Last Paper

Yesterday we received the last paper we need to file for readoption. We'll get it to the attorney on Monday and he will file on Monday afternoon. Then we will get a date for the hearing which will be sometime in November (probably).

Meighan can now climb INTO her crib if the side is down. It's another no-brainer! Once she can climb OUT of her crib, the crib will come down. We already have a toddler bed that I found at a garage sale so we're ready when she is!

She had her first cold since we've been home. She's all done with it. Tony's and mine lingered for a while and I think Tony is pretty much done with his. I am still fighting a cough but it gets better every day.

Let's hope the Huskers can come up with a win today at Baylor! GO HUSKERS!

Two More Teeth!

Meighan has 2 more teeth coming in -- that makes 16 teeth! The tooth just to the right of her two front teeth had not come in yet when we got home from China and the orthodontist that looked at her in the cranial facial team's evaluation said to take her to a pediatric dentist and have it x-ray'd to see if it was there and just late in coming in or if it wasn't there (due to that's the side her cleft was on). I took her to a dentist in May and that dentist did not want to x-ray her and he wasn't worried about it yet. So now that tooth and another one on the bottom is coming in. Now she just needs 4 more molars and she'll have all 20 of her baby teeth! Yippee!

Today Meighan and I went to the attorney's office to drop off more papers and sign the petition for a hearing for adoption finalization. Tony went later on his lunch time. We STILL need another paper from Holt before he can file the petition so hopefully we'll get that late next week. I didn't know we needed this paper until the attorney told me yesterday that we needed it. PAPERWORK, PAPERWORK, PAPERWORK! Wow!

Well, all the deciduous trees on our place have pretty much lost all of their leaves. There are still trees along the roads that have leaves and they are such brilliant colors this year thanks to all the rain and cooler temps we had during the summer! It has rained all day today and will rain into tomorrow. (We've had over an inch here so far.) Then it's supposed to dry off. We need SEVERAL days of dry, warmer weather to get the crops dried up again so the farmers can get their harvesting done.

First Snow

We had a VERY early snow here last Saturday and up here in this part of the county we got about 5" of fluffy stuff. It was very pretty and now it's gone because it warmed up and then rained today. However, Meighan, was NOT too thrilled about her first snow. She didn't want to touch it but on Saturday morning while it was still snowing, she looked up into it and felt it fall on her face. Interesting reaction.

Here's a picture taken later in the day. She wanted out of here!

6 Months Ago Today

We met our daughter, Meighan Beibei Smith, six short months ago today! April 7, 2009, was quite the day. We had to leave the Beijing hotel at 6:00 or 6:30, I think, to get to the airport. Our flight was at 9:00 and we landed exactly three hours later at 12:00 noon in Guangzhou. We claimed our bags and found our guide, Joyce, and got checked into the White Swan Hotel. We were told to meet the Holt people at 2:30, I think. We got in a van and drove to the Ministry of Civil Affairs and met Meighan, a very frightened little girl, near tears the whole time, who didn't know what was happening to her.

These last six months have changed ALL of our lives dramatically. We've learned many things about parenting a toddler (having not gotten to gradually move into that stage) and she has grown by leaps and bounds in her physical and mental abilities. She's a very smart little girl and will probably pass us up in "smarts."

Compare the following two pictures. The first is from Gotcha Day and the second one was just taken last night. It's what Meighan does when Tony asks her "Who's cute?"

No More Bottles/Formula!

Two days in a row now Meighan has basically refused her bottle/formula in the morning. I guess that means she no longer needs it! Yippee! That means no more buying expensive formula! (And I think I can have my counter back now!) She's drinking quite a bit of milk from a cup and seems to LOVE milk -- a girl after my own heart!

The next step will be to potty train her. Maybe it will be easy and maybe not. She sometimes doesn't really like change.

She and I went to the OCCA Full Moon Festival on Sunday and got LOTS of fresh air. We met some new people and even saw some people we knew! Other FCC families were there, too, so that was fun. The Chinese Full Moon Festival is kind of like the American Thanksgiving where they have family reunions and eat lots of food.

Tony raced in a benefit race on Sunday and won his class and then won the run-off between the box and no box class! Pretty good for not racing much earlier in the year!

My progress on my medical transcription class is slow but steady. Still, finding time to study is the hardest part. I just started the last lesson in the third course. Then I have two more courses to go.