Then and Now

One year ago, on May 1st, we received our first pictures of Meghan through email from our adoption agency. One year ago we were trying to imagine what her personality was like. We started shopping for her and preparing for our trip to bring her home. One year ago today, we were beside ourselves and realized that we were finally going to complete our family. Little did we know how much joy she would bring into our lives. Meghan has been with us for a little over 9 months now and everyday has been full of changes and surprises.

Meghan has grown a lot since she came home and she continues to thrive. She is now running and loves to be on the move. She has great receptive language and can identify things when asked. She is also starting to talk more and more everyday. This past week she said her first 2 word sentence! Meghan has also taken a liking to role playing with her stuffed animals, especially her Snowy. Snowy is her stuffed Snow Leopard that we gave her from Build a Bear. She puts Snowy in her rocking chair, booster chair, and on my lap all the time. Yesterday she laid Snowy on the floor and put a blanket over her. It was too cute. Now I am waiting for her to "steal" a diaper and put it on Snowy. Meghan has recently begun to notice that she wears a diaper and will point to it. She also knows where they are kept. She calls her diapers, bupers. I guess that means we will be ready to start introducing her to the "potty training" activities sometime soon? She is growing up! It is hard to imagine her as a little baby anymore!

I still follow the China adoption program and was disheartened to learn that they only matched families up to Jan. 13, 2006. The program has really slowed down and we feel for all of those who are waiting. We are happy for those who did receive their referrals. MJ and I talk about the ever growing wait and are thankful that we only waited 18 months. Our wait was long, and even at one point disappointing, but that disappointment was extinguished a month later when we received Meghan's referral. We cannot even fathom a 2 1/2 year wait. People would always tell me when the wait started growing for us, that everything happens for a reason and at the right time. They were so true. When we think back, if we would have not sent our paperwork when we did, we could have waited longer or still be waiting. We took our time completing our paperwork because I was in school and wanted to be as close to graduating as possible. At the time we were paper chasing, the wait was at 6-9 mos. The wait for me did not become long until I finished school. Then it seemed like time just dragged. Finally in May, we were blessed with our sweet little girl and she was meant for us. There are a lot of rumors that part of the wait is due to the Olympics and that some of it is because more domestic adoptions in China. I am convinced that it is a combination of the 2 and hope that it speeds up somewhat after the Olympics. It will be interesting to see what happens after the Olympics are over. We are grateful and thankful that we are a family now and continue to keep those waiting families in our thoughts.