First day of summer vacation and I wake up at 5:00am. That's so not funny. But it was nice having the house to myself and just getting to enjoy reading my book and not feeling rushed to do anything.
We took our old dog Fred into the vet. I was afraid it was going to be bad news, but they were able to take the (huge) tumor out and he's doing great. We had to leave him at the vet's for surgery and on the way out Mia was crying that she wanted "her Fred". It was pretty pathetic. But he's okay and we'll pick him up tomorrow.
Mia and I went to the glacier again today and she is convinced dinosaurs live there.
"No bears, Mama, dinosaurs."
"No baby, dinosaurs aren't real anymore, but bears are!"
"No Mama, dinosaurs live here"
"Okay, remember what walked through our front lawn two nights ago?"
"Yes, it was T-Rex"
"NO IT WASN'T! It was a black bear!!!"
"No Mama, dinosaur"
"Okay, fine, you win. Guess I better get a bigger can of pepper spray then"

restart

Wow, It's been a long time. I'm going to try and do better. Now that I have Facebook I don't feel the need to blog so much, but I want more of a record of my days, so back to blogging.
Today is the first day of summer break so of course I woke up at 5:00am. I was going to take a walk to the glacier but it's kinda foggy out and I"m afraid of bears. Once the tourist buses start up I feel safer.
Mia is officially three and is doing great. She has decided to give up naps, which I feel was a very poor decision. She will regret it when she's older!
I read a friend's blog and have decided to take up cross stitching again. So that means a trip to Jo-Ann's.
Graham and I are thinking about going to Sitka this summer. Or maybe somewhere else on the ferry.
Oh, I can't believe I forgot the most important thing! The last Jean Auel book FINALLY came out. I started reading this stupid Clan of the Cave Bear series 32 years ago and can now finally finish the story! I'm reading just a little bit at a time to make it last longer. It's stupid and ridiculous and total cave man porn, but damn it I waited 32 years, I'm finishing the series!!!!

Three Years Old!

Wow! How did that happen? I have a three year old? For a long time I didn't think I'd have a baby at all, and now I just finished throwing a big party for her third birthday!! She's changed so much from when we met her. She's went from this:

Our scared little Mia we met in China.

To this happy little girl putting extra sprinkles on her cupcake!

I don't know how we got so lucky! I honestly don't know how I could love anyone anymore.
Happy birthday my sweet Mia Mei. And may you have many many many more to come.

Finally!

We just came back from court where a judge issued the Final Degree of Adoption. We only did this so we could get an Alaskan birth certificate. It would have been difficult to try and register her in school or girl scouts or whatever with her Chinese birth certificate even though it is translated. So after a ridiculous amount of paperwork, money and idiocy (on the clerks part) we finally went to court today and she is now an official Alaskan.
This marks the end of 5 years of paperwork, red tape, bureaucracy and hemorrhaging money. It feels like there should be a choir of angels singing!

Mommy and Mia at the glacier!

We put in our paperwork to our state's clerk of courts to re-adopt Mia. This way we can get her an Alaskan birth certificate! Haven't heard anything yet and hoping no news is good. I'm afraid they are going to call telling me they need more information or need to fill out more forms or something! You don't know how happy I'll be when all this paperwork is finally over! I think a little celebration will be in order!!

Forever Family Day (Gotcha Day)

It was one year ago today that we met our beautiful daughter Mia Mei. I can't imagine our lives without her. People say what a lucky little girl she is, but we are the ones who are lucky!

This is Mia's referral picture.

This is a picture of her in China.

This is her just a couple of weeks ago.