Day 6 with Mia (Saturday)

After a somewhat rough start, we had a pretty good day. Let's just say that we had to go and buy some prunes for Mia!!! The picture below is the result of an exhausting morning for her.




She actually rode in the stroller today and gave mommy's back a much needed break!! We went for a walk to the park and decided to give the stroller another shot. This is very good news because tomorrow we are going to the zoo and the stroller will be much better than carrying her the whole day.

This is our new friend, Nia, and her parents Joy and Todd from Pennsylvania.

Back to Starbuck's sporting my new jacket - it was a bargain!

Dinner at Lucy's again tonight with my friend Jovie and her parents DeDe and Paul from Greensboro. I ate fish and rice - but I'm not too crazy about french fries, yet.

Starbucks! Day 5 with Mia

Today (Friday) has been pretty uneventful. We gave Mia a bath (which she absolutely hates), went shopping a little, and then to Starbuck's. Mia entertained a lady from California who is here visiting a friend. Tomorrow we do paper work and Sunday we are going to the zoo. Sorry I don't have more exciting pictures to post - it has been a pretty boring day. Love you Jacob and Zachary!!!! Justin - you are good to go (know what I mean???).


Mia's firtst trip to Starbuck's. She likes latte`s and blueberry scones.

Feeding mommy a piece of scone.

The shopping street from yesterday.

Our friend, Jovie, soon to be from Greensboro, NC!!!

Day 4 with Mia

Picture from yesterday (Wednesday) taken by a family from Hampton, VA.


What a smile!!!!

Wow! What a busy day. First we went to the Chen Clan Academy - see the pictures above. It was cold and rainy so we had to wrap Mia up in her jacket plus mine. Next we went to a shopping district - very interesting. The Chinese people there took pictures of us with our babies and older ladies came and covered all of the babies up with our blankets and coats. We bought Mia another pair of shoes - this time with squeaks in the soles. She looks down at them when she takes each step. When we got back to the hotel we were all very tired and took a nap. We were woken with a phone call to come back down to the lobby to go for a chicken pox vaccination. One of the children in our group has chicken pox so we all had to go and get shots. You can just imagine what she thought of that!!! While we were at the clinic, they went ahead and did her physical exam (which was scheduled for tomorrow). She screamed through all of that. She weighs 22 pounds - which is what I predicted based on her previous weights. All in all I think she handled the exam pretty well.

We have seen a little progress with Mia and Chris. She let him feed her cherios at the clinic and even smiled at him. She is on the bed right now eating cherios with him and fussing in between each one. BUT - that is some progress. Maybe she will let him hold her tomorrow. Tomorrow we have a totally free day because we had the physical exam this afternoon. More shopping maybe? Or another run on the tredmill? We'll see.

Hope our Virginia friends and family get to see some snow tonight and tomorrow!!!!

Day 3 with Mia

Today we shopped until our meeting at 3:15pm. We bought a few outfits for Mia and some gifts for other folks. She continues to be a good sleeper both at night and at nap time. I actually got in a short tredmill run while she napped.
I believe we got her passport picture taken today - I don't know - they say show up on the bus with your passports at 3:15 and that's what we do. Thirty minutes later, we show up at this official looking building, answer some questions, sign our names, and get back on the bus. Tomorrow we are going to Chen Clan Academy and Shangxiajiu Shopping Street. Hopefully we will have some more exciting pictures to post than just Mia sleeping. She is playing with blocks and cherios on the bed right now while Chris is out picking up some dinner. We're dining in tonight. She's been fussy and I'm tired of carrying her all day. We bought a baby sling thingy but it's not such a good one and it hurts my back. She screams bloody murder in the stroller - but we are going to work some more on that!!
Love you Jacob and Zach - have a good day at school and have fun at choir practice!!!

P.S. Remember - we can't read your posts while we are here for some reason - but we can get emails at mdfearno@uncg.edu

technical issues

Hi everyone,

It seems we are having issues accessing the blog from our end here...we can no longer view the blog or the comments you have been leaving. We can however continue to update! So going forth, we will update it without being able to view it ourselves with the hopes that everybody else can view. Please feel free to send any comments to Mel's email address (mdfearno@uncg.edu). Take care and God Bless,

Chris and Melodie

Pictures first, report second

Reality kicks in

We had a great first night - she slept from 9:30pm to 6:30am. I wish I could say the same. I guess this time change and jet lag has my sleep all messed up. Chris slept well though, so that's good.

I think reality set in for Mia today. When she woke up, she just looked around in shock. She cried a lot today and was very clingy to me. But as you can see above, she let Chris hold her briefly today and feed her some Cherios! He held her for a fair amount of time AFTER she fell asleep this afternoon. Baby steps - I think she is coming around and I'm glad he got to hold her today.

Today we went back to the Guangzhou Center for Adoption Affairs (not sure if this is the official name) and had our pictures taken with Mia for the official record. She screamed and cried the entire time, so that should make for a good one! We were asked questions about why we wanted to adopt from China by several different officials. I guess we passed b/c they let us keep her. Tomorrow we don't have anything to do until 3:15pm - so maybe we will have time to shop or go to the park.

Thanks for all of your emails and comments!!!! They really help us feel connected to home. Love you Jacob and Zachary!!!!!

Weiling (Mia) Kenney is here!!!

Okay, the first picture wasn't taken right away. The ones that follow are a better representation of our first introduction - cry, pout, stare, stare longer, grin, smile, laugh, and repeat. Chris served as an excellent photographer because Weiling is not very familiar with men just yet. I know it won't take long though.

Safe and sound in Hong Kong

Hi everyone! We made it to Hong Kong with no problems - unless you consider a 16 hour flight a problem! I hope we only have to do that one more time. We have checked into our hotel, the Regal Airport Hotel, which is very nice. It is 10:53pm (Sunday night) here and 9:53am there. I hope we can sleep tonight. We both slept a little on the plane, and they fed us well: steak & veggies for dinner, steak sandwich and ice cream for a snack, and fruit with cheese omelet before we landed. No need for all the snacks I packed (not yet)!

The best news (as Maria Bakeman predicted) is that we get Mia tomorrow (Monday)! We leave the airport at 8:30am (7:30pm your time) and drive to the China border. We have to do some immigration checks there, and then it is a 1:45 minute bus drive to the White Swan. We get Mia some time after that, so I will try to post pictures tomorrow night - which should be sometime Monday during the day for you.

We've met some nice people from Pennsylvania and Hampton, VA. Everything is going well so far.

Hugs and kisses to Jacob and Zach!!!! We'll get your sister tomorrow!