Post Placement Visit

So after having a "birth mother emergency" our second post placement visit was delayed until Friday afternoon. The visit went fine. It is funny how this time around is so different than last time. I used to get so nervous before the post placement visit but not anymore. I guess I am more confident as a mommy this time. Our social worker is also very laid back and it is really like talking to an old friend. The kids of course were both kind of whiny because it was right smack in the middle of Mia's nap time and Aiden well he just wanted our attention. I finally just told the social worker that it was Mia's nap time and she saw her and she is all in one piece so I can I just lay her down now. She laughed and said of course. So, after I put Mia to sleep and found Tom and Jerry for Aiden everything was fine. We have to wait 30 days between visits for our last post placement visit and then we will be able to finalize. We will be able to take care of everything here in Mississippi and Mia should be officially ours by February.

No News Yet

Well no movement on the house yet. We had a Realtor Open House last week and we once again got great feed back. I think after the holidays things might start picking up. People keep telling us that the market is improving here and that we are in a good area and price point so that is encouraging.

In other news, Mia seems to be feeling much better. Her constant cold and cough are gone as well as all the drainage. She has started sleeping through the night finally. We have our next post placement visit scheduled on Thursday. We will have our last visit in January and then we will finalize the adoption. Our social worker has assured us that is all can be done while we are still here in Mississippi.

Someone was just asking me what was the thing I liked least about living in Mississippi. Aside from it being so far away from our family and friends, I don't like the fact that there really are no seasons. It goes from Spring to Summer. Then last weekend we were surprised to wake up to snow. We bundled the kids up and went out to enjoy it knowing it wouldn't last long. Aiden made some snow angels and two tiny snowmen. Then we had a snowball fight. Mia wasn't as impressed with it. She hated her mittens and didn't like the fact that it was hard to walk on. It was nice to have a little winter though even if it didn't last - today is 70 degrees outside!

House Is on the Market

Well it is official sign and all. We are hoping to have this house sold by this Spring. The real estate agent feels that the market hasn't been hit here too bad and people are still buying and selling especially in our price range. We are really hoping to have this place sold and be in our new place in Virginia before Aiden starts school in September. We shall see.

As for the latest Mia health saga, we had our three week check up with our ENT last week. Unfortunately, Mia is not doing any better since the tubes. The doctor gave us more drops as well as an oral antibiotic hoping that this will get the rest of the fluid and infection out. He did say that if she is no better by her six month check up in April we might want to consider removing her Adenoid. Despite it all, Mia continues to amaze us. She is really such a joy to have around. She is just so much fun. Aiden is really starting to enjoy having her around now that they can actually play tag and stuff. Also, Mia has started to finally say a couple more words. She says "all done, hello, bye-bye, Aiden and dog." She also sings the melody to Patty-cake, Itsy Bitsy Spider and Elmo's World - replacing the words for "da." So despite her ever present runny nose, cough and ear infection she remains happy and active.

Got Tubes????

Well after battling ear infections since she arrived home with us, it was recommended that Mia get tubes inserted in both ears. It was quite a whirlwind week last week. We took Mia to the doctor on Monday with a cold and we were referred to a pediatric ENT. We met with Dr. Carron of UMC on Tuesday and he definitely recommended tubes for Mia. The procedure was scheduled for Thursday at 6 am. Tubes were put in and Mia did great. She is now on the mend and back to her crazy little self.

Eric also accepted a position with CNA Insurance. The position will be bringing us back to the Richmond, VA area. We are so happy to be able to go back to Richmond and be with our family again. We worked very hard this weekend getting the outside of our house in ship-shape for selling and this week I will be working on the inside of the house. Eric begins his new position on December 1st, however, we will be staying here until our house sells. We are hoping to be able to move to Virginia sometime this Spring.

Sickness

Well Aiden got some type of virus and has been sick for the last 3 weeks off and on. Just when we think he is better, we get calls from school that he is sick and needs to be picked up. Poor kid. He was tested for the flu and the test came back negative but I wonder how accurate it was. Anyway, taking care of a sick 4 year old and a 1 year old that gets into EVERYTHING I have had no time to update our blog. Also, I don't have all that much to report because all I have been dealing with is bodily fluids that no one wants to hear about anyway.

Mia has been home for 3 months now and is doing great. She went from wobbly walking to running circles around me in the matter of days it seems. She also gets into everything like I said. She loves to get into our cabinets and pull everything out. Just when you have one mess cleaned up, she has done something else. So needless to say she certainly has us on our toes. She still hasn't really said any real words yet except for baby blabber. And she has not gotten any more teeth yet - she only has 4. As far as the sleeping goes it has gotten much better. Most nights she sleeps from 9 until 7 and takes one short nap in the morning and a two hour nap in the afternoon. I find that if I let her sleep any longer in the afternoons that is when we run into issues of her getting up in the middle of the night and not wanting to go back to sleep. She also loves going to the nursery at the gym which is great. She has so much fun in there sometimes it takes me awhile to get her to leave. Mia has become a huge fan of daddy as well. But she really does not go to anyone else unless they have an interesting piece of jewelery on. She will smile at people but she does not want them to hold her. Her favorite game right now is tag. The entire time she is making monster noises. Aiden is having a lot of fun with her now that they can actually play with each other. He also is very protective of her which is funny to see. He is a great big brother.

In the moments of wellness we took the kids the State Fair. They had a blast. What a difference from two years ago when we couldn't get Aiden to ride anything. This time he even rode on the little roller coaster and the whole family rode the big Ferris Wheel. The kids played the ducky game in which everyone gets a prize. But I think everyone had the best time in the petting zoo where they even had a huge but very friendly camel. Mia loved feeding the goats especially which were more at her level. Aiden also got to go to the pumpkin patch with his class. It was his first time riding the big yellow school bus which I think he was actually more excited about then the actual trip.

Official 1 Year Appointment

We were able to get our official 1 year check up on Friday. Mia is doing well. She weighed 20.6 lbs and is 29 inches long - in the 30th percentile on the growth charts. She got 2 immunizations and handled them like a champ. No more heart murmur heard but she does STILL have an ear infection. We are on oral and drop antibiotics and if it is not cleared up we are off to the ENT. Sleeping is still an issue. She is down to getting up once a night for a bottle. The doctor encouraged me to try to bring her a bottle of water instead of milk. She said that she may be getting up because she knows she will get some sweet milk - I guess she has me trained - lol! I tried that for the first time last night. She didn't seem two upset about the water and drank a little of it and than pushed it away and I rocked her back to sleep in about 50 minutes. I will try it again tonight and see what happens. She is still not saying much of anything. She is constantly babbling but doesn't really say any words. She does like to point her little finger at things and wants to know the what they are and watches our lips very closely as we tell her what the object is.

Unfortunately, our state has been hit hard with the flu and our doctor's office is out of vaccinations at this time. Aiden has a fever of 102.9 right now. The doctor told us that we should bring him in if his fever continues tomorrow and they will test him for the flu - great! Oh well what can you do.

We went to the Ole Miss/Alabama game this weekend. Alabama won big time but we had a good time. It was nice to have it a little cooler outside this time if only it weren't so muddy. Mia ate the entire time - I guess she has the tailgating thing down - lol!

Watch Out World

We have a walker on our hands! Miss Mia started full out walking on Saturday. She kind of looks like Frankenstein holding her little hands out in front and tottering around. She is pretty quick on her feet and does some pretty smooth turns and everything. Yup she is keeping us pretty busy getting into everything - tee hee.

Two Teeth and Go Rebels

Well finally after weeks of waiting, drooling, rashes and chewing - Houston we have two top teeth! Making that a total of 4 pearly whites all together. Since the two teeth have finally made an appearance, Mia has been sampling lots of new foods. She pretty much will eat anything we give her - she loves to eat. This new found eating has brought about some really cute chubby thighs. In other Mia happenings she has been standing a lot on her own this past weekend. She loves to stand up and give herself a round of applause which we of course all join in on! She also very clearly says daddy and Aiden. I am still waiting to hear mama - for now it seems she calls me "kiki"?????

We took Mia to her first Ole Miss game on Saturday. Thankfully the weather held up and the Rebels won! Aiden had a blast at the game. He told me this year that he wasn't afraid??? I didn't even know he had been afraid. I thought all this time he just had a short attention span and that is why he always asked to leave a few minutes after kick-off. Anyway, it seems he was afraid of the score board???? Don't ask.

We have our first post placement visit tomorrow. I am not nervous at all this go around. I did clean up of course as I would have in expectation of any company. This go around I finally realize that the social workers want adoptive families to succeed and are totally on our side and are not judging the possible cobs webs in the corner. After this visit, we will need two more before we get to legally finalize our adoption in the United States - yippee!!!!!

Mia Is Growing Up

Sorry for my absence - we were visiting family in Virginia for a little over a week and I am still trying to dig myself out of the laundry and house work. The kids both did great on the plane and Mia did just fine sleeping at my parents house in her pack in play - thankfully she is a very adjustable baby. She got to meet all Eric's immediate family and we even got to go out twice without the kids. Once my mom babysat and once Caitlin, Eric's oldest niece, watched the kids. It was nice to be out and have adult conversations without being constantly interrupted. We also got to reconnect with some great friends and hang out with them and their kids. My mom threw a nice shin-dig for Mia. She seemed to enjoy herself, playing with her cousins and eating the cake! We got a ton of loot for both kids while we were there. Thankfully Matt and Jennifer thought ahead and got Mia an actual suitcase so we could bring it all home with us.

We took Mia to her 1 year appointment yesterday. She is weighing in at a whopping 20.12 lbs. The funny thing is that is still less than Aiden weighed when we brought him home at 5 months! We were not able to get our official check up because our Doctor was unexpectedly out. We did get a couple of shots and her ears rechecked and everything looks great. We will go back in 4 weeks and see our Doctor and do the official visit. We were told to put her on whole milk and we also turned her car seat around - sniff, sniff.

Mia's adjustment continues to go wonderfully. She is really on the move now and has taken about 4 steps unassisted. She also will go to a standing position from sitting all by herself and balance herself for a while. She still only has 2 teeth which is strange to me since all other children her age have like 4 or 5! She also still does not sleep through the night. Still gets up once or twice. Once she gets a bottle and goes right back to sleep the second time she just needs a couple of rocks and some pats and goes back to sleep. We are hoping she handles the milk okay if not we will try soy milk. Her stomach issues have improved a lot and she has been eating a lot more table food. Mia's personality has also shown itself a lot more. She has a certain sassiness about her that now is cute but might end up being challenging as she gets older. She has also found her voice and can get quite loud. She loves to growl especially at her big brother and the dogs. Aiden continues to be a good big brother. He sometimes gets a little too affectionate with her and ends up hurting her so we need to remind him to be more gentle. I think though that she can hold her own against him - lol! We also took Mia to get her ears pierced - looks adorable with her little curls coming in. Sigh, my baby is growing up too fast.

Home 1 Month Already

So Miss Mia has been home for over a month now. Things with her adjustment have gone so well. I must admit we were thinking she would have a harder time getting used to her new home since she is a little older than Aiden was when we brought him home but the transition has been wonderful. She is really such a good baby. Aiden used to have crying period every day when he came home. We used to refer to them as his "melt downs." Looking back at them now, it was probably a form of grieving. However, Mia has had nothing of the sort. She has so much personality. She is truly just thriving here. She is babbling a ton, has picked up some baby sign language and has started to stand a couple of seconds on her own. Her health has been much better than expected as well. All of her blood work and stool samples came back normal. All of her fungus is gone and while she does have a couple of scars from them on her back and belly - there are none that are truly that obvious. Her hair is coming in curly and think and has a red tint to it. She is quickly moving out of 6-9 months and entering into 12 month clothes. Still has tiny feet though - size 2! She loves music and loves to dance. Her favorite toy is anything that belongs to Aiden - oops! She loves the dogs and bosses them around by wagging her little finger at them - so cute.

The sleeping through the night thing was getting a little better, only getting up once for a bottle and then going right back to sleep. However, now teething has begun again and she is up a lot. We did Motrin last night. She has a runny nose and spots on her little face which all point to teething for sure. I think I can see the little white nubs coming in - 2 to be exact, her top teeth. We are still having too many poopy diapers as well. We have changed her to soy formula and that seems to be helping some.

We are heading to Virginia on Saturday to visit family. Unfortunately, Eric's grandma passed away Friday so we are going to her memorial service. Aiden just adored Grandma Lamb. We haven't had the heart to tell him that she passed away yet. I am hoping little Mia is feeling a little better for the flight. I might go to the doctor this week just to make sure her ear infection has cleared up.

Aiden is doing well in school. He is in Mrs. Melissa's class this year. There are only 5 children in the class this year. Four boys and one girl - poor little girl! They are expecting to add more as time goes by. He seems to be enjoying it. He is going five days a week this year from 8-12. Aiden is the kind of kid who needs things going. Sitting around the house is not for him. It brings the Dennis the Menace out in him - ugh.

I have been trying to get back to running. Mia does pretty well in the nursery. She cries a little but usually ends up playing with the other babies and doing just fine. If she is having a day when she just doesn't want to be away from Mama then we just cut our workouts short. I was up to 6 miles before we left for Ethiopia and now I struggle to make it to 3. I think it may be the lack of sleep and not eating properly. I did take out some time for myself this weekend. Eric watched the kids and I went for a cut/color and pedicure. It kinda turned out to be a disaster but it was still nice to have some peace and time for myself. I have to admit, I felt so weird being without Mia. I missed her terribly. I am used to being away from Aiden now with school and stuff but Mia has been attached to my hip for the past month - literally. I still wouldn't trade it for the world.

It has actually been a little cooler here. It got down to 57 last night. Eric set the tent outside in the backyard and him and Aiden went "camping." They played music, told spooky stories and ate marshmallows. No camp fire though. I don't know if I am ready for all that.

Aiden's First Day of School

Summertime Fun

A Shower For Mia

Today Eric's job had a shower to help us welcome home Mia. We got a lot of great things. An adorable diaper bag, lots of diapers, stuffed animals, great books, cute clothes, a baby sling, a cart cover just to mention a few things. Thank you to everyone at the Hospital Association for getting this wonderful party together for us. Aiden also appreciated the "big brother" gifts as well.



We also put the finishing touches on Mia's room last night. Her letters are now up and just look perfect.

Camera is Now Working

We got the camera to work on the new/old lap top. Here are a couple of cute pictures to share.

Technical Difficulties

Where have we been? Well....Aiden was running through the kitchen, tripped on our laptop power cord and it busted the computer! We do have a back-up computer but it doesn't have our digital camera software loaded on it yet and it does not take a memory card. So although we have cute pictures to share, we are unable to share them just yet. We will get is all straightened out. Our hard drive is being downloaded on to some cds as we speak and I will get the camera thing sorted out soon.

So how are we doing? We are all doing great! Mia went to the doctor for her first official check up. She already gained 1 lb and now is at 19 lbs! She is 27 inches long. Her skin is almost all cleared up. Her ear still had a lot of fluid so we are doing ear drops to break it up a bit and to see if there is really a hole in her ear drum. She got shots and blood taken, which we are still waiting to hear the results on. Her TB skin test was negative. We are still have "poo issues." We are switching her from the colic formula to the regular stuff to see if that helps a bit. She has begun to wave hi and bye and gives the best wet baby kisses ever. She blows kisses and plays peak-a-boo. She also loves to play "how big is Mia? She is still not sleeping through the night - sigh! She still wakes up for one bottle for sure but some nights she is up more than others. She has been able to find her pacifier a couple of times and put herself back to sleep which is progress. I guess I am just never going to get good sleeping babies - ugh!

Aiden is still loving her. They have fun playing together. She likes to watch him and laughs a big tummy laugh at him when he does something crazy. He does have to be reminded to be gentle at times but I don't think he realizes his own strength. He also went to his check up as well. He is in the 95% for height and 98% for weight. He was very proud of the fact that he peed in the cup. He was a tough man for his finger prick and is a fast bleeder, it took 3 band-aids to stop the bleeding! He had to get 2 shots in his arms - ouch! He cried of course but the lollipop and sticker helped ease the pain. He then got a happy meal to celebrate his doctor's visit being over - lol! He goes back to school on August 17th and is very excited. It will be weird to not have him around. He will be in the 4 year old program next year which means going 5 days a week from 8 - 12.

My strep throat is coming back - ugh! I have a message for the doctor hopefully he can give me some stronger drugs. Eric is on a business trip but I am surviving doing it alone - glad he is coming home tonight. Four hands are definitely better than just two especially getting the kids ready for bed. I even successfully took them both to the pool this week by myself. Mia still prefers me to anyone else and wants to be carried a lot which makes getting anything done around the house kind of hard. I know this phase will pass and she will be walking around soon. She is surfing on the furniture and crawls all over and gets into everything!

I hope to get some pictures on here soon - stay tuned for major cuteness!

Kids are Great - Mom and Dad Both Sick

So it looks like Eric and I returned from Ethiopia with more than just our beautiful girl. Thankfully it is not too serious. I have strep throat which I haven't had since I was 8 years old and I forgot how painful it is. Eric has a nasty spider bite which is infected with strep (I like to share) and he also has a sinus infection. We both went to the doctor today and are on antibiotics so hopefully it will clear up quickly.

The kids seem to be fine. We took Mia to the doctor as soon as we came home and she is on three different medications for a parasite, a fungal infection and a nasty ear infection which actually left a hole in her ear drum! She still is a remarkable girl. Her adjustment is going perfectly. She is really enjoying exploring her world now. She is crawling up a storm and can go really fast. She already calls me mama - which is so cute. She recognizes her name. She loves the dogs. She is definitely a mama's girl which I don't mind at all. She will go to people for a second but then wants to come back to me. She is very sweet and loving but is also very active and gets into everything!

Aiden is adjusting well to being a big brother. He keeps saying how she is much smaller than he expected and also says she is a lot cuter than her picture. We let him push her stroller when we took our dogs for a walk. He was being the proud big brother and showing Mia off to all of his little friends. We have had some slight issues with him sleeping. He keeps getting up in the middle of the night and wandering around the house. We find him on our floor, in Mia's room on the floor or on the dog's bed! Because he is not sleeping well he is exhausted at night and falls asleep before we even get a chance to give him a bath. I think that he is just excited and eventually he will get a good nights sleep again.

Our trip to Ethiopia was one we will never forget. It was truly an amazing experience. Getting to see where our daughter came from and having the chance to meet her mother was extraordinary. We realize now how much we take for granted in our every day life. This adoption experience was more than I could have ever dreamed of and we have a beautiful daughter to boot - jackpot!

We Are Home

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Leaving On A Jet Plane

We are sitting in the airport waiting to board our first flight. So far our first flight to Houston is already delayed and we probably will not make our connection to London - oh what fun!

We also are having technical difficulties with downloading pictures. We took Eric's laptop with us and it doesn't have a place for us to load in the memory card! We do have our cord for the camera but it seems to go through the steps to load it onto the computer but then we can't find where it is???? We are hoping to figure things out but we might not be able to share pictures with you until we get home - bummer!

Family Day Celebrations

So since we will be in Ethiopia for Aiden's family day (the day we took custody of him and officially became his parents) we decided to celebrate this past weekend. We got him a couple of surprises, took him to Chuck E Cheese and then ended the night at Cold Stone Creamery. We had a blast! Happy 4th Family Day Aiden - we love you!

Our final preparations are being made for our big trip. We are pretty much packed. We ended up having 4 bags and two carry-ons each. I must say this was a hard trip to pack for. Holt told us to kind of think of it like we are packing for a camping trip. That actually helped and once I thought like that I was able to decide better what to bring.

On our conference call with Holt on Thursday we found out a little more about our trip. We will be able to meet Mia Zinash on Friday morning. Saturday will be spent with her as well. We learned that we can even help and watch the nannies give her a bath and put her to bed to learn her routine if we would like. Sunday we will be making the trip to Durame. It will be an overnight trip. We will return to Addis on Monday and spend more time with Mia Zinash. On Tuesday after our visa appointment we will be able to bring Mia Zinash back to our hotel where she will stay with us the rest of the time until we leave Ethiopia on Thursday night.

My parents arrived today with a billion of the cutest little outfits! This little girl has a ton of clothes. I may have to change her 3 times a day so she can get to wear all her cute little outfits.



As you can see we signed up for Twitter and we are going to try to Tweet from Ethiopia. We will do our best to blog and tweet so you all can follow us on this exciting journey to our daughter.

Swim Meet

Aiden swam in his first and only meet of the season. They had the little ones swim across the shallow end of the pool with a coach in front of them at all times. Aiden was not in this group, he was actually part of the relay team who had to swim across the entire length of the pool in the deep end! Our little fish made it across the entire pool, bopping up for air just a couple of times. At the end, he was awarded a blue ribbon which he and buddy Hollin are holding proudly. To celebrate we took him to Chick Fil A for dinner.

Unfortunately, I am starting to get a cold of all things. I took some NyQuil last night and had the best night's sleep I have had in a long time. I think we will might skip the gym and pool today and maybe later go do a little shopping for our trip.