I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. 1 Samuel 1:27

2008-01-23T10:37:00.000-08:00

Thank her brothers for this!!

2008-01-23T10:10:00.000-08:00

Mia and Alex.

2007-10-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

Thank you Uncle Larry I love my jeep!!!!!

2007-10-05T12:49:00.000-07:00

Are you talking to me???

2007-06-08T06:02:00.000-07:00

Tea time with Paw Paw

Playing with my cousin Linda

Learning how to blow bubbles is harder than you think.

Much needed rest after a full day of playing.

We have been home a week with Mia already and she is doing great, she is such an added blessing to our family. Mia wanted me to let you know how much she loves her paw paw!!!!!

2007-06-01T19:15:00.000-07:00

Jacob and Mia.

We have made it through our first full day with Mia home and it went really well. The boys are so sweet to her and she seems to really enjoy the attention most of the time.

Morning hair

This is Mia wearing a pillow case dress, the pillow case was one my Maw Maw Rita had made for my sister so she had Mia and Little Linda dresses to match.

Alex and little sister Mia

Haden and Mia

Mia and Maw Maw

2007-05-31T07:15:00.000-07:00

This was Mia's first time swimming she didnt like it so much but was o.k. as long as she sat on the side and I was right by her. Mia and her daddy who she just adores it is so sweet to see the way she looks at him. Its amazing how fast she has bonded to us she is such a blessing and Im so excited to see the boys get to know her.

She didnt want to take a picture but I thought it was cute anyway.

We are leaving from LA in a few hours so we will be home later today I cant wait to see everyone its been a long two weeks. We are all feeling better so thanks for all your prayers and I will let you know how it goes the first few days at home. I just want to say also that God is so good!!!!!! Life is certainly not perfect but I can praise my God knowing is has blessed me more than I deserve. I wouldnt want to go through this world with out Him..

2007-05-30T22:36:00.000-07:00

We haven't been able to add to our blog spot while we were in China. Something happened that disabled us for being able to log onto the blogspot. We have however finally arrived in Los Angeles. Although it was a long flight, 12.5 hours, it wasn't that bad. Mia did very well except that she wouldn't let Sherry hold her on the plane at all. That meant that I had to hold her for the entire flight. Even while she was sleeping! Anyway, we are checked into our hotel and Nate is staying with us for the night. We are ready to get home and see everyone. These pictures are from on the plane, in the airport, and at American Consulant, (that is the picture with Mia holding onto her visa). Can't wait to see everyone! Good nite for Los Angeles.

2007-05-27T08:14:00.000-07:00

Mia taking a bubble bath. She is finally getting to be okay with taking a bath, especially since I let her bring all of the toys in with her. Please keep us in your prayers, Sherry and I are both not feeling well. Mia on the other hand is getting better. We are closing in on the end of the china journey, only 3 more days! I am ready to come home, as I know Sherry is also. Boys, we miss you very much and can't wait to see you! Will write more with more pics tomorrow. Bye from China.

This is the look that everyone needs to get used to. This is the look you get when you try to talk to Mia and she doesn't know you. She has eyes that can be as sweet as candy or cut like glass.

This is a picture of a huge ship that was handcraved out of Jade. It is in the lobby of our hotel.

More beautiful landscaping and garden areas. This is all along the streets. They even have landscaping like this along all of their interstates. They seem to take great pride in making sure the landscaping looks beautiful.

This is a picture of on of the streets in the area that we are staying. This is a kindof garden area that is in the median of the roads. The area we are staying in is an island. It is very European style and very beautiful. It is considered a tourist area. Our guide told us the way back, this area was ruled by the british and then the french. The hotel we are staying in, the White Swan, is extremely nice. This is the hotel that houses all of the american presidents, other countries politicans, and famous people. We have been eating most of our meals at a restaurant called "Lucy's Bar and Grill". It is the only "western food" around.

Wore out after a long day! Mia still doesn't like to goto bed, just like Haden! But she is finally sleeping alot better. She doesn't like to use a pillow, probably never used one before.

2007-05-26T05:47:00.000-07:00

Hello today was our first full day in Guanghou and it rained off and on all day so really didnt get out much. Our guide wanted to do our medical visit and visa photos today so we were up early to get started. Mia doesnt like to be touched by strangers so she had a rought morning, she was the only baby who cried for the visa photo what should have taken 5min took almost 30min. She gives the meanest looks to people when they get to close then she looks up at us and smiles she something special. As you can see all that crying wore her out she took a really good nap. Then we also filled out our visa papers so our guide will take them Tuesday to the U.S. Consulate for us and make sure everything alright so we can get Mia's visa and head home. The trip is starting to get alittle long and we are missing our family at home.

We bought a stroller today for 50bucks and Mia loves it everytime we stop she gets mad she wont even sit in a high chair to eat she stays in the stroller.

What a smile!!!!

Mia is feeling better but now Michael and I have colds, I think its the same as she had. We started our antibiotic today Mom I gave Michael the three day stuff from the black market and I took the real stuff from my doctor so we will see if it works faster. Did I mention its Shannons birthday and she is the best sister ever and I can only hope to parent my children as well as she does in fact she is in the process of writing a book on parenting is called "Front Porch".

Abby Im so sorry to hear about Hannah ear I hope she is feeling better.

Hopefully the rain will let up and we can get out of the hotel room it seems to get smaller as the days go by. Thanks for the comments it fun to read them and we appreciate your prayers alot they must be working Micheal and I are still speaking.(ha ha) Cant wait to see everyone when we get home and see how Mia enjoys her new family. Good Night...

2007-05-25T21:28:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Shannon!
we miss you so much and wish you were here with us right now.
You are such a good mother, I know I could use your help with parenting. Your children are so good and such a blessing you are truly an example to follow. If you have any time when we return home please come over and help me with Mia. Your wisdom and guidence would be truly appreciated. Again happy birthday!

Your Loving Sister Sherry

2007-05-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

Well we made it to our last city. I included a picture of Mia and mom on Mia's first ever plane ride. She did so much better than we could have imagined. The only hard part was playing with her for the entire flight! She demands constant attention. One of the other pics is of her running in the airport. She was happy to get off the plane! We are checked into our hotel. It is extremely nice! Like a Ritz-Carlton compared to the last place. We will be off in the morning for medical exams and pictures for her visa. Then we will be touring to the town. We will send more pics tomorrow. Boys, we will call you early in morning, which will be your night. Good nite from China! Mike and Sherry, aka "Mom and Dad"

2007-05-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

Well we on our last day in NanChang. It rained all day yesterday, that is why no post with pics. We spent most of the day at the hotel. Today we went to Walmart. I included some pics from this adventure. Everywhere you go here, no matter what the time, it is always crowded. This Walmart is much like ours except for the pictures I have included. One of the pics is of pig tails, one of chicken feet with peppers, and one of duck feet. I think we would have a hard time finding these in our local Walmart. I included a picture of Mia on her first of many many trips to Walmart. The rest of the pics of Mia are in the room. No matter what mood she is in when we are out, she brightens up and gets very happy to be back at the room. I think it may seem like a safe place for her. Even though she likes being in the room, as you can see in some of the pics, she still throws tantrums like a normal 2 yr old. She is a very stubborn little girl. In these pics of her crying, she wanted some bread that she was eating, but didn't want to walk 3 steps to get it. Instead, she stood there and cried for about 5 minutes. Good thing she will have brothers to bring her everything, b/c she likes things delivered right to her hand! She is calling both of us by Baba and Mama, and is even starting to listen when we call her name "Mia" rather than her chinese name. We are packing up to leave for our last destination in China, "Guangzhou". Our flight leaves in a couple of hours. We are going to miss our guide, Cindy. She has been great! The other couples on our floor in the hotel are alltogether in a group with one guide. They are very jealous that we have had our own "personal" guide. I hope that our next guide will be a good and patient as Cindy has been. Alex, we are going to get Cindy to write Mia's chinese name for us so that you can get it tatooed on you. However, we asked Mia and she said that you can't get it on your back, she wants you to get it on your right butt cheek. Ancient chinese tradition! We hope all is well at home and work, and again thank everyone for your help. This trip has been an unbelievable experience for us, especially Mia. She is truly a God send! You'll are going to absolutely LOVE her. She is so much fun and so very sweet. I am proud to be able to raise her as our own, one of our family! We will try to post more tonight when we get to the other hotel. Bye for now!

2007-05-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

2007-05-23T23:11:00.000-07:00

These pictures are from last night at dinner and back at the hotel going to bed. Mia was teaching Sherry the art of using chopsticks at the restaurant. We were kindof nervous about the food, however, we are finding it to be okay. Okay to Sherry, very good to me. Our guide, Cindy, explained to us that in this part of China, most of the dishes are very spicy. She kept warning us about the food being "very very spicy". She went to eat at the restaurant with us last night. She ordered some kind of spicy potatoes and she thought that they would be to hot for us. They were very weak in the spicy catagory. We need to bring her some real spicy food from Louisiana. She couldn't believe that I ate everything that she did. I think that she is used to dealing more with people from up north because the couple across the hall from us were complaining about how spicy everything was. I am still looking for a scorpion on a stick. I want to try that, saw it on a discovery show once. Cindy said that this part of China doesn't eat scorpion, mainly in Hong Kong. Today, Thursday, it has been raining all day. Not much to do. Sherry and Mia are finally taking a nap and I am about to scare my guide by going on an adventure walk by myself. They get scared when I go by myself. Not because they think that I will get robbed or anything, but only because they think that I will get lost. This city has over 4 million people, and Cindy told us the the policemen get off of work at 5:00pm everyday. Crazy, that many people and they don't seem to have any crime! I hope to get out and try to take some more pictures for everyone to see. Most of the pictures have been in the hotel room because Mia has a chest cold. Please keep praying that she will get better quickly, especially before the plane rides. To our boys, PLEASE continue to be helpful to Mawmaw and Pawpaw. They are doing our family a favor by watching you for us. Be thankful that you have them. Also, please don't think that your mother or I would ever love Mia more than you. We were just as happy the day each of you was born as we are about getting Mia. Don't think that Mia is just for mom, she will be a part of each one of our lives. She will be your sister for the rest of your lives. Pretty awesome when you think about it. She will be going from an orphanage to family with 4 brothers who will all love and take care of her. Haden, you better move over in the bed, Mia kicks and moves more than you!!! Will send more pics tomorrow. Bye for now, and remember that we love you all very much and are missing you too!!!

2007-05-23T02:47:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! We are still doing fine, and Mia is doing better and better with us. She does have a chest cold, so please pray that the antibiotics that we are giving her will help her to feel better. She ran fever most of the night and probably explains why she has had a hard time sleeping. We only had one meeting today and it was here at the hotel with a notary. Only took about 10 minutes. For the most part, we had an off day which was good b/c Mia is not feeling well and cranky. I did venture out by myself to the Walmart. Our guide didn't want me to go by myself, she thought that I would get lost or not be able to figure things out. It was quite easy, however. Their Walmart was very interesting to say the least. I was able to get Mia a play cell phone which she likes alot. I also got her some squeaky shoes, most of the Chinese toddlers wear these. They make noise with every step. Mia didn't find them as cute as we did. When we put them on her, she just stands there and cries. She won't take a step. Maybe later she will come to appreciate the "squeaky shoes". We were able to goto the porcelian shop area. This province that she is from is known throughout China for their porcelian tea sets and vases. We got Mia a beautiful hank painted tea set that we will be able to give her later, maybe for a wedding present? Some of the pictures are from a tourist attraction by our hotel. The building was built over 1200 yrs ago by a prince. Beautiful architecture and landscaping. In one of the pictures, if you look close, you can see a ferris wheel in the distance. It is the largest ferris wheel in all of Asia. It looks to be close to 15-20 stories tall! Well, we have to go meet our guide, Cindy, for dinner. We are going to bed early tonight, therefore, probably will not be able to call tonite. Hopefully Mia and Sherry will finally get a good night sleep. Tomorrow morning at 10:00am, we will be going to visit the village that Mia was born in. Should be fun. Will send lots of pics. We love you all and can't wait to be home with Mia and all of you. Boys, please continue to be good for Mawmaw and Pawpaw. Little Linda, our guide says that you look like you may be a little bit Asian? Said that you and Mia look the same when you smile!!! Bye!

2007-05-22T06:42:00.000-07:00

More pics!!! Today was a long day. Not alot to do where we are, and the hotel room gets small. The pics of the city are from a window in the hall of our hotel room. It's amazing how huge this city is. As far as you can see from 26 floors up, all you see is buildings and city. And the crazy thing is that our guide says this is considered a small city, only around 4 million! As you can probably tell through these pics of Mia, she has no problem expressing all the typical emotions. One minute all smiles, the next minute nothing but mad, the next minute nothing but sad, then back to smiles again. She still does not like going to bed. We were able to get her down for a 1 hr nap and that was about it. Our guide, Cindy, works with couples like us 5 days a week. She went walking thru the city with us tonite and said that Mia is doing exceptionally well with us. She will only let Sherry or I hold her or touch her. She is very shy to strangers, but warms up quickly. I think that tomorrow we are going to goto the village that they think that she came from. They told us that there is not much there, very poor area, however, we want to get some pictures to be able to show her one day. Thanks again to everyone for your support. We are ready to come home allready, yet still have 7 more days!!! Keep sending us responses on this page or email us. We really enjoy reading and hearing from everyone.

2007-05-22T05:56:00.000-07:00

Princess Linda says she can't wait to celebrate the arrival of the new Empress. Linda says there will be dining, festivals, and swimming.

2007-05-21T22:57:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, well it is day 2 with Mia. It was a very long nite. Although she played and was happy most of the night, when it was time for bed, she wasn't a happy camper! We know it will take her time to adjust to sleeping in a different place. As you can see, this is her crying when Sherry is trying to get her down for a nap. Todpuay, we went to a park in the middle of the city. It was very beautiful. The Chinese people seem to take great pride in their landscaping. It is absolutely beautiful. Very symetrical and orderly. After the park, we took her to the local zoo. Our guide told us that she has probably never been to the zoo before, or even seen different animals. She was very taken by the monkeys. Our guide tells us that this is because she was born in the year of the Monkey. Before the park, we had to goto a department store to buy her shoes to wear. She didn't like putting them on at all. After showing her that she couldn't walk around unless the shoes were on, she gave in a wore them. Now she likes them. She seems to be walking fairly well, although, she does show signs of not having been walking very long. Very unsteady. Probably because of the hip surgery and being in a cast for awhile. I believe that she will be fine, she is walking more and better today than yesterday. She got another bath when we came back to the hotel, and this time she didn't cry the whole time. When we came back to our room this afternoon, we meet a couple from Connecticut across the hall from us. They had just recieved a 7 month old little girl, their first. Very exciting. I believe that there is 5 or 6 couples on our floor who are adopting. Princess Linda, I can't believe how much Mia looks like you! Even though she is Chinese, you both smile and laugh the exact same way! Our guide told us since Linda is all ready the "princess" of our family, that Mia would need to our "empress". Will post more pictures later. Nate,Alex,Jacob, and Haden, remember that we love each of you very much and miss you. We can't wait to bring Mia home to be with you'll. Thank you Rodney and Linda! It is a real blessing knowing that our boys are being taken care by you while we are so far away. To everyone at Southeast Flooring, thank each of you for your hard work and dedication, without each of you, I wouldn't have been able to come on this incredible journey with Sherry. To all of our friends and family, please continue to pray for us. Pray that Mia will continue to draw closer to us each day and that we will have good travel in the upcoming days. Talk to you later!

2007-05-21T05:02:00.000-07:00

More pics for everyone. We are finishing up our 1st day together, getting ready for bed. Mia is doing awesome! She is all ready calling me "BaBa", which means daddy in chinese. She seems to be very comfortable going to the both of us, which should make things alot easier than we thought. I put pictures of some of the food that is on the awesome buffett at our hotel. Deep fried bullfrog, chicken feet, pig feet, sea jelly fish, sauteed squid, and lots of other wonderful dishes. We ordered steaks off the menu. Mia's favorite seems to be watermelon and a dish they call "congee" which is like oatmeal. We spent most of the day in offices completing paper work. We have the whole day tomorrow without meetings. Our guide is going to take us to the park and maybe the zoo. Should be alot of fun. We will probably goto see the village Mia was born in sometime in the next couple of days. She is doing so much better than either of us could have imagined. Everywhere we have been today, everyone tells our guide how beautiful she is. She seems to be somewhat demanding and bossy, should fit in with our family very well. Haha. You boys are in for a treat! Although quite a handful, she truly is more beautiful than we could have ever imagined. Remember to keep us in your prayers and thank God for His wonderful blessings!

2007-05-20T21:47:00.000-07:00

After all this time, we are finally together! She is more perfect than we could have imagined! She cried alot when she had to come to us at first, it was very sad. We could tell that she must have been very well taken care of. She didn't want to leave the orpanhage directors arms. When we got back to the room everything changed. We actually got several smiles. She loves the bubbles that Sherry brought. She has an absoultely beautiful smile and a sweet personality. We know that it will not be all smiles, however, the first one was very encouraging. She is very talkative and very smart. Congratulations Nate,Alex,Jacob,and Haden, you have a beautiful little sister! To all of our family, congratulations! Thank you all for your support and love. If it weren't for all of our family, we wouldn't have been able to bring this beautiful little girl home to be a part of all of our lives. Mostly we thank God who makes ALL things possible, including this! Happy birthday MiMi! What a special day to have recieved Mia Joyce. We love you all and will keep everyone posted and new pictures coming!!! Please continue to pray for us!! Especially Mia.

2007-05-20T05:11:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, we are now in Nanchang safe and sound. We met our new guide today her name is Cindy she is very nice. She will be helping us for the next few days here. It is hot and humid here feels alot like home we walked around alittle bit today in the middle of the city and once again we got lots of looks it feels alittle funny to have people look at you so long. Then we have no idea what they are saying about us, Michael said just pretend we are movie stars and he wants to be Nicholas Cage....We also went to the store and Cindy our guide called the orphanage to see what we need and Mia is still on a bottle, formula mixed with cereal and in diapers. We go to a government office in the morning at 11:00 to get Mia and the orphange director will be there and give us all the info on her we should need to care for her. Im alittle nervious about how she is going to react to us and preparing for the worst. Mia might cry all day and not want anything to do with us so please pray that her transition with us will be as smooth as possible. We are going to take lots of pictures and will post them through the day hopefully she might have a smile in one of them. One picture is of our food on the flight to China lets just say im glad i brought a power bar on the plane with me and the other is of some ladies that were touring the Forbiden City at the same time we were and we asked if we could take a picture with them. They are from a sourth province and that is their traditional dress, the metal is real silver and the wealthier your family the more the girls would wear. It you can tell its bells the have on them and they jingle when they walk. We miss everyone alot and I hope you boys are behaving for Maw Maw and Paw Paw and we cant wait to bring your sister home.

2007-05-19T05:36:00.000-07:00

Today we went on our first outing in China. Our guide was very nice and full of information, he had a driver for us who looked about 19 and thought he was in training to become a race car driver. The roads are full of people walking or riding a bike and they are not scared to get really close to the cars. We visited Tian'anmen Square and the Forbiden City(Palace Museum) then we drove to the Great Wall about an hour away. The history of China is very old and interesting im really glad we were able to visit a few parts of it. We leave on a flight in the morning at 11:50 to Nanchang, this is the capital of Mia's providence and we are suppose to meet her the next day . We are repacking and getting ready to go to sleep i will post soon. Good Night from China.

2007-05-18T09:14:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone we have made safe to China, the flights were long and many. When we finally arrived to our hotel we both were very tired and felf dirty so we just showered and went to sleep. The airports here are huge and beautiful and we were stared at quite often. Michael is almost a foot taller than almost everone so he does stand out among a crowed. Our hotel is nice when where in the room and Michael was seeing if he could get the computer working and i was getting my stuff to get a shower the electricity went out in our room. So we clicked all the swithces to make sure and sorta laughed then i went in the hall to see if it was just our room and was trying to ask the cleaning lady but not many people speak english so its more of hand motions game. I finally under stood her, when we walked into the room the first time our guide put our key in a key holder by the entrance inside our room then left, well when Michael saw it a few minutes later he took it out to put in his wallet. If you remove the key you lose power to your room . When i walked back into the room to tell Michael he was already on the phone with someone from the front desk who didnt speak english so i hurried and told him just put the key back and we will have power. So he was trying to tell the lady never mind but it took a few minutes to just get off the phone with her because she was still trying to figure our what he wanted. He just kept saying sorry my fault never mind over and over untill she finally hung up. So far everything as gone smoothly but continue to pray for us we will meet Mia in a few days and it will be awsome to be able to hold our little girl. We meet our guide in the morning to climb the Great Wall and tour some other stuff , i will start taking lots of pictures.

To our boys we miss you guys and love ya'll, we will call soon.

2007-05-15T21:43:00.000-07:00

For months we waited to hear the news that we had been approved for our travel to China and now its just one day away untill we board the plane. At times it seemed like this night would never happen but here it is and im still not packed. We will try our best to keep everyone up to date on whats going with us doing our trip and hopefully post lots of pictures. Please pray for our travel safety and for Mia as she is about to go through alot of changes in her life. Oh and for my parent who will be staying with our three boy while we are away. China here we come!!!!!!

2007-05-04T08:20:00.000-07:00

Mia was born in Jiangxi, China on December 26,2004, she has been living in the Yongxiu orphanage. We were able to send her a cake for her second birthday with a disposable camera and asked if they would please take some pictures for us. It was such a joy to see the updated pictures of Mia with her cake and they also wrote us a letter with some info about her. They say she is bright and happy and weights around 25lbs.

2007-05-03T15:52:00.000-07:00

This is Mia Joyce Schoen waiting for her mom and dad to come get her and bring her home.