LOG IN DATE!!

 

We're expecting!!

Log In Date in the adoption world is like saying 'we're pregnant'.

 We're three weeks along.

 

Pretty darn exciting!  With a log in date of May 7/2013 we can now be matched with a waiting child.  We are now officially waiting for a call telling us about a file on a little boy that might one day become our son!

 

Fonnie let us know in an e-mail today that they have already begun searching for a match for our family.  I can hardly stand how exciting this is!!

Ist camping trip of the year.

Off to the river.

Five families, 12 kids.  Not all in this picture.

Lili and I went home for a shower and when we got back little miss was very upset and really wanted Mama, she fell off her bike while trying to roll down a little hill.  She told me she fell off her bike and broker her arm, that's why she couldn't walk.  I didn't want to miss the group walk and play at the river so thought I'd try using the old sling, it was awkward and we were slow moving but it worked.  Jia loved it and was dozing all the way.

Isabel did fantastic on the trip.  I was extremely impressed.  We were starting to think she'd never leave puppyhood behind, but she was just great all weekend.  She loved camping, loved all the walks, loved all the attention from the kids.  She loved the swimming too until she got caught in the rapids. 

10 of the 12.  Jia refused to get in the picture, she was still cuddling with me, still upset about falling off of her bike.  Dagen isn't in the group picture either.

Here he is all smiles with Mommy.  Getting ready to walk in the water with Dad.  So cute.  Such an infectious laugh.

Rocks, sticks and dog poop bags.  It's all good.

Crashed on the walk back.

Next four pics stolen from Shannon's facebook, phone pics, not so clear.

Kalum is in a pout by the tree and in a total act of solidarity Jia joined him.  I couldn't stop laughing.  I doubt she had any idea what Kalum was even upset about.

Water pump!

Lacie joined the kids in walking the log.  Too funny.

Firewood, worlds greatest stacking toys.

The first trip out is always the most work.  Big thanks to Eric this year for doing most of it all on his own.  He and the big girls even went out at noon and set up in the pouring rain, well, Eric set up and the girls sat in the car and watched a movie while eating their wrapzone lunch.  Jia was visiting Gramma and Grampa for lunch.

So, the only thing we forgot was ladies deodorant, so Lili and I had to use Eric's speed stick.  Not bad for the first trip out. 

Jia woke up on our last morning and said 'is it morning?  are we done camping?  can we camp just one more?'   She is totally gung ho to get out there again.  We barely saw the big girls.  They were busy, busy with their friends.  Love these group camp outings.  Super busy though.

School

The final decision was finally made in our valley.  Six schools closed and a whole lot of student bodies are transferring to different buildings.  Heard on the news this morning that they just handed out 76 pink slips to teachers today.  Sigh.  Hopefully they'll all find a placement somewhere else.  The good news...our school remains open and unchanged!!  Yay.  There were a lot of very sad people at the big public meeting.  I had really, really expected our school to close.   Our catchment did change and we're no longer in our school catchment but we're grandfathered in, so all is good.  Kids were really excited with the news.  Oh, and we're now k-7 instead of k-6 and they were both excited to know they get another year at the school they love.  Next we have to enrol little missy in pre-school for Sept. 

Mother's Day

All of us are wearing fruity whirl necklaces from Jia.

We had a lovely, relaxing day in the big city.  Lunch at my favorite place, visit to Chinatown, afternoon walk with Mom, cousin Debbie and friend Leslie on the breakwater, a bit of shopping and then dinner at a family favorite Chinese place.  Jia gobbled up dinner, announced she was tired and was asleep on my lap in seconds.  We moved her to the floor and she was quite happy there. 

Fei's autism team has been trying for months now to use a therapy plan we weren't very happy about.  Seemed cruel to us, using a motivator (monitor on her waist that vibrates) to alert her every 15mins to go fill out her binder with any incident reports that occured during the interval, then do a flow chart showing what happened and then how it should have happened after discussing the incident with who ever it was.  She's 10.  Good lord, what child would ever actually do this.  We thought Fei would be more likely to simply sit and not move so that she would only ever have to mark a check under 'proper behaviour'.  Anyways, after months of back and forth, and meetings upon meetings to discuss it.  I got more agreessive in our NO and wrote to them that after discussing it with a list of people we were not even considering the recommended therapy.  The two child phycologists who are on her team have been taking it very personally and have really been pushing for us to use the method stating that she is a pre-teen and should be able to regulate the behaviours and this was how they wanted her to learn to self regulate.  The behaviours mainly being that she antagonizes her sisters relentlessly at home.  Yes, normal behaviour for siblings, but she is excessive and Lili and Jia are getting picked on by her at home.  So, Saturday I got a long e-mail from the team leader letting us know that they are quitting us.  I really feel these people should have been able to hear Eric and I clearly telling them all along that it's cruel what they were asking her to do.  I'm ticked that we've had to fight them for months with the outcome being that they dropped us!  It's a lot of work to set up a team.  We did get a new assessment out of it but realistically it says the exact same thing the assessments said at age 3 and age 7.  We've had our interventionist for two and a half years and we really like her but she is under an umbrella now so we lost her too.  We're currently without a plan of any sort.  Feels odd.  I'm inclined to do nothing until after Fei is settled into school next year.  We prefer a clear slate for summer and she only has a few weeks of school left.  Any interventionists around looking for new clients? 

We hear about the school decision tomorrow or Thursday.  Will be nice to know where the kids will be going to school for next year. 

I joined a site called Rainbowkids, they aren't an agency, just advocating for special needs kids.  I put in our specifics and they sent me three files of little boys in China this weekend.  We did inquire after one of them, he turns three this June and his file is with a specific agency in the States.  They have his file for three months and if they can't match him, his file will go back on the shared list (available to all agencies).  So, unfortunately they just got his file.  I can check back for his status in a couple months.  Seems like another long shot.  I keep trying to micro manage who our son will be.
 
The much more exciting news is that we got an e-mail this morning letting us know that our application for Citizenship and Immigration was approved and our file is in Beijing!  Yay.  One more step done.  Now, back to waiting for a match.

 

My Family

The above is my Mother's Day gift, stickers for my van.  I've always wanted a sticker family.  They are stuck in transit and I have no idea how long I'll have to wait.  I e-mailed the company and they sent me this graffic so that it could be printed and given as the gift.  Of course guessing on baby boy :)  Aren't we all so cute?!

Camp Q

Moral skits.  Very cute. 

Fei's class is at camp q this week.  Parents were invited to visit last night to play catch the flag.  Lili really wanted to go and see Fei and play the game.  I really wanted to check on a rash Fei had on her face so off we went.  Jia promptly fell asleep as we arrived.  Fei still had the rash and was suffering with hay fever so was happy to see the benedryl.  One of the Mom's staying there was happy to see the benedryl too.  There were a few kids with allergic reactions going on.  Fei seemed comfortable there.  Certainly nice for her that she has been there several times before. 

Pool open on May 6th!!

It's probably the earliest we've opened the pool.  The new neighbors have a pool and we could hear them splashing yesterday, so Eric went out after dinner and pulled the winter cover off.  To everyone's delight the water was crystal clear and there were no critters in there.  Yay.  Water was awfully cold, Lili got in but was out pretty fast.  Fei declined.  We didn't let Jia try since she has a cough/cold.  Eric also got the air conditioner in upstairs which was so nice.  Lili hates to be hot and she was pleased that her new room on the main floor was nice and cool compared to the upstairs, so she slept in her new room for the first time.  All is well.

Still need to get the wolf border up and move her things in.  Just love those Scooby sheets!

Beauty and the Beast

Several months ago, right as Eric and I were deciding to adopt again and discussing that we needed to cut back spending, we were invited to join Shannon and Deanna to see Beauty and the Beast.  I said yes thinking it was a childrens show.  Turned out the tickets were $100 each.  Yikes.  More than I usually pay for kid entertainment.  Well, we finally saw the show on Saturday and it was simply stunning.  Loved it.  All of it.  The actors were amazing, the costumes beautiful and the stage was brilliant.  We were mezmerized and couldn't wait for the intermission to be over to see the end.  I grinned through the whole thing. 

We had a playdate with little Emily who had a cold.  There was a blow up beach ball that she was blowing up and Jia really wanted in on that action.  We told her and told her not to, but she did.  See where I'm going with this?  Yup.  Saw Emily last Friday, but Monday Jia was tired and her nose was running, on Thursday mine was and by Saturday Lili was getting sick.  Sigh.  We've been cold and flu free for sooooo long.  Made it well over a year with none of us struck down.  Jia had no clue how to blow her nose.  She was totally dismayed the first couple days over the running nose.  I'm feeling better already but Jia's cold has moved into a cough. 

We also had our first picnic of the year.  Joined Penny and girls for dinner on Friday.   I tried getting an action shot of all of them on a tire swing.  Which of course is really hard to do, but I keep trying.  Got one that showed all of them smiling.  Used a pet setting.

How it usually turns out.

The miracle shot.

Sitting still and posing.

Baby goats, Ballroom dancing, Goodbye to Stella and Cross Country

Baby pigs!  Four days old and soooo cute.

Fei and I had to hang out with Jia for almost half an hour watching the male peacocks, she was insistant that she wanted to see how they put their feathers down.  Sigh.  He never put them down but he waved them down just enough that it suited her to move onto the goats.

The Times Colonist run was this day and it was super crowded at the petting zoo.

Getting close and personal with Ming, who was nibbling on Jia's coat.

Jia was more comfortable with the Moms who were all calmer than the leaping babies.

Although she was happy to have Toopy and Binoo visit her on the rocks, she was nervous they'd jump on her and she got down first.

Fei's class has been learning ballroom dancing.  They danced for their school and two others on Monday.  Fun field trip.  Landed on my flex day so I got to go.  They were adorable.  Loved it.  I'm impressed with how much Mrs. Louise was able to teach them.  They learned nine dances and each and every one of them was amazing.

Jia went to assembly to watch Fei, but she got bored.  She had on her favorite dress and she really wanted to join the kids to dance.

Display #2

Display #3

The evening production for family and friends.

Teaching Gramma the merengue.

 

Little Stella (brown on the right) left us yesterday.  She made it to two.  She was the sweetest of all of our girls so far, an amazing cuddler and quick to brux.  We thought we had her for a while yet so  the end came a bit suddenly and unexpected for us.  We'll miss her a lot.   

Waiting for their turn.

Always fashionable.

She was 7th.  :)

She was a participant.  :)