Birth days

When my daughter Meagan gives birth one day in June she will be having a little girl. Here is their first family photo. The ultrasound was so thrilling to see, she is so perfect in every way. She had her little legs crossed so daintily, except when she gave a few great crotch shots to make sure we knew she was a girl. She even waved at me and blew kisses. :-)
Last week was Laina's 17th birthday. Oh my!

I feel like she should really only be 16, because she is a sophomore, doesn't have her driver's license yet. She wants it, had read the handbook and said she really didn't understand it and with the DMV issues going on now I really don't want to go 3-4 times, wait 3-6 hours each time as other mothers have told me the situation is recently. Plus I want Steve to take this project of teaching her to drive. Her and I had a couple of serious talks Friday and Saturday. She gets very moody and quiet around the holidays extending to her birthday. She thinks she gets more homesick and thinking about her Ukrainian family. She has been waiting for weeks for a letter that has yet to come. At first it was (and still is) difficult not to take personally. I thought it would be things like holidays and birthdays here that would be some of the best days for her and they would be a distraction to her homesickness. In 6 weeks we will celebrate the 3 year "Gotcha Day". These talks we had hopefully broke down some barriers between us. There were tears and honest feelings shared. Yesterday she gave me permission to read her autobiography she wrote in October for school. (That was hard for me to not take personally, knowing that her teacher, who wasn't even aware a couple of weeks before that she was adopted or from Ukraine, and her great tutor whom she had only known for a couple of months and helped her alittle with the writing, had access to these tender memories and feelings of her heart and as her 'parental' as she often refers to Steve and I, was denied that for a time). Then she let me read it to the rest of the family later in the evening. It was wonderful and heartbreaking to get some greater insight. Part of our talks included telling her I didn't know why this is 'our life', (lots of details were shared) but I told her one thing I did know and could not deny that she was suppose to be here and part of our family. And that involved God making it happen. At one time she said "I am glad I am here, I'm sorry I don't always show it." My response, "I'm glad you are here too, and I'm sorry I don't always show it." It is something to look forward to someday have a greater understanding to life as we know it.
We celebrate as a family her birthday and Steve's yesterday with a Sunday dinner. It is wonderful to have everyone together.


Lauren made a major purchase, a new couch for her apartment. The one she had got at DI last year had seen its days. She is getting settled in her new place and very excited for her freedom.