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