Sugar and spice and everything nice...

On July 27th, Ellice, Dave, and Griffin traveled to China to change our family situation. To prepare for the change, we spent 4 days in Beijing. After 6-year-old Griffin led the way up the Great Wall in sweltering heat, we were anxious to move onto our next stop. We traveled to Wuhan in Hubei province to complete the most important part of our mission - to finalize the adoption of Mia. After 6 days of bureaucracy, we traveled to Guangzhou to obtain Mia's US visa. Four days later, we boarded a plane for the long, 27-hour trip home.

Mia is adjusting nicely to our chaotic family life and seems to recognize her name. In early August, she could barely crawl. Although she is not walking today, she clearly has plans to soon. Despite the absence of a mouthful of teeth, she enjoys feeding herself chunks of fruit and strands of noodles. Other than "Ma-Ma" and "Ba-Ba," the only other word that she has tried to say is "kitty cat." (Lokai and Bele are annoyed with her presence.)