Random

I got this in an e-mail this morning and it made me laugh out loud -

If you have a child with autism, then you know that life is NOT like a rollercoaster ride. It’s more like hanging upside down on a triple corkscrew that makes sudden and surprising stops in shark infested waters.

Random thoughts,

-  Eric and I are reading through the educational component of our home study requirements, OK, I've read it all and I'm now sitting with Eric while he muddles through on the computer.  It all seems so needless after three adoptions.  I could do a better job writing a lot of the articles.  Grumble, grumble.  This home study is turning out to be the longest one in history.  We let our agency know 1st week of Aug. that we were ready, and were assigned a social worker two weeks ago and we still haven't heard from her.  I'm slowly picking my way through everything we can get done on our own.  It's tedious for sure. 

- My van had some glitches and Eric has been working on trying to figure out the cause.  He finally stopped changing fuses and put in a new fuse box.  Voila!  A whole new car.  Everything works beautifully.  I'm loving the van.  Not so much the parking of the van but the concept. 

- The roof is done!  Just needs ridge cap done.  The section over the utility and sun room needs done still but it actually needs to be rebuilt, so I'm not so sure he'll do that this year. 

- If Little Guy moves into Fei's room, and Fei goes into Lili's room, Lili to the toy room, the toy room to the guest room and finally the guest room to the apartment, that means we have five rooms to re-do!  Yikes.  Also means the storage in the toy room and guest room have to move to the cubbies in my room.  Oy.  So, I'm rummaging through, sorting, culling, junking and the house is getting messier and messier by the second.  Last night it finally occurred to me that perhaps I should be cleaning for the social worker visits instead of making big messes. 

- Jia continues to visit with Tia, hugs her bowl everyday and tells us she just lubs her.

- Halloween this weekend.  Planning to ride the train.  Trick or Treat in town on Sat.  Lili has a B-day party on Sat. and the big girls have a piano party to go to on Sat.  No clue what a piano party is, need to question their teacher tomorrow at their lesson.  Lili is a sheriff this year, Fei is a sorceress (a good one) and Jia is Minnie Mouse.  Actually I bought Jia everything to be a clown, she hated it.  Then bought her a Winnie the Pooh and she hated that more.  Showed her five costumes from the dress up box, she rejected them all.  So, she is wearing her Minnie Mouse dress because she likes it NOT because it's a costume.  Lili, Fei and I are perplexed at her dislike of Halloween.  We did decorate the mantle last night so we're ready.

Jia's 1st pet.

Keeping the fish safe for the ride home with a seatbelt.

Fish bowl - 4.99, blue rocks - 2.99,  goldfish food - 1.99, water purifier - 2.99, goldfish - .19cents, joy in this small child - priceless. 

Setting up Tia's new home.

Hugging Tia.

Introducing Jia's first pet, Tia the Goldfish.

Three kids, two dogs, two cats, two rats and one goldfish. 

Jia asked for a fish and it's not the first time.  I wonder if Elmo and Dorothy's relationship is involved with this desire.  I told Eric I wasn't interested in cleaning a fish bowl but he thought he could manage so this was his thing with Jia.  I just tagged along and watched the fun.  Eric and I have never had fish, have no clue.  Frankly I'm a bit surprised the fish managed to survive the transition at our hands.  I'm also totally surprised at how much Jia loves this fish, she so, so, so badly wants to hold her and watch tv together. 

The big girls were away for the weekend at a Camp Q retreat.  They were with friends and had a great time.  Jia missed them terribly but we managed to have some fun together without the big girls.  She was delighted to tell the big girls about her fish before we got home and then she took them to meet Tia immediatly.  So sweet.
 

Tofino

Crazy amount of stuff for two nights!

Eric took out a chair and put down a carpet for Isabel, who rode in style!  Do I ever love the mini-van for road trips. 

Tonquin Park.

Girls loved having Gramma and Grampa with them.

View from our room.  Unfortunatly it was foggy the whole time and it was hard to see the ocean most of the time.  We lucked out with the weather, only rained at night.

Permissions to surf and promises not to sue.

 

How cute are they?!!

 

What a happy face.

Part of their audience.

Good luck Girlies!

Jia refused to stay warm and dry.  Kids.  I ended up taking her in and Eric and Mom stayed out to watch the big girls.

Jia was so happy they came out of the water, they were just walking back down the beach, they kept drifting further along with each ride in.

LOVE this picture!

$304 a night and this is how the kids had to sleep :)

Amphitrite Point Lighthouse in Uclulet.

I think I may have mentioned a while ago that I won a trip to a resort in Tofino.  Raffle ticket for the Cowichan Caregivers Support Society.  Anyways...Eric and I aren't totally thrilled about the other side of the island.  Loud crashy waves, cold, wet, just in general not our idea of a relaxing good time.  But free is free, so gave one of our three nights to my parents and booked our weekend for Mom's 65th Birthday.  It's a staggering amount of work to pack up for a weekend.  Same amount of work for a week or two as it is for a day or two.  I wish I could blog about upcoming events, the packing, the planning, the anticipation, which is all half the fun but for safety reasons, I try to just blog after the facts which isn't as much fun to write about.  So, last time Eric and I were in Tofino was 17 years ago, we arrived at an rv resort and our truck and camper wouldn't fit in our spot, it was busy so ended up at the golf course overflow.  Experienced our first theft from a campsite (lawn chairs from a set).  Had a mouse come up through our stove, eat some of Eric's Birthday cake and then ran over his face while we were sleeping.  Ya', that didn't go over well and he spent the rest of the night hunting the mouse.  Then we went for a tour to an island with a hot spring on it with an advertised 15minute hike.  The boat we were on was really rough, I was a couple weeks pregnant and miscarried on the boat (this was during our time at the fertility clinic in Victoria).  Then the hike was actually two hours, finally made it to the spring and it was totally sulphur, so almost unbearable.  The temperature was too hot for both of us.  Then on the ride home the people running the tour decided to show us some whales and proceeded to follow them relentlessly, which I just couldn't stand.  We were pretty happy to get the hell out of Tofino to say the very least.  So, for this trip, we weren't expecting much.  We packed a ton of food and lots of things for the kids to do in the room.  We were very pleasantly surprised to see that the old fishing village has become all about surfing.  Lili said right away that she wanted to try.  So, we looked into lessons and the price was steep but Gramma was with me and offered up half.  Turned out the price was for the instructor, who was willing to take both kids for the same price.  Fei wasn't thinking she wanted to do it but she went along with the plan and I think was pretty happy by the time they got out there.  We didn't know for sure if they would be allowed to have the lesson, they needed to check out the water conditions before they would let kids out there.  We went to town and then to Tonquin park for a hike.  We didn't hear that they could go out until after lunch.  There is nothing cuter than my sweeties in wet suits!!  Their instructor was awesome.  Shout out for Ryland and the Long Beach Lodge Resort.  Both girls did exceptionally well.  Strong legs from all that Highland sure helped.  They said they were plenty warm in the water for two and half hours.  Mom and I both got our boots filled with water trying to take pictures of them and were freezing.  It took hours for our feet to dry and feel warm again.  We took a ton of pictures.  It was hard to pick a few for the blog.  We didn't get any of them up on the boards but they did get up and they caught a few good waves on their own.  It was very cool.  They both totally want to go surfing again.  I still don't love the big waves and Jia thought it was too loud too.  I do think I'd like to try going back in the summer, warmer weather and blue skies would help.  Perhaps in our RV, which is so much easier than packing up to a hotel.  All in all, a good time was had by all of us.  I can understand a little bit what others have seen in the stormy West Coast. 

Jia's 2nd Gotcha Day

Then

 

AND NOW

 

It's really, really, really so hard to fathom that our Jia has been home with us for two years!  What an adventure.  Phew.  She is a total doll, an incredible ball of energy, really funny and quite clever.  She is annoying, stubborn, cute, tenacious, sweet, anything but gentle and then as gentle as can be, she has huge empathy, loves playing games, is amazing at pretend anything, she's all about monsters right now, she likes puzzles and is starting to recognize her letters and numbers, she is starting to write her name and is still all about snowmen, she loves Toopy and Binoo, Minnie Mouse and Winnie the Pooh and gang.  She is agile and can climb anything.  She has dropped her naps and then crashes around dinner time.  It's our guilty pleasure that when she falls asleep the four of us relax :)  She has all four of us wrapped around all of her fingers.  She loves to play with Fei and asks all the time if she can sleep in Fei's room (which we allow on the weekends) and she looks up to Lili and treasures any time that Lili attentions her.  She calls Lili LeeLie.  She is still in music class and although she won't sing in class she puts on shows for us and sings away, she starts her shows with 'Ladies and Gennlemen'.  She is no where near ready to give up her night time bottle and although she'll go on the potty when put/dragged/cajoled there she has no interest in self directing herself there.  She has attached to the small dog the girls gave her in China, his name is Tinkybell, she's also pretty fond of her pink fleecy.  She just started highland dance classes and there is nothing cuter in this world than watching her in class doing little toe points with her arms up high.  She is extremely proud to be dancing with Lili and Fei.  I can't wait for the first show, exhibition or recital that they're all in together.  Having Jia feels like a do-over sometimes and I'm trying hard to stay in the moment with her and just enjoy her.  Not too concerned about milestones and development this time around.  She is really tall for her age.  People comment all the time about it and everyone is always shocked when we tell them her age.  Three more months until she is three.  We all love you Little Jia!  I'm grateful everyday that you joined our family.  She has asked for spaghetti tonight for dinner.  I don't think she understands the celebration but all parties are good in Jia's opinion :)

Autumn Moon

At the park for a picnic and play and our pre-teens are playing ds's in the sun.

 

Party #1, the moon wasn't quite full but we had a nice walk anyways.  We read stories before it got dark and then drank our tea and cookies/Mooncakes once it was dark.

Party #2.  Lots of little ones there.  Great times.  We really did a great job with our lanterns.  They were awesome.  Already gathering ideas for next year.

What an awesome photo!  It was dark, so I had no idea what I'd get.

Ok, we're off center, it's dark, there's a finger on the lens and Jia looks stunned but it's a family picture and they are pretty rare since I take all of our photos.

Party #3, Grampa Al's Birthday and just in case we didn't honor the moon quite enough we stopped on the way home to gaze once more.  Little spot over Eric's shoulder :)

Our fall weather has just been fabulous.  Weather was perfect for Autumn Moon.  We managed three parties in a row.  What fun.  Tiring though. 

Eric is back to our roof and he got three days in this past weekend.  I can't fathom where he's going to get enough time to finish the roof.  Sure we've saved a ton with him doing the job but it's going sooooo slow.

Ok, and the big news of the day, Eric and I just signed our agreement with Sunrise to start another homestudy/adoption.  The envelope goes in the mail today.  What took so long to get to this point you ask?  Dropped balls.  Fear and confusion.  Lack of direction.  General hesitation on both sides.  Marg thought we should wait for his file and then we'd have three months to get logged in with China.  Eric and I have decided to take a huge leap of faith and are preparing to get our dossier ready to send and are crossing our fingers for his match.  So, yes, we're working towards a specific child adoption, hoping that Little Guy will become our son.  No guarantees, that's the hard part.  Well, that and gathering the $ needed to make this happen.  We're all cautiously excited.  Wish I had more news to share than that.