Home with Meighan

As of July 15, I am officially unemployed. After (almost) 10 years (about 3 months short of it) with The Knot, we had decided that I should stay home with Meighan. I've been taking a correspondence course in medical transcription so that I will be able to find a job working at home. There are 5 courses (sections) and I just started the 3rd course. It's very interesting and when I finish I will have had about 240 hours of dictation/transcription experience. They have CDs to practice with that include (I think) 7-10 different accents and all kinds of actual doctor dictation. And, of course, there's all the medical terminology to learn and that is generally done with flashcards. Finding time to study is the most challenging part so far.

Anyway, we're getting back into a routine again after Meighan spent a couple weeks with our moms while I went back to work for a couple of weeks. Looking back now, I would have insisted that they try to keep her on the schedule we had established because now naptime is difficult and it hadn't been before. Kids in an orphanage are on a pretty strict schedule so they are used to doing certain things at certain times. When we met her they told us her schedule but then said, "But now she's on your schedule." So, we tried to get her onto a new schedule as quickly as possible and I think we had succeeded.

If anyone reading this is thinking about, planning to, or in the process of adopting, please keep schedules in mind and make sure to let any new or even temporary caregivers know about the schedule. It will make it much easier for you and your child. If you are used to just picking up and going somewhere, it's a lot harder to do that with a child who is used to a particular schedule. Books that I read ahead of time talked about this, too, so I'm not just talking from my own one-time experience. I'm also reiterating what professionals have said.

On another note, I've been reading a blog lately of a family that recently accepted a referral of a little Chinese girl who is EXACTLY the same age as Meighan! They had left a comment on our blog and now we've also been in contact via email. Their little girl, who they have named "Mei", is in a different province than Meighan was in but their birthdays are both on December 16, 2007! How cool is that? Mei has cleft lip and palate so she will have to have more surgery when she comes home. We hope that someday our daughters can meet. I would guess we'll need to take a vacation to the west coast someday and see that part of the country! Check out their blog http://theskipsgreatadventure.blogspot.com. They sound like a pretty neat family!

Meighan's First Independence Day / Holt Picnic

We took Meighan down to Murdock for the 4th of July parade. I decorated her stroller all up and found an outfit at the last minute so that she could be a "star-spangled girl"! I think she didn't know what to think about the whole thing.








Later in the day we went to watch the Ralston fireworks show. It got too late for Meighan but she watched some of them. Keeping her busy until they started was quite the challenge!

Feeding popcorn to Daddy

Getting tired!

Yesterday we attended the Omaha Holt Picnic at Cooper Memorial Farms. The Korean Presbyterian Church provided the food. We had hamburgers but could also try the Korean BBQ. I did get to try a few things. Some were too spicy but the eggrolls and spring rolls were pretty much like their Chinese counterparts. Meighan liked the little kids' slide. The church did a fan dance (see below pic) and Meighan also got to see cows up close and pet a horse (see pic below).

My mom took the following two pictures of Meighan with Grandpa and her first ride on a 4-wheeler.