“Do You Solemnly Swear…”

So began Mia’s re-adoption hearing this morning. While Mia’s adoption was finalized in China, we were advised to re-adopt her to give the U.S. courts full jurisdiction over the adoption. Also, this enabled the state to issue a birth certificate, meaning she will be able to get copies of her birth certificate in the future without having to contact the Chinese authorities. The hearing took place in the judge’s chambers (for privacy) and there was only one attorney present - ours. The judge had already read everything there is to know about how we became a family. After Jeff and I were sworn in, the questioning was pretty simple, confirming the representations we’d made in the court filing by answering “yes” to each question. We had to testify that:
· We are who we said we are
· We are married
· We live in the city stated in the paperwork, and we have lived in this state more than 6 months
· We adopted Mia in China
· Mia entered the U.S. on a valid visa, and she is a U.S. citizen
· We were asking the court to “domesticate this foreign adoption” and have the state issue a birth certificate with us as the parents

Sarah captured it all with the camcorder. (That's Sarah in the photo.) Mia looked beautiful in her red velveteen dress and sweater. Her outfit was all-American, and red is the traditional color of celebration in China. After the questioning was over, the judge ruled that we had adopted Mia.
After the hearing, Jeff and Sarah left with Mia while the attorney and I went to another part of the courthouse. The clerk of court entered the order of judgment and gave us certified copies of the decree. The order was immediately sealed so that no one can ever look at all the supporting evidence, which includes Mia’s Chinese birth certificate, the Chinese adoption decree, our home study, etc. Adoption decrees may be the only thing you can’t get on the Internet.
I took the adoption decree straight to the county’s vital records office, and a mere half hour later I had Mia’s new birth certificate listing Jeff and I as the parents.

Dear Mia,
If you are reading this someday, I want you to know that this was one of the happiest days of my life. The other happiest days were the day we found out we had been selected to be your parents, the day your Chinese nanny first put you in my arms, and the day we brought you home to America . I love you very much. Every day I thank the Lord that am your mother.

Trick Rider in Training

In four short months, Mia has gone from being afraid to straddle the Bounce & Spin Zebra to riding it full tilt. It is quite a show. Last week I was trying to get a picture of her riding the zebra when all of a sudden she climbed on its back. I quick snapped the photo before grabbing her to prevent the inevitable fall.

Approximately Speaking

As I might have mentioned in a previous post, the Early Intervention people have a term for those words a child says which aren't pronounced accurately enough to be understood by a stranger. They call them "word approximations". I'm happy to report we're hearing more word approximations in the last few days, including "help". Also, ball is sounding more like ball and Mia is trying to use her sign language more. Someone told us to write this down so we can measure progress, so here is the current inventory:
Words: Hi, hot, more (said twice a few weeks ago but never since), pop (hasn't said it for a month)
Word approximations: Dog, ball, bye, help, balloon, bottle, bear
Baby signs: Eat, more (which Mia now uses to request things other than food!), all done
Baby sign approximations: Help, ball, bear, book

Mia and the Giant Ball

Sarah took Mia to Target last week and made the mistake of letting her play with one of the big balls. Mia didn’t want to let go, so Sarah bought the ball rather than causing a scene. (Me, I never worry about causing a scene. If Mia cries loud enough, maybe some of those people who talk on their cellphones as they walk haphazardly down the aisles will decide to take it outside.) Now, if we could only get her to say the word “ball” with the L sound. In an unrelated incident, Mia was seen wearing her new sunglasses.

Week End Update

Mia hasn't been feeling well. She came down with a cold early in the week, and it got worse on Thursday, with a slight fever, non stop runny nose, coughing and loss of appetite. She doesn't even want to drink milk. The loss of appetite really got our attention, since Mia is such a good eater. (Case in point: On Tuesday we'd given her some chilled cucumber dill soup, and she loved it so much she had a tantrum when it was all gone.)
Sarah advised that we might be able to entice Mia with novel new foods, especially fruits, so we have been giving her watermelon and (quartered) red grapes. To get her to drink water, we've been spiking it with apple juice. She ate better last night and this morning. We've concluded that we need to suspend church attendance for a while, as she seems to catch something in the church nursery every single week. There were a lot of kids there on Easter Sunday and it is a very small room. I'm sure the germs were there in big numbers. I'm really hoping this "cold" isn't actually the allergies that plague so many people here. Spring has sprung here, and there is pollen everywhere.
On the bright side, we were able to start Mia's speech therapy. The therapist came to the house on Friday and did a thorough evaluation to get a baseline. The actual therapy will start next week. We can tell Mia really wants to communicate better, so we're glad this is getting going. As it turns out, Mia's speech therapist also teaches one of the rooms in Mia's preschool, so she'll be able to consult with Mia's teachers about her progress.
A big bright spot in my week is that Mia wanted to cuddle up a lot more. She loves to sit on my lap and read. She also offers me kisses on occasion, but I have to watch out because sometimes the kiss turns into an attempted bite. She still thinks it is hysterical to hear me say, "Ouch!" I can't wait until she can talk, so we can have a little chat about that. Frankly I'm surprised (but glad) that she hasn't come home from preschool with warning notes about biting.
Mia had her first school pictures on Monday. I was apprehensive about how she'd behave, but then on the other hand if they want to try to get pictures of 16-month-old kids they've got to expect some drama. The teachers reported she sat still for her photo and didn't cry.

Hot Off The Presses

Mia said "hot"! As I added warm water to her bath, I held her hand away from the faucet, saying, "No, honey, that's hot." She very tentatively enunciated the word "hot", then looked up at me as if to see whether I'd noticed. After getting a big "attagirl" from Mom, she said it over and over again. Gradually it began to sound more like "hot ta". I suspect that's because we've been emphasizing the ending sounds for "ball" and "dog" in the hopes that she'll follow suit.
I asked Sarah if she'd been teaching Mia to say hot, and she admitted that Mia had parrotted her when she'd explained lunch service would be delayed a moment while the too-hot food cooled off a bit. That's another thing to like about Sarah -- she lets us experience these firsts for ourselves.
Over the past week, Mia has also said hi and bye a couple of times. We can tell she wants to talk a lot more, so we're happy that the state has finally matched us with a speech therapist. We're hoping to start next week if they can cut through the next layer of red tape by then.

Mia’s Got a _________ on Her Head

(No, this is not another head wound story.) Recently we’ve been enjoying a children’s music video by The Laurie Berkner Band. The songs are so darn catchy, both Jeff and I find ourselves humming the tunes even when we’re not with Mia. Mia loves the songs too. In one of them, Laurie sings, “Laurie’s got a pig on her head, Laurie’s got a pig on her head. Laurie’s got a pig on her head, and she keeps it there all day.” The song continues with different people and different animals.
I can’t be sure, but I suspect this is why Mia has gotten into the habit of putting things on her head. Bibs, shoes, bowls, toys, you name it. She puts it on her head and grins. I reward her by singing, “Mia’s got a [blank] on her head, Mia’s got a [blank] on her head, Mia’s got a [blank] on her head and she keeps it there all day,” which she seems to enjoy. Last week, she and Sarah were playing “a sensory activity” involving cotton balls and a dishpan when Mia decided to put the dishpan on her head. Sarah captured the moment for us.
Now with all that, wouldn't you think Mia would be willing to wear a sunhat outdoors?