CHRISTMAS - wow 4 months home

I can't believe we have been home with Mia for 4 months. So much has happened since we brought her home. She had her cleft palate repair and is doing GREAT. At first the Dr. said he would need to redo the lip repair that was done in China and we were really dreading that. However at this last visit he said maybe not and that he would just watch it closely and see how it grows. Mia is just such a sweet little girl. She is adjusting great. She fits right in and the boys adore her. She loves to play especially with her dolls. This is amazing because when we first came home she wasn't even sure what to do with her dolls. Now she loves on them, feeds them and pats them. I love seeing that! Craig and I have been very blessed to be able to rotate our weeks off to stay home with her since August. Our time has come to an end and we are sad about that. However we are so glad for the almost 5 months we have spent with her to help her adjust. After Christmas she will be going to daycare. We had a 2 day trial run before Christmas and she did GREAT... she loved playing with all of the new toys and friends. She just ran right in and was so excited. Even Wyatt liked it and he is who I was most worried about :) Mia had a great first Christmas even though she wasn't sure what to think about presents!
Enjoy a few Chrismtas pictures:

Womack Cousins

                                                                Johnson cousins with Meme

                                               These are the stuffed animals that my children
                                             sleep with every night. They were all presents from
                                             Meme when they were born (and when Mia arrived)

                                             Mia loves her kitchen from nana and pawpaw!!

                                                                 Just precious!!

                                                                so sweet :)

                                                            

                                                          Mia is stealing santa's cookies!

                                                               her new baby

                                                       play dough time

they all love to jump!

Christmas morning!!

2 months home

2 months ago:

now:

I can't believe that we have been home with Mia for 2 months. Wednesday was her surgery day and that was our 2 month home anniversary and the day she turned 20 months. It feels like we have had her forever. She is just part of us now and we are so glad to have her. She is a smart, fun and happy little girl. We took several adoption parenting classes as a part of our adoption process and so far we have not had to deal with any of the hard things that could come with adoption. She is just a precious little girl. The fact that she was adopted has not been hard like it is in several cases that I know of but having 3 children can be a little overwhelming at times. The boys are doing great with her and love having her but sometimes they all seem to need things at the exact same time! :)

Since we have been home, Craig and I have rotated weeks off so that one of us is always with Mia. We plan to do this until Christmas. Riley is in 1st grade and Wyatt stays home with us. Wyatt and Mia have become big buddies. They love to play together, however sometimes Mia lets him know that she is in charge :)

Mia had her cleft palate repair on Wednesday and it was a tough surgery. When we went to see her in the recovery room tears trickled down my face. I hated seeing her in so much pain and to be honest all of the blood from her mouth, nose and ears kind of made me sick. Even though it was sad to see her go through this in a way I am so thankful for it. Without her cleft palate we would not have Mia right now. Her cleft lip/palate was the reason she was abandoned so I am thankful that we were able to have the palate repaired. We are so blessed to live in a place with a great children's hospital with one of the best plate repair doctors around. When Mia came out of surgery, Dr. Sargent told us that she would need to have her lip repaired again. The lip was repaired in China however the way they repaired it did not allow for growth of the mouth so we will go in a couple of weeks for her check up and to talk about the lip repair :(

So far we are on day 3 of recovery and it is getting easier but still hard to please her at times. She gets so sad and nothing makes her happy. I am sure she is starving. So far she can only have clear liquids and milk out of a little bottle that has a soft tube for her to drink from. Not exactly how she is used to eating. We have been taking turns eating in another room from her but last night she reached up for me and when I picked her up she saw a banana- her favorite! I felt so bad for her that she couldn't have it. She is not sleeping well because she has to sleep in a carseat. This is a girl who loves her bed and doesn't even want us to rock her. She lunges for her bed every night so the carseat is not really her favorite place to sleep.

I have a few pictures to share from the past couple of months. Thank you for sharing in our journey!

One month with Mia!

Many have asked why my blog stopped. Well, things have been a little more hectic than they were in China. Life around our house is in full swing! I will try to update everyone at least once a month J

I can’t believe that we have had Mia for exactly one month today. In some ways it feels like we just were in China getting her and in other ways it feels like we have always had her. It makes me a little sad to think of all of the things we have missed with her but so excited that we finally have her here and won’t miss anything else. She is such a joy. It is unbelievable what a good baby she is and how well she has transitioned. God has truly been with us during this. Mia is almost always happy. She sleeps so good!! We usually have to wake her up at 9:30 after 13-14 hours asleep. I never thought babies could do that! She is a GREAT eater. She really eats anything we give her and wants more. I can’t imagine what it will be like when she has her surgery and she can’t eat what she wants.

Last week Craig got to stay at home with Mia and Wyatt and this week it is my turn. Riley started 1^st grade and is loving it. Since Mia is such a great sleeper we don’t want to wake her up so we are letting Riley ride the bus this year- he LOVES it. Our days are filled with lots of playing and some cleaning- Wyatt has become quite the cleaner. We had planned to put him in preschool 2 mornings a week but he has done so good with Mia that we are just going to keep him at home. Mia loves to play with him and he has been such a great big brother to her. He plays with her, changes her diaper (with some help J ) and goes up to her several times a day to just give her a kiss. Sometimes she likes it but sometimes not- she is very independent.

It is amazing how far she has come already. At first she really didn’t like for us to kiss on her or give her a bottle and snuggle her but now she just loves to love on us. Every day before nap and bedtime she loves for us to rock her and she snuggles with us. You can tell she likes her new home. I think she even looks forward to getting in her bed. When we put her in there she just buries her face in her pillow and lies there quietly.

Her first Dr. visit for her cleft palate is Friday, Sept 20. Hopefully they will be able to schedule her surgery in October or November. I really hope so since we will be home with her for sure until after Christmas break.

We have been so blessed by adopting Mia. She has brought our family much happiness. I can’t imagine us without her now. I am so grateful that God showed us the path of adoption.  We have also been so blessed by the constant outpouring of love and support from our friends and family. We appreciate all of you more than words can express. Mia is one loved little girl by so many!

Please continue to pray for us and her as she has her first of several surgeries.