HA-HA!! Found a way into Blogger!

.....take that, Great China Firewall!!

We are all doing well! Max is awesome--he's so sweet and lovey-dovey! Lily is having a hard time sharing, but she's coming along. She'll wake in the morning and want to know where Max is first thing. Then it's off to brother-sister spats. :)

I'm having a hard time getting a photo uploaded this way, but you can go to my Flickr site to see some cool pics.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hbsmith/

Itinerary!!

06/24 ~ Atlanta to Tokyo to Beijing

06/25 ~ Arrive in Beijing~~free time

06/26 & 6/27 ~ Tour Beijing

06/28 ~ Fly to Zhengzhou, Henan Province

06/29 ~ MEET MAX IN THE MORNING!!!! & tons of paperwork

06/30 ~ More paperwork

07/01 ~ Free time/tour Henan

07/02 ~ Free time/tour Henan

07/03 ~ Receive Max's Chinese passport then fly to Guangzhou

07/04 ~ Happy 4th of July!! Max's physical and TB test, Max's visa photo taken, paperwork for US Consulate

07/05 ~ Free time/tour Guangzhou

07/06 ~ Visit clinic for TB test to be read & free time/tour Guangzhou

07/07 ~ Free time/tour Guangzhou

07/08 ~ US Consulate appointment, receive Max's visa packet

07/09 ~ US Consulate oath

07/10 ~ Take train to Hong Kong

07/11 ~ Tour Hong Kong

07/12 ~ Depart Hong Kong to Tokyo to ATLANTA.

HOME ~ Max meets Ben (!!!) and Lily realizes Max will want to play with her toys at home. Please note that throughout the trip there will be intermittant prayers that the 2 teens at home aren't burning down the house or just plain trashing it......or worse yet getting into trouble or killed. :) Lord have mercy on my soul.

No really~I'm sure the teens will be fine. :) Our neighbors know we're leaving, and Bob & Sue, our wonderful friends across the street, have volunteered to keep a watch over things.

5 more sleeps!! **the picture above was taken at The Forbidden City, Beijing in 2007.

Happenings

Next week Lily will have her adenoids removed and tubes put in her ears. My sweet baby girl has had 4 ear infections since February. Even after a recent round of antibiotics she still has tons of fluid in her ears~especially her right ear...enough to cause some hearing loss (not permanent). We have to have this done before we travel to China or else the pressure change during the many flights could damage her eardrum or even just cause a lot of pain.

One of the things I love about where I work is that we have Child Life Specialists for each unit. They are invaluable. We call them to come talk to the children about everything~~you name it. They are so amazing at how they explain procedures to children on their level. They make my job so much easier when I have do something that can be scary for a child like inserting an IV or an NG tube or even if a little one's spirits need a lift.

We have some of our itinerary worked out for the trip to bring home Max. We depart for China on June 24th. I'll post our final itinerary this week when I have all the specifics. 11 more sleeps (including tonight) until we leave for China!! I can't believe we'll be a family of 6! Today I washed a bunch of Max's clothes, we went to Targ*t to get stuff for the children to play with on the plane that fit in their backpacks.

We told Lily today that when we return home from China she can get a goldfish for her room. She was so excited! This too will help her see herself as returning home with us after this long, emotional~yet very exciting and happy trip. She'll have to return home to go buy that goldfish (that she plans to name Goldilocks) that Mommy & Daddy promised :)

The picture to the right is a craft that Lily made in preschool a few weeks ago before the end of the school year. She says it's "King Max"~her brother. So cute!!

I hope to find the time and motivation to journal a little more. I started this blog a couple of years ago to journal some really wonderful events in our life, write about issues that we face, and to keep those interested up to date on our happenings. My Grandfather passed away a few weeks ago. And, with working 3 twelve hour shifts a week now, Lily being in preschool, high school sports, appointments, and pet hair....journaling as taken a back burner. We've also had some extended family issues that....frankly...can suck the life out of one's motivation to share. But we're getting back into the grove of things...focusing on what's important. Remembering that we are happy, close, and strong.

We will also be posting photos of our trip on our Flickr site! Max. Here. We. Come!!!

New Pictures of Max!!

Hold on Max!!! We're coming!!!

Hold on to your seats for some major CUTENESS!

Our agency asked for an update on Max on March 9th, and we had been waiting patiently for news. My heart exploded with love and happiness when I opened an email this morning with our adorable son's face looking back at me. I absolutely can't wait to hold him, show him how much I love him, and make him happy.











Lily giggled like crazy when I handed her my Blackberry with Max's pictures~she's so excited and really is looking forward to having a little brother. Lily looks at Max's pictures all the time and talks about all of the things she wants to teach him.

There are so many times when, out of the blue, Lily will ask questions about Max coming home (she especially wants to know when and especially why not right now). There have been times when we'll be shopping in the store with Lily riding in one of the car-carts and Lily will say, (*as she's pointing to the seat beside her*)..."Hey Mama! Max can sit right here next to me!" Last night we were laying in bed watching cartoons, and Lily looked at me and said, "I'm not going to like it if you hold Max". Lily is showing us how she is really imagining life with Max here with us. We have many talks about how nothing can change the way we love our Lily~that we have tons of love, hugs, and snuggles for everyone.

We learned today that Max's foster family calls him "Tao" or "Tao Tao". I like that :) He is active, but shy with strangers, and doesn't like being held by strangers. (great news on the attachment front!) Max loves to take a bath and play in water (a match made in heaven for this water-lovin', beach and ocean dreamin' Mama!)

If you want to hear God laugh....tell him your plans.

Funny how plans change....kinda makes you stop and think about how we really are not the ones in control. Because see...if it was up to me I would still be starting orientation this Monday. I learned this morning that my recruiter put me on the orientation list to start this Monday not realizing that to be JCAHO (joint commission) compliant they need my "official" results from the state~~which is taking anywhere from 8 business days to 3 weeks. I can get "unofficial" results in 48 hours...but....

...I'll just sit tight, concentrate on passing this exam tomorrow, and enjoy an extra 2 weeks of time off. These 2 weeks will be even sweeter since I won't have to study anymore. A blessing in disguise!

We're hoping to receive an update of some sort about Max soon. We think and talk about him all the time....imagining him being here with us. It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to really love a child that you have never even met. So in the meantime we've been preparing for his arrival shuffling teens around. We painted the guest room for Angela. She's all moved in and loving the fact that she has her own bathroom! Mark liked Angela's room since it was bigger so we painted it a color fitting for a young man instead of a teenage girl. Then we decided to paint the kids bathroom. This is done now so we will paint Max's room next week and move the clothes and toys that we've bought for him so far into his room. I had to laugh when Lily looked at me and said, "I want to change the color of my room". Eric loves the New York Yankees~~so maybe a baseball theme for Max's room?? I like boats and the beach~~so maybe a nautical theme??

(Lily took this photo of us about a week ago)

D....T....C..........BABY!!!

New pictures of Max

CCAI sent us a couple of pictures of Max estimated to have been taken June 2008!

And, this last photo we found on the Love Without Boundaries website.

A son and a brother!

On December 5th I was giving my very last presentation in my very last class, but little did I know that of all the families in this world God was paving the way for this little boy to us~our agency called us with news of a very sweet and adorable little boy in Kaifeng City Social Welfare Institute, Henan Province...his name is Guo Wen Tao~and this day just so happened to be his 2nd birthday.

We are all so very excited and feel truly blessed. He's the cutest little bugger, and I can't wait to hold him close and shower him with love and attention.

Meet Max WenTao Smith!! I LOVE those cheeks!! We've already started putting together a package to send to him, and now that we have our pre-approval from China we can send it!

Max had his unilateral cleft lip repaired in Shanghai, and will have his cleft palate repaired here at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Max was also born with an atrioventricular septal defect that has been repaired and his latest ultrasounds show no signal of shunting so there's good reason to believe the surgery was a success. We'll be working close with the pediatric cardiology team at The Sibley Heart Center at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Max has left ventricular hypertrophy and some mild tricuspid valve regurgitation.

Mark and Angela are thrilled to have a little brother! Lily is definitely ready for a sibling to play with~we've been finding ourselves saying "she needs a little brother or sister to play with" a lot more this past year. Join us as we chronicle, "Our Journey: Max Moves West"

Max and Ruby

Lily LOVES Max & Ruby. Recently we've had bunnies living in our backyard, and of course Lily has named 2 of them Max & Ruby (hmm...Max.....what a great name). :o)














This is Lily sneaking up on Max....or is it Ruby?

We have baby birds in a fern on our front porch!