If you're looking for "Jesus" in Guangzhou...

I'm constantly amazed at the responses I get from this blog and feel so guilty that I'm not able to update more. But here's a quick response to the person from China that recently left a comment to "Purple Palace".

No, I'm not Chinese. I'm from the South part of the USA, Mississippi. We are delighted to have been given the chance to receive one of China's beautiful little girls, and orphan from Kunming. She is daily brightening our lives. I share our story for friends, family and all who care to read. I'm often floundering for words and embarassed to make so many grammatical errors. I have no time to write much less edit! So please accept my apologies.

We did not meet Jim C., from the Passion of the Christ, while we were in China. He and his wife were there, though, at the same time as we and another couple in our group had the opportunity to speak with him and snap his photo. You can find that photo if you look at my side-bar and click on Nathan and Lisa's web site. Scroll down through their journal and you should see the story titled "Jesus in Guangzhou".

I am honored to meet each and everyone of my faceless readers. Thank you for being so generous with my blunders. I will have more time to update Mia's progress after this week. School's out for the summer!

Purple Palace

For 8 years we've struggled to get Michaela to sleep in her room alone. Even with a room filled with all her lovely things she still begs to go elsewhere. I'm hoping that Mia will learn to love her room. Michaela wants so badly for Mia to sleep with her, but we dare not upset the bedtime routine again. We'll talk maybe of a "sleep over" this summer when routine is out the window.

Born Again

We're celebrating Mia's 3rd month in our family today. On February 5th of this year, the child we'd been holding in our hearts for 2 years was finally in our arms. Looking back on that strange day, I can tell now she was tired, scared and very confused. I can't imagine what stress she was feeling. I know that I probably scared her to death grabbing her and telling her over and over, "I'm your Mama! I'm your Mama!" She was smiley and curious, but was insistent that I not touch her. I could only feed her cheerios and hand her toys. For a few days I was concerned she may be hard of hearing. She would not respond to noises. But now I'm certain that she had just had too much overstimulation and was just zoning out to keep from freaking out. This little girl who is so active now was then almost completely passive. She stayed put where placed. She wouldn't even wiggle when her diaper was changed. At night she never moved either. Gone are those days. Now she is everywhere! I am amazed how choked up I get remembering our little Kunming girl on this gotcha day. How one life can affect so many others. Though Mia is 20 months old, she now has to celebrate two birthdays, the day she was born into this world and the day she was born into our family. My prayer is that she will add another date to her life's calendar and be adopted into yet another family, the family of God.

Sisters

We took a trip north to move a few of Elliott's things home from the dorm. Michaela was most excited over the fact that Mia could sleep with her in the hotel room.

Elliott moves home for the summer today. Yeah! He will baby-sit for a couple of weeks then is spending a month in Spain in a "Study Abroad" program. We are so excited for him.

Bathing Beauty

Mia LOOOOVES bathtime! We get soaked. She's wanting to stand up though and she toys with me and pretends to sit down then laughs and stands up again. It's tough being tough to such a cutie-pie. When I've had enough of the wetting and splashing and trying to sit down, I pull the plug. Unfortunately, she's learned how to re-plug and just claps and claps like she's saying, "I did it! Yeah!" I'm such a party pooper. I've gotta losen up and not care she's shriveling up!

Nesting

Mia's Room. Finally.