Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Medical done!


We found out on Friday that Nicolas travelled from Cebu to Manila and had his Medical on Wednesday July 13th! His passport is now being processed, next up will be his visa, and then...we travel!! We're meeting with Quebec.Immigration tomorrow morning... After all the time we've waited, we now feel things are moving at the speed of light (we're NOT complaining though)!

We have some posts that we've been working on...but haven't had a chance to post them yet. We've been working on crossing items off of our GIANT to do list...things are getting done, but it seems like every time we cross something off the list, we think of three things to add to it! We're eating this elephant one bite at a time!

We'll write more as soon as we can!

Monday, July 4, 2011

The Moose is Loose!

After leaving the agency, we looked at each other and thought "now what?" Who do we tell and when? We had already decided on how we were going to tell everyone, we just needed to get everyone together. We called Rachelle, who was supposed to be working, but she picked up the phone!! She had called in sick. Then we called Eric's parents and invited them over for coffee and dessert. We called Daniel and he picked up the phone even though he was in a movie theatre watching a movie!? Then Eric called my brother, and made arrangements for him and his family to come by for coffee and dessert (even though it was their 11th wedding anniversary). Then we went home to try to tidy up the house and finalize the details. On the way home, we stopped by Wal.mart to scan Nicolas' photo, we made one copy for each family member. We planned to insert the picture into the announcement book.
The Announcement - The Moose is Loose
My mom crochets...and when I was little, she made me a stuffed bear (which I still have) I found a pattern online and asked her to make a stuffed moose for our Little One. We named the moose Ferdinand.
About a year and a half ago, we had planned how we would announce that our Little One would be joining our family. We decided that our Little One's fuzzy friend Ferdinand the Moose (made especially for him by his Gram-Gram) would go on a hunt, searching for his purpose in life. We took a bunch of silly photos of Ferdinand looking for his purpose and at the end of the story, he finally realizes that his true purpose is to be a hugable, loveable, furry friend to you...Our Little One...inside the back cover of the book we pasted an envelope and included a photo of Nicolas inside. We had the books pre-printed (we've had them for about 18 months!).

My mom got home from work at 6 and we told her that there were some people coming over to watch the hockey game. I had to go and get some groceries, so she came with me (this is all pretty standard as far as activities go around our place on a weekend, so she was none the wiser!). We went for groceries, came home and started to set out the food. People started arriving, and I started to get more and more anxious. I felt like everyone could tell just by looking at me! We were waiting until everyone arrived...it was a really difficult half hour or so to fill up with random conversation about the weather, my garden...anything but the adoption!

Once everyone had arrived, Eric called everyone to attention saying that June 10, 2011 marks the one year anniversary of the day we lost our beloved Hobbes (which was true...and it threw everyone off the adoption mindset). He continued, saying that we had a book prepared to comemorate the event (at this point all of our family was thinking that we had invited them to a memorial service for our dog!). Everyone read the story of Ferdinand's adventures to try to find his purpose...and when my mom read the last line of the book...she screamed! "Taaaaammmmmyyyyy"! She didn't even notice that there was a picture in the book! She just came and hugged me, and we cried! Then Rachelle hugged me...and I thought she was going to crush my ribs! My brother gave me a huge bear hug that lasted forever and Eric's mom cried too and hugged me tight! Everyone was hugging and crying and saying that they knew it all along! It was an amazing moment that will not soon be forgotten by any of us!

THE CALL


We got the long awaited call today (June 10, 2011)...we waited for exactly thirty-one and a half months.

As you know, we had been struggling with our emotions lately. We were afraid we'd be waiting until the end of the year before getting the call. There had been five referrals in the weeks leading up to June 10, and the wait was getting more and more difficult with each call.

I woke up around 9 that morning, and as usual checked my emails on my black.berry. That morning one of my fellow adoptive moms had written a post on Face.Book saying that she wished that her fellow adoptive moms (all of whom have been waiting for more than 30 months) would get the call today. I must admit that my heart lept a little at seeing that post, but I thought of course it's not going to happen today...I wrote back that I too wished that we would all get our calls really soon, and I ended my comment with "Ring telephone Ring!" I got up and decided to go and do some work in the garage, some messy, noisy sanding work. I decided to leave my phone in the house, because I was sure that it wasn't going to ring anyway, and I was tired of carrying it around for nothing. I was out in the garage for a few hours (can you imagine the dust from sanding for 3 hours!). I got to a point in my project where nothing was going right and I was getting more and more frustrated so I decided to come inside to see if I could get a better perspective on the project. When I went into my room, I saw that my phone was flashing, so I checked the display and there were 3 missed calls, from an unknown local number. The thing is if the call was from our resource person, her number is long distance from our house. I checked the messages and was surprised that there was a message from her. She said that she had a question for me, and that I should try to call back before 5 because she was going away for the weekend. I honestly thought that she was calling to ask us to update our file or something. I could not allow myself to think that this may be THE call. I came out of my room to get a pen and paper just as Eric (who was working from home that day) came out of the playroom/makeshift home office. I didn't want him to get his hopes up, so I went to our room to make the call...dialing the number as I went. He said that there had been some missed calls, that he couldn't get to because he was on conference calls with work, I said yeah, I'm returning one now...he asked who I was calling, just then, the line picked up, and I asked to speak to Marie*, His face kind of dropped, and I mouthed to him, it's not about that! When Marie came on the line, she said hi and asked how I was doing, I said fine and you? She said she was doing well and enjoying the weather...it's a beautiful day isn't it? (At this point, I was getting frustrated and thinking just get to the point, tell me what update I need to do, or whatever it is that you're calling to tell me). Then she asked me the question that she had called to ask...She asked me "Do you think today is a good day to become a mother?" I burst into tears! I heard Eric breathe for the first time since I had said that I was calling Marie. I somehow managed to put the phone on speaker and we listened as Marie told us that we had a son named Nicolas!

She told us that we have a son, named Nicolas! He is almost 2 years old (his birthday is July 2, 2009). He is living in Cebu with a foster family who he has been with for the past 2 years. She then asked if we would be able to go to pick up our proposal at the agency before 4pm. We said yes, of course! We hung up the phone, and hugged and cried. We then got ready and headed over to the agency.

When we got to the agency we were given an envelope with all of Nicolas' information, we read his file and saw his beautiful face for the first time! I think his is the most beautiful picture I have ever seen.

We left the agency and thought to ourselves...now what?! How and when do we tell our family and friends? (I'm still working on that post...)

We are so thrilled to be Nicolas' parents...we can't wait to meet him...these days life is a blur, we both feel like we're walking on the clouds, or through a dense very very happy fog!
*Marie (not her real name)

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Happy Birthday Nicolas!

Nicolas turns 2 today...

...and our hearts are torn because we're not with him to celebrate, and yet, we know that he's coming home soon (and we're so very happy about that!!). We are grateful to know that he is loved and he has a foster family that is taking good care of him, we just want to be with him.

We've been torn all week deciding if we should do something to celebrate Nicolas' birthday. We feel we should do something, but we don't know what we should do. We've thought about not celebrating and that doesn't feel quite right either. We've decided to do a couple of things to keep us busy and to celebrate Nicolas. We're going to bake a special birthday cake, and we've bought him a couple of birthday presents. I have also hung some balloons up in his room (which will be a surprise for Eric too!). I read about a birthday tradition where parents hang up balloons in the child's room while they sleep so that in the morning the first thing they see is balloons. An extra special way to start their extra special day.

Nicolas, we wish that we could be with you...we love you and can't wait for us to all be together. Love you lots and lots...mama and daddy