birdgirl, In my previous post I said "colon" but what I really meant was "double forward slashes" (//). I did say it was your meta-refresh code. It's working fine now. I was able to tell it was the meta-refresh code because it did not redirect properly so I checked to see why.
I just wanted to say that this was a great thread! I just recently had to decide if I wanted to renew my website or not. I am at about the same place in terms of pages of content and traffic. I was feeling discouraged. But I also got some support and have had my faith renewed that this will work out given a little more time and a little more effort. So keep up the good work!