Milestone

As of today, we have had Meighan longer than she was in the orphanage. Tony sat down a while back and figured this out.

I often wonder what her life would be like if she had been raised by her birthparents.

Currently, she enjoys watching (parts) of Disney movies such as "The Little Mermaid," "Snow White," and "Finding Nemo." She also likes a video that was taped at Disney World with the characters and some kids doing various beach songs and dances. She doesn't quite get the non-instant gratification of rewinding the video tape, though! She has accepted it more lately but more often now she is requesting the DVD movies.

Last Monday, she and I went to our friends from church house to play with their 18-month-old daughter. Aubree usually tends to cry when someone other than her immediate family picks her up, but I caught her in a pretty good mood at one point. I picked up Meighan and said "take our picture!" Both girls (13 months apart in age) weigh the same right now -- 23 pounds EACH! I was holding 46 pounds! See the strain on my face?

Application Sent (Taken)!

(The following post was written in a notebook but not actually posted on the blog until we received our referral because we didn’t tell our family that we were in process. We waited until we had the referral for our son before we published on the blog because we wanted to do this “covertly” and have it be a surprise to as many people as possible.)

Misty Blue Eyes’ 6th Birthday! Can you believe we’ve had Misty for almost 6 years now? Wow!

Well…today we dropped off our application to Holt to start the process for a son/brother. We don’t have a name decided yet. It isn’t as clear as a girl’s name was for me. We’ve been throwing out name ideas to each other for a while now. When we heard or saw or thought of a name, we’d tell each other. We just don’t know yet, but we will probably keep it a secret until we return again. That’s something we CAN control in this crazy adoption process!

Happy 4th of July from the Smiths!

New Look for Blog

For quite some time I have been wanting a 3-column template for our blog. Finally, Google came up with a new template designer that allowed for 3 (or even 4) columns. I looked at the designs, colors, layouts and finally decided on this one with 3 columns. Our blog is now wider and I have also deleted most of our slide shows of our trip to bring Meighan home. I kept "Gotcha Day" and "Coming Home" 'cause I really like those! I also took a couple of the gadgets from the very bottom and put them on the left side. The archive is easier to get to at the top on the right side.

I hope these changes make it easier to see our blog. I hope to keep adding to it for quite some time!

Father's Day and Other Pictures

Here's this year's Father's Day picture. We are really liking the fact that she has more hair this year. When we take her shirt off for bathtime or pajama time, she looks "up" and turns her head back and forth so that she feels her hair on her back. It's kinda cute.


And here's a few other recent pictures.

Saying Grace.

I had gone to a motivational seminar on Monday and my mom stayed with Meighan. She didn't/wouldn't take a nap. However, while we ate supper (she didn't want to eat right then), she was leaning up against the couch and we realized it had been quiet for quite some time! Tony looked in on her and she was finally asleep! Standing up with her head on Mickey Mouse.

Article About Holt's "China Child of Promise" Program

I recently received an email from someone at Holt who had found our blog online and wanted us to write an article about our experience with Holt's China Child of Promise program. I wrote something up and it is now online. You can see the whole enewsletter here and click on the article about Meighan from this page.

Look How Far She's Come!

A year ago, Meighan wouldn't have anything to do with her bare feet on grass, but now...

And today, we attended the Nebraska Children's Home Society's free family event called "Sand in the City" and look what she did today...!