A Clear Sign

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.)

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?

Julie Landino, Dee Hickerson, and Anita


We had a wonderful evening eating Chinese food and enjoying a few Chinese traditions together.



Ivy Fu Chen Landino


Ella Landino, Sinclair, and Eden Hickerson

Nathan Landino, Brevin, Matt and Sinclair

Claire Landino, Eden, Ella, Caleb Hickerson, Taylor, Paige Landino, Madison, Katie Mellem and Hazel Mellem

On January 25th, 2009--the anniversary of our log-in-date and the day before Chinese New Year--we had the privelege of dedicating Sinclair Bo-Zheng to God.
It was a beautiful day! Sinclair was in a great mood as we waited backstage before the church service began. Our children's pastor, Lauren Matt, introduced all of the babies being dedicated in that service as we stood on the stage.
Each child's full name was said and each member of the family was introduced as they showed a picture on the screens of each baby so that the congregation could see them well. Those in the audience who knew the families were asked to stand and reach out a hand as our lead pastor and friend, Matthew Cork, prayed over each child and laid hands on him or her. When he got to Sinclair, he paused as he was choked up with emotion over her and the miracle that she is to us and us to her. It was a touching moment for all of us and for those of our family and friends who were there.

Our friends, Kyle and Shana Beym, came to the ceremony with their four daughters. The Beyms became dear to our hearts during our adoption process as Anita baby-sat their eight-week-old daughter, Isabella, in order to earn some extra money for the adoption costs. In the meantime, they were blessed with three more girls before we finally had Sinclair in our arms! Here are the Beyms and Smiths from back row, left to right: Caitlin, Shana, Olivia, Kyle, Penelope, Matt, Madison, Sinclair, Anita; and front row, l to r: Isabella, Brevin, Elijah.
Another special thing about the day was that us Smith girls all wore our pearls which were purchased in China. (Anita was completely unaware of this as Matt had another dad buy the string of pearls for him while Anita was pouting disappointedly because Matt wasn't letting her buy anything at the pearl showroom!) This was all planned between Matt and a friend of ours from church, Carolyn McLean, who knew how excited I was to buy some pearls in China for Sinclair and also for Madison whose birthstone is pearl. Carolyn (pictured with the girls), who is a jewelry artist, then custom-made the pearls into bracelets for us for Christmas. The talent and sentiment she has put into these bracelets is just precious. Anita's pearls are interspersed with "love knots" and there are a heart and a ladybug charm dangling from the clasp. Madison's bracelet also has a heart. And Sinclair got two bracelets: one to wear now with a tiny heart charm and one for when she's older with a piece of jade in the center that we also bought for her in China.


After the church service we had brunch with our parents back at our HOA clubhouse. We prayed together, ate, and then read some Scriptures to Sinclair. Each family member chose a special verse that they wanted to share with her for this occasion and which we will put in her baby book for her to refer to in the years to come. We also read the life verse we have chosen for her. It is Lamentations 3:22-24 which says, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore, I will hope in him.'" God has truly been faithful to all of us as he brought us together as a family, and we hope that Sinclair will learn to trust and hope in Him whose love for her will never fail.