A Clear Sign

Monday, July 6, 2009

First Independence Day

Sinclair enjoyed her first 4th of July! We relaxed most of the day, trying to let her get as much of a nap in as possible so she could stay up late for the fireworks. Every year, we go to a huge fireworks display in Veterans Park. This year we met some friends from church there and reserved our spots on the lawn. We brought KFC and some fruit for dinner and hung out with the crowds. There is always a band playing on stage and booths to play and eat at. Brevin was in Tennessee visiting Matt's dad for the holiday, but nevertheless we all had our own flag tee in different colors to wear for the occasion. Sinclair ran around with the other toddlers, chasing bubbles, etc. We always see a lot of people we know from the community and so it's a great time even while we are all waiting for sundown. Sinclair absolutely loved the fireworks! She oohed and ahhed and clapped and jumped up and down. It was so cute. She really is getting very expressive and animated. She had a blast!

posted by The Smiths at 1:28 PM 0 comments

Friday, June 5, 2009

18 months old

This was taken when Sinclair was exactly 18 months old. It just took me awhile to post it!

posted by The Smiths at 10:36 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Sinclair's Dedication video--Finally!

Watch below or go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU_85G8WJsA

posted by The Smiths at 4:41 PM 1 comments

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Sinclair's First Easter

Sinclair's first Easter home with us was so much fun. We died and ate Easter eggs, attended the Hickerson family annual Easter egg hunt, enjoyed our church service and ate a delicious brunch at Marie Callendar's with Grammy and Boo-boo.

Sinclair had a great time. It was so funny to watch her try to figure out what to do at the egg hunt. She could barely reach for the eggs, and then she didn't want to put them in her basket. She wanted to play with them--shake them and throw them. She had no idea there was candy inside of them.

The Easter services at church were quite different than a normal Sunday for us. Madison was in the service as she and some of her junior high group were going to be prayed over before leaving for a service trip over Easter break. Anita was dancing in the services, so Daddy had to bring the family. Mommy laid out all of the children's clothing, so Daddy knew what to do. Sinclair began calling out "Ma, ma!!" when she saw Anita on stage and Matt almost had to take her out of the service. Afterwards, we were in such a hurry to get over to Marie Callendar's before a huge lunch rush that we didn't take any pictures in all of our special Easter outfits. Sinclair looked adorable in a beautiful lavendar dress, but we'll have to get pictures of her in it on another day.

posted by The Smiths at 9:29 AM 1 comments

Monday, March 23, 2009

Six Months A Smith

Sinclair has been part of our family for six whole months! Wow! We had our 6 month post placement visit with our social worker. We told her how well Sinclair has attached to us and all the updates on her health and development.

Now that Sinclair is so well-attached, we are starting to see her branch out some. She has begun to make eye contact more with people outside the family who talk to her and will even babble to them and point at things to show them. She gets down and runs around when we are out in public much more, too. In fact, this weekend, we were at a party at the Chelliah's (the hosts of her birthday party), and she was going into the house without a parent and playing with the kids while we watched from the patio window totally amazed. It was great to see how secure she is now in our relationship. She still does not let too many people outside the family hold her for very long. But as our social worker has said, that's really a good thing.

As far as talking goes, she has her word "Ma" which means everything. She looks right at Matt and says, "Ma!" She looks at Madison and says "Ma!" She points to something she wants to show any of us and says "Ma!" She has many other ways of communicating and believe me, she gets her point across. She recently learned to shake her head "no" and that has been helpful for all of us (less screeching to listen to when she doesn't like something). She also knows the sign language for "more" and uses it anytime she wants something. She is beginning to imitate words, but nothing that she uses regularly. But that's okay...after all, she listened to Chinese for the first 10 months of her life!

We are so proud of our little daughter for all the changes she has experienced over the last six months and how God has woven her into our family. We can't imagine life without her!

posted by The Smiths at 5:03 PM 3 comments

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Valentine's Day

Valentine's day is a family thing in our house. No romantic dinner for Mom and Dad here. But that's fine with us. We enjoy loving on our little sweeies. Grammy Stockard came by, and look how cute she and the girls looked all in pink.

The kids had a home-school Valentine exchange at Chuck E. Cheese. One of the kids made Sinclair her own bag to receive Valentines, too.

We divided up Sinclair's candy between the rest of us, but I did allow her to eat her first lollypop. Although half of the sucker was drooled down her bib, she loved it. (Jen W., pretend like you didn't see this.)

posted by The Smiths at 8:59 PM 2 comments

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Chinese New Year

Happy New Year! This is officially the year of the Ox. We had a great time celebrating this occasion with the Landinos, the Hickersons and the Mellem kids. Who would have thought that when we met the Landinos 11 years ago at Taylor Hickerson's first birthday party that we would someday travel to China with the Landinos to adopt our youngest daughters?