Thursday

Today we started answering a series of questions to find out where Meikiina tests in a chronological age. Tonight we only did a few sections, but Melissa said she's scoring very high. This is a test that is done on Meikiina by asking Gregg and me questions.

Tonight in group time our story theme was of birth family. I started out by telling Meikiina that she has two sets of parents (which of course she knows). I said the first parents she had we call her birth parents. They are in China and are the ones that gave birth to her and gave her things like her birthday and her looks. Her second parents are her dad and me. We are her parents right now and we will be her parents forever. We love her and will never leave her and will be a part of her life forever. I told her that we know that she was a good baby, because she is with us and we have seen what a good baby she was. I told her that I know her birth parents loved her very much and that they also knew what a good baby she was. They said that she was very loved and that with many tears she was placed in her finding spot because they did not have the ability to care for a baby at that time. They said that she was a very good baby and that she was not sick and that they hoped that she could be adopted by someone that could give her good care. I told her that I knew this, because I had a note that said that her birthparents had said this and asked her if she wanted to see the note. She said yes, so I showed her the note we had received when we went back to the orphanage when she was 4 years old. She took it and looked at the Chinese writing on the original note and said, "I don't understand this writing." I'm certain she knew, but I told her that's Chinese writing and we don't understand that, but that it had been translated into English and we could understand that. I told her it might be a little hard for her to understand even the English translation and if she wants I can read it to her, but she didn't want me to at that time. She looked at the note and read part of it and seemed to be very pleased.

We also talked about how poor people in China are and that we think her Chinese family is probably very, very poor. I told her that we might sometimes say that we are poor here and that we don't have a lot of money, but that we are not poor at all compared to people in China. We tried to explain what type of house they might live in and what kinds of food they might eat if they are very poor, and how little food they might have. I told her that we will always have enough food here. We will never be hungry and we will always have clothes and a warm house. I also showed her the outfit she was found in, which she had never seen. She picked it up and smelled it and then put it next to her chin and just cuddled in to me with it.

On a different note. This is a conversation that we had in the car. Meikiina always talks about California and the earthquakes and Florida/Texas and the hurricanes. She talks alot about that she will live in both of those places. When we were driving home Gregg said something about Kansas being tornado alley. She picked up on that right away and kind of questioned it. Then when we dropped Gregg off to get the other car and it was just me and the girls in the car, Meikiina started asking about Kansas again and what is a tornado. I explained to her what a tornado is and she said, "I am going to live there some day." I am going to live in California at least 10 years, and in Florida and Kansas at least 10 years too. I said, "All those places have things like earthquakes and tornadoes, why is it that you want to live in those kinds of places?" She said, "So then people can see how brave I am." That was another heart breaker for me. The poor thing.