Hey everyone!

   We are doing great. We have had Mia for a day now, and she just fits right in. It is so amazing. God is so good! I think she might keep us, I know we are keeping her!

   She is so fun, but very shy when we are out and about. But she really warms up when it is a small group setting. She has a behavior we have noticed that we call shutting down. When she is tired or overwhelmed, she puts her thumb mouth, puts her head down and buries her head into your chest. If you aren’t holding her when this kicks in, she’ll cry. So of course we hold her and eat up the snuggle time!!!

   Adoption day (Gotcha day) was a blur. We went to the Civil Affairs office and walked into a room full of babies. I would love to say that my mommy powers picked out which one was Mia, but I could only narrow it down to two little girls. And one was Mia! She looked so scared and lost. They handed her to us and we all cried. She looked around for awhile, trying to take it all in, and then did her shut down mode for about an hour. As we were leaving, she realized that we were taking her with us, and she broke down. She was so confused, but still let us hold her and love on her.

   When we got back to the room, we took off the 4 layers of clothing (it is t-shirt weather here!) and changed her diaper and gave her a bottle. That seemed ok to her, so she started to interact with us, and was laughing and smiling in such a short time. She LOVES cheerios and her toy stacking cups. She eats well, and really isn’t picky, but does not eat a lot.  She tries all types of food, but if she doesn’t like it, she will take it out of her mouth and hand it to you.

   She is little. Not skinny little, but petite. We do not know what she weighs yet, but her 12 months clothes are a pretty good fit. 18 months swallow her up. Her feet are tiny too. So she has been wearing her slipper-booties until we can get some tiny Mia shoes. The one’s we brought are too big.

   She sleeps very well. She was upset last night when we put her to bed. She was calling someone and looking all around the room. When this person did not appear, she lost it. My heart ripped in two. But she let me pick her up and I put her in bed with Bart and me. After about 20 minutes of loving, she fell asleep. I put her back into her crib, and she slept until about 7 am in the morning. She woke up happy and played with Livy and Michael on the bed before we went down to breakfast.

   We are having a nice and easy day today. No paper work or appointments. We went to a beautiful park, Green Lake Park, and walked around and did some shopping with the other family that we are traveling with. Kunming is beautiful, and it was so nice to have a slow day. We did notice that there were a lot of Christmas Decorations up. And Livy noticed that they were not any real Santa’s out and about. Michael made an excellent observation… no Santa’s because there are no fat, white people around to wear the costume!!

   So far I have only been dressed down by one old lady. I take it from her tone of voice that they do not allow the babies to suck their thumbs. She was quite nasty about it and pulled Mia’s fingers out and chastised us both. Well, that made Mia cry, which got mommy a little upset. I did bite my tongue, but turned Mia away from the old bat and gave her a try it again-look. She just shook her head and walked off.

  Bart is off to Wal-Mart for some food and drinks for us. I went once, and that was good enough for me! Can’t really explain it, it just something you have to see for yourself. But let’s just say that I have no idea what 99% of the food was in the place. And I really don’t plan on ever finding out!

  Well, the girls (Oh, that sounds sooooo good!!!!) are napping now, and we are going to try a bath when Mia gets up. We are going to try to find a fancy place for dinner tonight-- Pizza Hut, YES!!!!! Let’s just say that this Taylor crew will not be eating Chinese anytime soon when we get home.

  We love and miss you all. Thanks so much for your prayers comments; it is great to hear from you all. Especially since we can understand what you are writing!  J

Love,

Us