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...!

10 Years Ago Today...

Tony and I were married in a lovely ceremony that was part of a very fun day. I remember we needed rain very badly at this time 10 years ago. People were saying it would be OK if it rained on Saturday but I said, "No! Wait 'til Sunday!" It was a sunny, slightly overcast day but it didn't rain. We were even able to take some pictures outside!

We have been through a lot in 10 years! We've gotten to travel some (Florida, California, Colorado, South Dakota, Kansas, Ohio, North Carolina, and probably some other states that I'm not specifically remembering at the moment, 2 cruises (Bahamas and Southern Caribbean), Mexico 3 times, and of course CHINA!). We doubled the size of our house (mostly by ourselves and learned a lot in the process) over about 5 years. We lost a cat and added two. We added a daughter. Tony started his own business soon after we got married and he's been doing that most of our 10 years.

I don't think we could have made it 10 years with all we've had to deal with without LOVE.

HAPPY 10th ANNIVERSARY!

Here We Go Again!

(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.)

We have started the process for another adoption from China. It isn’t a new thought for us as we have been thinking about it for a year now. Although we haven’t actually sent in the application yet, we have it ready to go for when we have “enough” money saved to cover the initial expenses – app fee, home study fee, background checks fees, etc. We will be socking away money as we have it.

Mother's Day Pictures

Here are a couple pictures from late yesterday. They don't tell you how our day went. I'll spare you the pictures of the front of our car after rear-ending a pickup on the way to brunch, which we never made it to. We ended up having to call a tow truck and my parents came to pick us up and take us home. We had KFC for a late lunch and Tony's parents came up later with angel food cake and strawberries. Oh, well. I hope it doesn't take too long to get the Bravada fixed.

Mother's Day -- My First Full Year of Momhood

My second Mother's Day! Wow! How time has flown! We have a beautiful, playful, intelligent little girl who we met just 13 short months ago. Today she has beautiful black hair that blows in the wind (instead of the short "peach fuzz" she had then). She's grown 6" and gained 6 pounds! She LOVES balls and will probably play soccer someday. She loves music and dancing so she'll probably be on stage someday in some capacity. She's also quite a monkey so she'll probably be in gymnastics someday. Whatever she ends up doing, I want to make sure she enjoys it and isn't doing it just to make me/us happy.

I look at her (sometimes I can't help staring!) and am amazed at her every day. We are completely (and wonderfully) oblivious to what she SHOULD be doing at her age so we have been able to "meet her where she is." The one thing we wish she were doing now is talking. We realize that she hasn't heard English her whole life but she understands almost everything we say or ask her to do. We are told she's not behind in talking "'cause my son/nephew/cousin's kid didn't talk till they were 3." Every child is different so she'll talk when she's ready -- and she'll "talk in paragraphs" as her speech therapist says!

Being a mom has changed my life in so many ways. I've had to get used to a new schedule -- sometimes with no particular goal for the day! That was kind of difficult for me since I've had to go to work every day for how many years? I remember the first Monday after we came home. We were still dealing with jet lag. Tony went to work. I got up and got ready, got Meighan up, gave her breakfast, dressed her and set her down in the living room. Then I thought, "Now what?" We had a few toys but we'd only known her for less than two weeks! What did she want to do? I don't remember what we did -- other than take a nap! -- that day, but I guess we figured it out!

Now, she likes books, Elmo, Yo Gabba Gabba, dancing, running, being tickled, being outside, blowing bubbles, balls of all kinds, music, lasagna, ice cream, chocolate (like Mama like daughter), laughing, climbing anything, drinking from a straw and sleeping in her "new" Big Girl bed since this past Friday night. We are working on other "big girl" things, too.

She's moving into 18-month sized clothes. She has wonderful fine motor skills. She jumps, balances on one foot, stands on top of her "bike" seat and balances, kicks and throws balls pretty darn accurately, does somersaults and doesn't miss much of what we do.

I have enjoyed seeing her learn new things. Recently, I taught her:

"Here is the church,
Here is the steeple,
Open the doors
And see all the people."

Then I wiggled my fingers (and so did she) and then I added "DANCING!" It's pretty cute. She tries to copy the "hand jive." Someday (soon?) it will be cool to see her do it full speed! She also likes to fold her hands, bow her head, close her eyes and help us say grace at mealtime.

My, how she has blossomed and changed and grown in the 13 months since we met her! I was watching videos of those first few days a while back and can't believe the changes!

I wonder what the next year will bring for her. I wonder...