Avery: Tells us something about a classmate bugging her.
The Hubby: “Well, you can’t control anyone except…”
Avery: “YourSELF! I KNOW Dad!”
Kieran: “And ROBOTS!”
Jan
20
Here we are, a couple weeks into the New Year and writing seems to be slipping away from me. There have been a variety of things going on including getting our first application off to the ministry of Social Services for the adoption. The first of many steps! Taking deep breaths now.
I have been researching preschools for the fall for Kieran and alternately being excited for him to take that step and freaking out because mah baybee is growing up! OMG!
Of course there is also the post-Christmas-dead-of-winter funk which I know I’m not alone in feeling. Tired of cold and winter parkas and lack of sunshine (although better than we’ve experienced in the past several winters in Ontario and Boston) and trying not to make myself feel better by stuffing my piehole with leftover Christmas goodies.
On top of all this I am realizing that we have almost hit the 6 month mark since we left Boston. After moving 3 times in 3 years I should have been better prepared for the 6 month blues. But I wasn’t. I thought it would be different because we were moving home. Each time we moved the first few months are hectic and confusing and stressful with trying to get settled and figure out a new place. Finding out where the grocery store is, getting set up with doctors and schools and dance classes and playgroups. It’s all very overwhelming. Six months is when things have settled into a routine and our lives calm down enough to start missing home. Or missing our last home, wherever that was. Because regardless of the location, it’s natural to miss what had become familiar and comfortable. And even though Saskatoon is familiar, our life here is, of course, different than it was before we left the city. We live in a different neighbourhood, our kids are older and attend different (and more) activities than they did before, the hubby has a different job (and twice as many), and most importantly, we are different than we were.
Now that our life has calmed down I have enough time to have increasingly frequent twinges of longing for our most recent home. They come without warning, while driving down a street, while hanging out with friends, while at the store or the park or gymnastics class. It’s not that we are unhappy here or wish we hadn’t moved. But I am a creature of habit and I can’t help but long for routine. The familiar places and people here are awesome. It has made the move so much easier. But the last few years have also taught me to greatly appreciate new friends and wonderful experiences and opportunities that we have had elsewhere and while I wait for Saskatoon to once again feel completely like home (from my experience, this usually sets in around twelve months post-move) I am trying to remind myself to be patient.
It’s amazing how predictable this process is – at least for me. I shouldn’t be surprised. But I am. And the reality is that this is a different type of life entirely than what we were living in Boston. Both have their pros and cons. It’s easy to miss the good things and conveniently forget the difficult things and I am very aware that what I’m missing is partially selective memory. I know that six months from now I will very likely feel much more settled and content. It’s all part of the natural progression of feelings associated with such a big move.
So that’s where we’re at. Pre-adoption. Pre-preschool. Six month post-move blues.
Jan
7
Here’s the thing: I think 2010 (and possibly the following couple of years) is going to be full of patience-trying obstacles and frustrating bureaucracy. I’m trying to prepare myself because being ready for it takes away the initial sting if not the full ache.
And now I know some of you are totally scratching your heads and wondering what the hell I’m talking about. So here it is. 2010 is the year our family begins the journey of adoption. We have been discussing and planning for this for years. We intended to start the process years ago but, as you know if you have been following me for a while, we started moving across the country, south to the states and there was no way for us to begin without being settled in a location for the foreseeable future. Well, now we are settled and have done our initial research in choosing a country and learning more about the process and we will be submitting our first application to the government in the next week or so. That is the beginning of the waiting.
The waiting is what I am both trying to prepare for and realizing there will be no preparing. All you can do with waiting is try and distract yourself. But you still have to wait. You can expect to hear a lot about the waiting here.
I haven’t yet decided how much I am going to say about the process yet, or if I’m going to talk about the country we’ve chosen or other aspects of the journey. I may share all the details or only some. But I am really excited to finally be taking steps to bring a third child into our family and I wanted to post about it here.
And here are a few pictures from Christmas because I know everyone likes a little bling and I am not always good about posting pictures.
The tooth fairy FINALLY visited our house. Avery was thrilled!
And then the tooth fairy was back for a second tooth not long after. The tooth fairy is going to have to take out a line of credit. Avery is quickly learning that loosing teeth is a fairly lucrative business!
Avery’s look of horror upon opening the big box she thought contained a piano only to discover the wine glasses and umbrellas daddy had hidden inside.
The kids on Christmas Eve, dressed in their Christmas best. I love Kieran’s hat. My uncle called him Hinz Giesbrecht (a really menno sounding name) at our family gathering because he thought the hat was 100% old school German Mennonite. I still love it.
Jan
4
I have laughed.
I have laughed at people who naively read things on the internet and believed that forwarding an email will pay for a child’s cancer treatment or that they can cure baldness with a simple pill.
I have laughed at people who see an ad for teeth whitening products set up as an alleged interview with someone from that person’s hometown saying that in these hard times they have found the “secret” to whiter teeth by combining two products which are conveniently available for a “risk-free trial period” for only a couple of dollars shipping.
I have laughed when those people found themselves suddenly signed up for monthly charges of over $150 because the trial period ended before the trial product was delivered (since it was coming from Florida) and $25/month for some sort of Bargain-Dining-Coupon-Book-Club which is somehow related to the now-slightly-more-risky-looking teeth whitening products.
I have laughed when said people have found these charges on their visa statement and freaked out because they thought their visa numbers had been stolen and proceeded to call Visa and have a new card number issued before they realized that they had, indeed, approved the charges, even if it was a rather underhanded trick by the devious teeth-whitening people.
I have laughed when the same people have spent hours on the phone to opt out of what seems like half a dozen membership programs and argued with teeth-whitening agents in order to have their money refunded and their memberships cancelled.
I have laughed when they then realized that the new visa number had not been as necessary as a level head and a tad more vigilance regarding whiter teeth giving out one’s visa number.
I have laughed.
But I will not laugh anymore.
Not that I would ever be bamboozled by a flashy campaign for whiter teeth an internet scam. I’m just saying.
