First Snow!!

Wow! Two posts in one day! I just had to share these photos of her enjoying her first snow.

Let the Dancing Begin!!!

Megan is going to begin dancing after school on Wednesdays through a Kinderdance program at her preschool. She is SO EXCITED!!! We just had to share the video of her trying out her new outfit.

Now we have had her 6 months!!!

We have been having lots of fun lately. Mary Alice, who is taking Spanish, had fun on Beret Day, Sponsored by the French Students, and immediately made a Beret for our cats to model. Here they are, Jasmine and Misty. For those of you who do not know, Mary Alice is quite a Cat Hat Maker, and some of you have had the privilege of viewing her private collection. Maybe someday she will give me permission to share it, as it deserves a post of its own. It's hilarious. And yes, the cats tolerate this dressing up in good humor.






Megan has been making "soup" at school for the month of November. We made soup at home, both real and pretend, too. Mary Alice loves to play with her in Megan's kitchen.

Below is pie, which she also made at school and of course, I had to make some at home, too! Turns out she loves pie!!!!

I am not at all sure that she "got" the idea of Halloween, but she thought the pumpkin gushy stuff was great. She and daddy are having fun carving at our annual church party.


The finished pumpkins are below, Megan's first, Mary Alice's and then, the amazing pumpkin by Matthew, who worked for hours and hours, even avoiding dinner and dessert to finish!!! It's hard to compete with Matthew!

Mary Alice was a colonial girl. Megan chose be an ice cream cone but only kept the costume on long enough to walk next door, and then shed it, preferring instead the ease of being a pumpkin.........

Here are our neighborhood children. It's cute to see how much Megan is enjoying herself. She had no idea who they were until we showed her one at a time.

Here is a new photo of Bao Bao, (now Sofia), her "sister" from her orphanage in China, adopted at the same time as Megan. Sofia is doing wonderful and is talking like crazy. We keep in touch regularly and recently were able to "see" them over Skype with our webcam. Sofia is visiting an Apple Farm in this picture and is 3 years old.

While we are incredibly happy and think that things could not have gone better in our last 6 months with Megan, there have been some bumps in the road. She is very self directed and determined and we have had to be very strict with her about things she can and cannot do herself. She is incredibly curious (like a certain little monkey) and has no idea about the dangers that lurk around the house or the consequences of her actions. For example, one day I went to unbuckle her from her booster and she happily handed me a feather that she had been sucking on and stripped clean!! I have no idea where she got it from. Later that day, we were in the kitchen and I was loading the dishwasher and I turned about to find her eating old rice (from the previous night's dinner) off the plates! Another time, when I gave her the garbage to clean up some paper she was cutting, she said "Mama, Egg!" and showed me some raw eggs she had pulled out which I had cracked some time earlier and thrown away. Each time Megan gets into something like that I think "wow!" I didn't even think of that as a possible issue. Childproofing seems impossible with a curiousity level like that!! So anyway, I felt driven to create some very safe area in the house (within my immediate view) where she can play without me worrying about what she is doing every second. This resulted in our changing around our furniture and turning our family room into a reading/play room and the living room into the TV, media, Computer, music area. Now I can gate off the living/dining room and feel much better about her roaming around the family room. I also created an area in the basement (with the help of her lovely special ed teacher, Therese) which is simple and easy for her to play in and clean up. It took a lot of time & effort, (thank you Eric, for spending all last Saturday running the TV/Phone lines to the living room! OXOXOX) but was well worth it.

Megan's language continues to expand and she is now putting some 2-3 word combinations together. She is naming pictures in books, and this week has discovered how to move the cursor with the mouse on the computer, AND CLICK!!! without moving the mouse again, which opens up a whole new world of possible activities to her. She has a favorite video on you tube called the Tweenies Wheels on the Bus, and now she can click and replay it over and over!! Her teachers are thrilled with her progress and feel she is doing incredibly well with routines and concept development. She is rote counting sporadically through 15 or so, (not really with 1-1 correspondence), can name the letters A and M, is trying desperately to pronounce Megan correctly and can name most colors. Wow, it's incredible progress in 6 months, even if English were her first langauge.

Matthew and Mary Alice both made it into the Middle School Geography Bee! Only the top 30 scoring students in the school (of about 800) are invited to participate. Last year, Matthew won the Bee and ended up making it to the State competition level. The contest will be the day before Thanksgiving. We are very proud of them. There are several sites with games for studying and one of them includes an interactive "find that state" game. I am embarrased to say that I have no idea where over half of our states are!!! I don't even know which half of the country some are in!! I really need to practice with these maps. I can do some things amazingly well, and that is simply not one of them. And my kid won last year, and yes... he's a biological one!!! Go figure.....

We are getting ready for our annual Thanksgiving Visit to my brother's house in Georgia. We have gone every year since Matthew was a baby. We are all so excited to have Megan join us this year!!! My mother comes from Florida, as well as my sister and her family (who live near us). We have so much fun together, but it goes by way too fast. My brother has a big house so we can all stay together and enjoy the weekend.

Here is a cute video of Megan doing a "magic trick" with a disappearing ice cube.

Language Update & Another Family Dinner

School is going very well for Megan. She really enjoys the singing and movement of the three year old classroom. Her language is expanding rapidly. She is now saying things like "I do", "I sleep", "I eat", "I cut", "Mine", "Myself" and many other "proper noun-verb" combos. She understands things like "We need the umbrellas" and can easily go and get them for me. It's really quite amazing. We can understand many of her words, with context, but her articulation is still very distorted (improving) and she leaves the endings off most words. The sign language is very helpful to us all!!

Iris & Dad hosted a pre Thanksgiving family dinner for us (as we travel to GA to see my brother and his family each year), complete with Turkey and fixings. It was wonderful. We met, Jordan, a friend of the family, who is a very amazing young man. He is 16 years old and fascinated with China. He has taught himself to read, write and speak fluently in Chinese! He talked and played with Megan and they both really enjoyed themselves. Megan seemed to understand some of what he said, and responded a tiny bit in what sounded like some Chinese, but as it was in China when we first met her, she seemed to have not much more ability to make Chinese sounds than she does in English. On the way home she was yelling something that sounded like "I love Jordan (jah jah)!" making me laugh.

Here are some photos. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of Megan and Jordan, although he offered to baby sit anytime and I will definately take him up on it and get a picture then!!

Sue & Jim

Silly Megan!

Mary Alice's Birthday Party

We celebrated Mary Alice's 10th Birthday with a few friends at a local riding stable that she loves to go to. She has been riding there for three years, and she really feels comfortable and at home. She is suddenly seeming so much more grown up to me. She and Megan are developing a loving and fun relationship and it really brings me joy to see how much they like to laugh together.

Megan looks a little stunned in this picture but she loved riding!!!

I think this is a beautiful set of photos.

Here is her American Girl, Kelsey, in her new western riding outfit (thanks Grandma Judy), saddle and hat!

Re-Adoption Day

On Tuesday, we went downtown to the courthouse for Megan's re-adoption Ceremony. Despite the glowing photo, the morning was anything but calm as Matthew aggravated a pulled muscle in his neck getting up out of bed and was writhing in pain, and Mary Alice was sick for the 2nd day in a row with a miserable cold. Everyone was rather grumpy, and I did not know what to do with two very unhappy, uncomfortable children and a court date at 10:30 downtown. I called the pediatrician's office in desperation and ended up taking them right away to the doctor and just making it in time to the appointment. It turned out to be nothing too serious for Matthew, but at least we learned how to treat it and Mary Alice was reminded to use her nasal spray and it has helped a lot. All of us are feeling better. It happened to be that Eric's dad died 13 years ago on this very day, so we had lots of mixed emotions. He would have loved Megan Ling.

I recently bought a webcam to talk to my mom in Florida! It works great and Megan loves it. Mary Alice does not like to feel so exposed though, and runs away 50% of the time. Her is Megan talking to Grandma Judy!

Mary Alice will turn 10 next week, so we had a family dinner last weekend to celebrate hers and Iris' birthdays. It was the first family dinner I felt I could host in a long time, I guess I have been feeling well over my normal limit. It's been hard to keep up my normal level of expectations. September is a difficult month for me each year and this year I have had so much to do. I went back to my organizing business, working with clients on Tuesdays and half day Fridays, and it is really a lot of pressure for me. I love doing it, but it may have been better if I had given myself another month. I am really watching what I am committed to and trying to say "yes" very sparingly.



Megan is doing so well, I can hardly believe it. Her language is really blossoming and she uses so many signs and vocal combinations. She is starting to put three and four word sentences together and is generalizing all kinds of things. She still does not have 1-1 correspondence, but she loves to count 1-2-3! She loves to sing and we can get her to cooperate with us even if she doesn't want to, by turning it into a song (which is exhausting, but nonetheless, a good technique). Her special ed teacher suggested that she try going to the three's class at preschool, instead of the fours and see how it works for her. I agreed to try it last Monday and she did great. It is a much better fit for her at this point and we will see what happens later. They are focusing on concrete skills of colors and shapes and counting and she is not too far over her head. In the fours it was just way too abstract. She is happy no matter where she is, and she loves her school and all her teachers. These are her new teachers.

Miss Sue

Miss Laura

This is a creation that Megan made out of blocks! We have been home with her for 4 months now and in January it will be a year since I first saw her face on a photo. I can hardly believe it, yet, I cannot imagine my life without her. What a blessing and so much to be Thankful for.

Open House

I had to go to Mary Alice's open house last night and meet her teachers. Eric was out of town, so Matthew and Mary Alice watched Megan for me (for the first time without me in the house) and put her to bed. Successfully!! She was sound asleep when I came home at 8:30pm. What a pleasant feeling to know that they could handle this and (it appeared to me) enjoy their time with her (without bickering)! Here are some some pictures they took of their fun.

It was just about now when Megan said "Pee Pee!!"

Mary Alice's teachers are all enthusiastic, creative and dedicated. She has a wonderful team and is going to really enjoy her year in 5th grade. She is off to a really great start with locker management, using her agenda, practicing her trumpet and getting all her work done independently. I am so proud of her.

This is a picture of Megan holding one of the babies at out church. Eric and I volunteer in the nursery a few times a month. She absolutely loved holding Hayden (he was very accommodating).

Some of the children cried when their mom's left them and later Megan imitated them and it was very funny. Here is a video of her doing that.





and here are some more silly things that we are doing. I especially like the way that Eric is in the background of the second video, telling Megan to stop throwing the food she doesn't want on her plate. If she finds something that she doesn't like, she will NOT keep it and tries repeatedly to hand it to someone. We usually have to give her a "discard plate" to use.....

So here is "Singing Hot Sauce":




And "Singing Sour Cream".

More Busy Times in September

Here are some new photos of Megan's teachers. This is Miss Therese, her Special Education Teacher, who comes into her preschool classroom to work with her 2x a week to help her with academic readiness and language.



This is Miss Lori Ann, her Physical Therapist, who comes to the house once a week and to her school once a week. They work on things like climbing stairs, jumping backwards, throwing, kicking and catching.

This is Miss Mona, her Occupational Therapist. She works with Megan at her school on pre-writing skills, matching, and visual skills.

Megan loves all of these wonderful women and gets so excited when I tell her which day it is. They are all working with her on expressing her needs and wants through language and signing. They are telling me that they see progress with her each day. We do too, as she is always "explaining" things to use, accenting with her signs. She consistently uses so many signs now, it's much easier to understand her speech, which makes communication so much less frustrating.

We took a big step backwards with toileting though, as she started having numerous accidents (not making it to the potty in time), which freaked out Mary Alice, and set in motion a big power struggle such that Megan would refuse to go when she obviously had to. I finally (with the advice of her pediatrician) put her back into Pull-ups and stopped paying any attention to it other than a quick question here and there throughout the day. I forbid Mary Alice to get involved and told her to ignore the whole issue. That has helped a bit, and the accidents have decreased significantly, although I think it will be several weeks or more before we can reliably go back to her wearing underwear.

For the past 3 weeks I have given temporary foster care to this adorable kitten as a favor to my nephew who asked for my help. She was pretty sick with fleas, ear mites and tapeworms, and she required quite a bit of maintenance and an expensive trip to the vet. She was very sweet and appreciative though. I wish I could have kept her, but we already have two cats and our alpha let us know very clearly that there was no more room in our house for her!! I really can't afford three cats anyway, (time or money) so it was not a possibility. We were able to take her to the SPCA this weekend and were told that she would very likely be adopted quickly. I hope so. She is a very deserving soul.

Megan took this silly picture of Matthew.

Megan and Mary Alice had a great time with shaving cream. There is a really cute video below the picture to really see the fun.

This weekend we went to a block party, and it rained the whole time. It did not stop Megan from having fun though, she played around for hours, riding her bike (and all the other tricycles she could find), up and down the street.

Back to School and a Lost Tooth

Hooray, it's the first day! We celebrated with our annual cupcakes with the neighbors after dinner.

Best Friends

At the Bus Stop

Today was Megan's first day of Speech. Here she is doing "colors" with Miss Dana!

And while shopping at Michael's Crafts today, Megan lost her tooth! (when we picked her up in China she was missing one of her front teeth and the other was a little wiggly. She must have fallen at some point and been unable to protect her face.) It will take years for the new ones to come in, but I think she looks very cute. The tooth fairy will bring her a present tonight and she is very excited about it.

Busy Few Weeks

We went camping last month and it took me several weeks to regroup (put things away and prepare for school starting)! Finally, I have time to post a few photos. We had a great time. Here are Matthew and Mary Alice preparing brownies for our trip. Amazing that we actually had any to eat! They were very delicious.

The van was stuffed to the maximum, but we all fit in.

Fun in our site. The weather was wonderful the whole time.

Mary Alice is racing to get out of the picture before I can take it!!!

Megan fits right in.

Grandma & Grandpa (and Whisper) went too. We go camping with them each year and we love it. They had their own site "next door". Thanks so much to Grandma, who planned all the dinners with Mary Alice. I felt quite overwhelmed this year, packing and watching Megan, so without her help I don't see how it would have been possible.

We have a "3 room" tent. It works out great. Especially with no rain and close to the "flushers".

Lunch on the trail.

Fun at the Beach (still camping).

Mr. Sandman

Daddy and Megan kayaking.

And Matthew catching crayfish. He and Grandpa got in quite a bit of fishing time this trip, too.

Today we went to the Zoo. Megan enjoyed it, but it was very hot... Here are a few highlights.







and finally, a new picture of Fia, Megan's "sister" from Chaoyang, who was in our travel group and adopted at the same time as she was. She's sporting her first Pigtails, a very notable occasion. As does Megan, Sofia looks so vibrant and healthy. She is doing great.


School starts Wednesday for us all. Matthew and Mary Alice are off to 8th and 5th grades and are both in the same Middle school now.

Megan's services start on Wednesday at home and she begins her preschool with all the services before and after, on Thursday. It's going to be a very busy first few weeks. I will be back to work with some organizing clients as well. Hopefully, we will have a smooth start!