was a real trooper going around the Terra Cotta Warriors museum and has proved very playful in general. She is glued to mama 24/7 and for now is rejecting her stroller and high chair for mama's arms and stealing the hearts of waitresses everywhere. She is still quite freaked out by daddy (baba) and men in general but we have high hopes that this will change soon. Today teething is going great gums with Mia and other babies on the trip. Oragel and mutual support are being shared by the parents in our group. Right now Mia is climbing all over mama and playing dropsies with her favorite piece of paper and delighted with her work.

Love to all,

Kate & Neil

PS for Dorothy. We absolutely love Xi'an and hope we can come back with you for a return visit.

- Three Shaanxi ladies stylin' at the Terra Cotta Warriors

Mama & Mia playing and snuggling

Shortly after 5 PM September 3rd we had the great pleasure of meeting our daughter Mia. She is precious and beautiful. She's had a rough couple of days as she was clearly very attached to her nanny. Also she has had a bad case of hives. We have hit the ground running as parents!
Now she is beginning to relax and very sweet aspects of her personality are emerging. She loves to laugh and play and is determined to climb everything she can. She is attracting admirers everywhere we go. We have been very touched by the kind wishes the local Chinese people have offered us. One lady even insisted on giving us her umbrella in the rain. We can't wait for you all to meet our sweet little girl.
Uploading photos is proving very labor intensitive here. Right now it involves borrowing a second computer from another family. We wil add more pictures of Mia as soon as we possibly can.

-Kate & Neil

What a breathtaking day we've had! We first went to Tiananmen Sq. and the Forbidden City. The scale of the square is vast --- the world's largest palace front yard. There were many people there from all over China and the world. The former seemed to take a lot of interest in us. The Forbidden City, the imperial palace, was very beautiful. Its exquisite exterior trim is being cleaned in preparation for the Olympics.

Li Feng told us that 14 new subway lines are being constructed in Beijing for the Games as well, to supplement the existing two lines. We had a lot of walking, which was great after our day in the plane. We next took a pedicab ride around a hutong, one of the traditional neighborhoods with narrow lanes and houses built around courtyards.



Our favorite stop on that ride was a hutong kindergarten where we got to take photos of classrooms and students to show Mia in the future. We also visited the home of a retired couple who supplements their pension by allowing tourists to see the hutong life up close. After the hutong tour, other stops included a tour of a silk factory where we got to see the worms up close and personal, and a walk around the aptly named Temple of Heaven. Seniors are really active here. There is a group that does nightly fan dancing across the street from our hotel, and in the Temple of Heaven park there were many, many seniors playing cards and making music with traditional instruments.

Li Fang tells us to wear comfortable shoes tomorrow as we are hitting the Great Wall, Summer Palace, and other sites.

Greetings from Beijing! Neil and I arrived safe and sound after our 12 hour flight from Chicago. We've met up with our guide Anli and her husband LiFang, and the other 2 families we are traveling with. We are excited, pooped, jetlagged, amazed, and more than a little nervous. We learned from Anli that we will be meeting Mia after she takes a 9-hour overnight train ride from Hanzhong to Xi'an on Sunday. Poor little girl!! We hope the ride will be comfortable for her. Time for us to get some shut-eye. Early tomorrow we will begin Beijing sightseeing with a trip to Tiananmen Square. BTW, we ate our first authentic Chinese food tonight and it was DELICIOUS.

4 days until travel time!! The challenges of parenthood have already begun --- Neil is currently on the living room floor constructing a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe for Mia. Earlier today there were 5 adults working on figuring out the instructions and we weren't getting very far! Neil and I nearly broke our brains a couple days ago trying to get a used pack 'n' play to stay up. I'm happy to report that after some desperate googling for instructions Neil figured out the trick.

I worked my last day for a while last Monday and have been busily shopping, packing, and babyproofing since then, with the exception of one very lovely day at North Beach on the Chesapeake Bay with Betsy, her son Nate, and Nate's cousin Anna. Neil is still working. He traveled for work to Albuquerque this week, so he didn't get to see just how hairbrained all the trip preparations have been making me.

We had a very nice visit from friends Holly and Chris, and their soon-to-be one year old Carter earlier today. Carter tried out some of Mia's toys and broke in her Wondermat. He seemed to be having a blast. Poor Smoky, however, was not. When Carter crawled up to him on the opposite side of a glass door Smoky looked at Carter in terror and fled. Difficult adjustment period to come for the felines of the house!!!


Friday a week ago Neil's workmates surprised him with a very sweet guy-style baby shower. It consisted of pizza in the conference room and a very funny powerpoint of parenting tips from 2 dads in the office. We were very touched!

After the shower we met with fellow adopting parent Vicki and her 7 year old son Danny, both of whom will be traveling with us in China. Their family actually just left today so that Danny can see the giant pandas before they get their daughter/sister. Neil and I really enjoyed getting to know them a little and are looking forward to spending time with them in China.

We have received our itinerary, which will be basically 8/31-9/3 in Beijing, 9/3-9/8 in Xi'an, and 9/8-9/13 in Guangzhou. We will be seeing many famous cultural and historic sites in each city and will try to tell you about them in the blog as they happen.

We recently received Mia's new measurements, or dimensions as Neil the Builder likes to say. At last check-up she weighed 22 lbs. and was 29 inches tall. She had 2 teeth. Not much additional detail in this report. It is amazing to think that 1 week from tomorrow we will be with her.

Kate

We have our travel dates!!! We will be leaving Baltimore on Wed., Aug. 30, flying through Chicago to Beijing, which we will reach on Aug. 31. If all goes as planned, we will be meeting Mia Xiaohua in Xian on September 3rd, her birthday. We will go to from Xian to Guangzhou to do paperwork and a medical check-up for Mia at the US consulate there. We will fly back out of Hong Kong on Wed., Sept. 13, and come back through Chicago into Baltimore that same day. (-:

On Sunday, July 30, our good friends Betsy and Will threw a very lovely shower for our very lovely daughter. Our thanks to them both for their generous hosting, and to our wonderful friends and family who attended and showered us with lots of great loot for Mia! Here are some photos of the event.

Gift opening: (Jenny, Kate, and Neil)




Betsy, the hostess extraordinaire:


Melody blisses out in the massage chair, with Rita, Ben, and Linda waiting their turns: Some of the REEP program's greatest past teachers --- Dorothy, Christine and Betsy:

What a photogenic line-up! Mary, Randy, Yulia, and Chelsea

And of course, there was the adorable party crasher, Betsy and Will's dog Soleil, who continually escaped from the guest bedroom in search of fun, frolic, and people food!

July 27

Another delay. We just got word this morning that the CCAA is moving offices this month and is therefore way behind in processing travel invitations. We're told to expect to travel around August 31. We're still hopeful we'll be with Mia on her first birthday.

Below is a picture we found on the web of the Hanzhong Social Welfare Institute where Mia is living. We have heard that the orphanage is run by a British-originated non-profit called Caring for China in collaboration with the Chinese government. You can see a streaming video of Caring for China's work at Chinese orphanages at http://www.caringforchina.org/cfcc/cfcc-video.htm .

Sunday, July 16 --- Greetings, everyone. Sorry for the long break between posts. We've been immersed in construction, trip preparations, and pinkification. We were very fortunate a couple weekends ago to have the help of Kate's mom, sister Jenny, brother Andrew, brother Tim, and Tim's wife Beth and kids Dylan and Julia. Mia's aunt Jenny and cousin Julia were enthusiastic contributors to the pinkification project, otherwise known as Mia's Room.




Uncle Andrew took charge of the outdoor painting, while Jean and Neil took time out to play dueling cameras. Uncle Tim tackled a pesky honeysuckle root in the Zen garden while Aunt Beth and Cousin Dylan offer support from the sidelines.




































Kate went this past week to visit new friends Michelle and Hannah. Michelle and her husband Andrew are new, very proud parents of Hannah, who they brought home from China in June 2006. Hannah's 1st birthday is in late August. We envision that she and Mia will be sharing some playtime fun in future. Michelle is a pediatrician and very kindly looked over Mia's medical records, giving her health a thumb's up. Michelle also gave us very valuable tips on traveling to China which will make our journey and first days of parenthood much easier. Her descriptions of China are getting us really excited about all aspects of the trip. Thank you very much for everything, Michelle!

Thursday, June 29 --- This just in from China!! Mia Xiaohua has one tooth now!! How cute is that to imagine?! She likes her walker and she is described as "a busy baby" with "a sweet personality." We just can't wait to meet her!!!! At the most recent measuring she weighed 9 kg/19.8 lbs. and was 68cm/26.5 inches long if my math is correct.
Kate

June 27 - Introducing the future Miss Mia Xiaohua Morgan!!! Yesterday Kate received the long awaited call from the Barker Foundation. The referrals for the three families in our travel group had arrived from China. The documents were translated overnight and this morning we met with Colleen at Barker. We first reviewed a medical record which shows on-target physical and social development. Then we wept with joy on seeing photos of Xiaohua. We are so grateful to her caregivers that Xiaohua appears very healthy and happy. She was born on September 3, 2005, in Shaanxi province in central China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaanxi ). It is amazing how much two photos have affected us. They bring a lot of sunshine to very rainy Falls Church!


We are still looking at mid-August travel. We will be going to Beijing, Xian (the capital of Shaanxi Province and home of the Terra Cotta Warriors), and Guangzhou (where the US consulate is). Yes, Dorothy, we will be visiting your old stomping grounds! (:
Kate and Neil

June 22, 2006. The day started with a routine check of the China Center of Adoption Affairs website. We've looked at it to see what date of last year's adoption applications the Chinese have placed. Our application was logged in on June 27, 2005. For what seems like eternity, the placed through date on the website has been listed as June 15, 2005. Today, however, was VERY different:

"The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before June 28, 2005."

... June 28, 2005!!! We can't believe it!!! Our adoption agency contacted us this morning and let us know that we are likely to receive health information and a picture of Mia next week and travel in mid-August. We are ecstatic!!!!

Neil and Kate

June 17, 2006. It seems summer weather has really arrived. To this point we have been blessed with an extended period of warm days and cool nights. Our houshold companions, Max & Smoky, are disgusted with this new development. They now spend their days lying around in an overheated funk. Being cats, they attribute this state of affairs to us, the omnipotent ones, and for the moment we are politely tolerated. I can't imagine how we will be viewed when Mia moves in on their turf.


The Big Construction Project is progressing. I feel confident in finishing before we travel to Mia. We shall see...




Meanwhile Kate has taken on most of the yardwork this year and is starting new landscape projects, including a Zen garden. Our pick-up truck has been quite busy ferrying carpentry supplies, sod, mulch, rocks, topsoil etc. to our "jobsite".

Construction and Gardening Therapies have been very helpful in the Long Wait!
Neil

June 8, 2006. After twenty months and eleven years, the end of the journey to our daughter Mia and to parenthood seems real and within reach. We anticipate getting a letter of referral and photo of Mia next month and travelling to China to adopt her in September. There are many tasks to attend to --- among others, renewing our fingerprints (yes, they expire!), completing The Big Construction Project, preparing the house for an infant, getting travel vaccinations, consulting an adoption medicine specialist, and making work and travel arrangements. More to come as the details unfold.
Neil and Kate