Tam and Eric Adopt

Updates!

2011-12-31T01:10:00.001-05:00

We're trying to catch up! There are some updates over at our other blog...come for a visit if you haven't already!

http://the-moose-is-loose.blogspot.com/

The Moose is Loose

2011-11-29T13:50:00.001-05:00

I know...I know...it's been too long!

Most importantly, what we want you to know is that we are all doing great! We are enjoying life as a family. Mommy and Daddy are tired...very tired. Nicolas is adjusting really well. We have a cuddly, loving, happy little boy and we are so very greatful for that.

We started this blog as a diary of sorts to track our journey to our Little One...now that he's here, we are changing our blog to "The Moose is Loose". It's not completely up to date, but we're working on it...So head on over and check it out.

http://the-moose-is-loose.blogspot.com/

but before you do...we did do one entry about the first days of our trip and the last night before we met Nicolas.

Nicolas!

2011-09-10T02:09:00.000-04:00

We're loving life right now!

We have a beautiful happy baby and we are so totally in love!

We'll write more soon....for now...we're enjoying every minute...

The first days....and the last night

2011-09-07T15:41:00.000-04:00

This is it...the last night before we meet our son...we're jet lagged and tired...but mostly we're excitded! When we think about meeting you, we are overcome with emotions. We have been waiting for this moment for such a long time and now that it's here, and we have only six hours between now and when we meet him, it seems a little surreal. My stomach has been doing bellyflops for days now with the excited anticipation of what our future now holds with Nicolas in our lives. It is three o'clock in the morning and I've slept for about 5 hours...and now, I'm awake! I tried reading, I tried going back to sleep, but i am anxious and excited (not a good combination for someone who doesn't usually get more than 5 hours sleep a night anyways). I figure I'll catch up on some writing and maybe that will help me to fall back asleep! Monday September 5th - Wednesday September 7th We wake really early (to be honest I think I slept for only an hour and a half). I packed and repacked our bags and finished getting ready for the trip and then went to bed around 3:30, but our alarm went off at 5. I had my shower and got dressed. Eric's mom picked us up around 5:30. I drove to the airport in the rain. We arrived around 6 o'clock at the airport and we said a quick goodbye to Eric's mom and headed into the airport. We checked in (realized we weren't sitting together on the plane)...went through security (where Eric's pocket knife was confiscated (i had forgotten to check a side pocket in the bag (and I feel a little dumb)...we head to the gate and ask to have our seats changed...we had to wait a bit but eventually they were changed. The plane is small...and full!! The flight was uneventful, we both managed to sleep some on the flight. Once in Vancouver, we bum around the airport a little, eat and then decide that we're going to head downtown via the skytrain. We walked around downtown...but I was more tired than I thought and I wasn't a very good tourist...we ended up going to a bookstore where I fell asleep in one of the comfy chairs intended for coffee patrons. We head back to the airport, eat again and then go up to the observation deck to watch the sun set. We head over to the ticket counter early (we want to make sure we get seats together) Turns out our luggage was mis-tagged in Montreal - it was only going to Manila where as we were headed for Cebu...the very nice ticket counter guy worked really hard to make sure that our bags were re-tagged and that they would arrive in Cebu at the same time as us. We boarded the plane which thankfully wasn't full so we were able to have a little extra room. I took a pill to help me sleep and i ended up sleeping for about 10 hours of the 13 hour flight. Eric wasn't quite so lucky...he slept, but not as much as i did. We arrived in Manila, changed planes and then an hour later arrived in Cebu. At the Cebu airport, we were happy to see a person holding a sign with our names on it telling us where we should go to get our luggage. I was thrilled! Our luggage made it!! We took a taxi from the airpor to our hotel (about 30 minutes away). Driving here is not for the faint of heart...there are tons of cars/jeepneys and scooters all competing to see who can go faster. When we arrived at the hotel, our car was checked by two security guards and a sniffer dog.! Our bags were once again scanned/x-ray-ed and then we were able to check into our room early which was great! We showered and settled in and then we headed over to the Ayala mall...the mall is huge! Unbelievably huge. We shopped for the better part of the day (to price some things that we'd like to buy for Nicolas, and to pass the time!) We didn't buy much, I got a haircut which cost me a little more than $5 (for a wash, cut and set!) We were really tired, so we headed back to the hotel to pass some time before our dinner reservations at 6. We then went for dinner at the hotel (it was good, but expensive) By the time we were done dinner, we were pretty tired, so we came up to our room. Eric fell asleep right away...I didn't. I prepared the gifts that we brought with us (packaged them in gift bags and such) and the more I was thinking about this being the last night before Nicolas, the more I started to stress. Thank goodness for facebook...one of my friends was on facebook and so I chatted with him for a while and then one of my aunts came on and I asked her to call my mom...so I was able to chat with my mom...I had a good cry while doing so (the stress is getting to me) Then I was really tired from all the crying so I was able to fall asleep (around 9:30pm). I woke up at 2:30 in the morning feeling wide awake and excited and anxious about today...today is THE day the one we've been waiting for for so long...the one we've prayed for and thought would never happen...and yet...here it is...at the doorstep...a few more hours is all that separates us from our son! I'm going to head back to bed for a bit to see if i can't fall asleep...the time will pass faster if I'm sleeping I think!

We're leaving....on a (jet) plane!

2011-08-31T12:11:00.000-04:00

We found out yesterday that Nicolas is ready for us...all of the paperwork is complete! We can travel...we're still waiting confirmation on the date that we'll be meeting Nicolas, but since we're planning on being in the country for 2 weeks, we have plenty of time...so we booked our flight! We're leaving on Monday! We're so excited! We can't believe that this day has finally come...I can't stop shaking! Ok...off to pack and get organized!!

Nicolas' Room

2011-08-13T22:33:00.000-04:00

We're putting the finishing touches on Nicolas' room. We are really happy with how it all came together. It's a peaceful, happy place...we'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Eric drew the trees on the wall and I painted them.

There are also cute little bugs hanging out on the walls too...bees and ladybugs and dragonflies.

He also drew and painted the owl :)

The red moose on the wall is from IKEA...you can hang things from the antlers and the legs.

We have curtains...they're missing here though.

The alphabet cards were the first purchase we made for our Little One!

This whole wall is one big closet.
I wish I could do something about the mirrors (I really dislike them...but for now they're here to stay)

"Lapu-Lapu"
The newest addition to our little Moose family...handmade with love by Gram-Gram.

Lapu-Lapu is a smaller version of the original Moose (Ferdinand) we used for our announcement book.

The Little.People Plane

2011-08-09T00:27:00.000-04:00

I was out shopping one day, and I saw the Little.People plane. I actually have two vintage fisher.price toy planes and I just love them.

I knew I had to buy it when I looked inside and there were only three seats in the plane!

Now I just need to find some Little.People who look like us!

The perfect stroller for us!

2011-08-09T00:14:00.000-04:00

Before leaving for our NYC mini vacation, we were doing some research about strollers.

We knew the stroller we wanted - it has an adjustable handle (especially handy for both Eric-6'2" and I-5'2"). We are able to adjust the handle so that we can each comfortably push the stroller. In Canada, the stroller is only sold as part of a package which includes the infant car seat, it seemed futile to buy the stroller in Canada, considering Nicolas is 2 and we won't use the infant car seat. We discovered that in the US we could buy just the stroller (for $200 less than the cost of buying it at home!).

We stopped in at a Babies.r.us store in New Jersey just before taking the ferry into NYC. We reserved it and picked it up on our way home.

We love it and can't wait to take Nicolas for a walk!

We do have a question though...where do you store the stroller when it's not in use? the garage? the trunk? it's too big (or our house is too small) to store it inside.

Lists

2011-08-08T01:51:00.000-04:00

We have a list...actually we have many, many lists...there are so many things to think about and to do that we need multiple lists to help us to keep it all together.

Nicolas' room is ready, I have to finish his quilt, and if we find a light fixture that we like, then we'll change that, but other than that, his room is waiting for him! The playroom is almost ready too...we have one final detail to paint and a little more organizing to do to the bookshelves, but it is mostly ready for him.

We are doing well while we wait...time is passing really quickly! Our summer has been packed full of activities and home reno projects. The home reno lists are getting shorter...we may not be able to finish all the projects before Nicolas comes home, but we're doing our best.

We are now just waiting for the call from the agency that will tell us that we can travel...we're expecting that we'll get the call sometime this month!!! I still can't believe that we'll be meeting our son soon!

We've also been trying to plan for our trip...it's hard to plan when you are missing some key information. We're researching the main areas that we'll be visiting and we're trying to do as much planning as we can. We're preparing to be ready for anything.

Medical done!

2011-07-19T01:40:00.000-04:00

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!

The Moose is Loose!

2011-07-04T00:47:00.001-04:00

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

2011-07-04T00:22:00.002-04:00

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)

Happy Birthday Nicolas!

2011-07-02T02:40:00.000-04:00

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

It's a...

2011-06-15T21:29:00.000-04:00

BOY !!!!!

Renee was right! June is an awesome month!

Finally! After a very, very, very long wait (exactly 31 and a half months), we are very proud to announce that we have a son!! Nicolas!

He is currently living in Cebu, Philippines with his foster family...weighing in at 11 kilos and 76cm and he can leap tall buildings (we're sure!). He was born on July 2, 2009 (so he's almost 2!)

We can't wait to meet him!

Thank you everyone for your kind words and your support...you will never know how much it meant to me to have the support of friends (in person and online).

I'll blog more about the actual proposal soon...for now though we're thrilled and we have some paperwork to take care of....here's to speedy travels!

Tammy and Eric

31 Months

2011-06-07T04:04:00.000-04:00

I've been trying to begin this blog entry for a week and a half, and to be honest, I'm having a really hard time...I've re-wrote this sentence about ten (or more) times.

We have been keeping busy as usual, we've finished the entrance/staircase.
We built a section of fence that was missing, and built some gates to completly fence in the yard, so now the puppies have a fenced in yard that they can run and play in.

There have been three proposals in Quebec in the last month. While we are happy to hear that there is progress, each proposal brings with it a small sense of disappointment that it wasn't our turn yet. We are struggling with the lack of an end date to this wait. At the beginning of the wait we set our sights on the 24 month mark and hoped for a call sooner than that...now we don't know when the wait will end...will it be 32 months...or will it be 36 months...or gulp...will it be even longer than that!?

Sorry for the tone...there's just not that much to say about the wait these days...we're sick and tired of waiting. I'll be back next month...hopefully with a lighter tone and a better attitude.

30 Months

2011-04-28T00:55:00.002-04:00

For the past little while, we've been trying to go out on dates more often. We think that it's a good habit to get into before our Little One comes along. Since our vacation to Newfoundland last summer, we've been trying to find a good restaurant that serves fish and chips as good as we had there. We decided to try an Irish pub next to our favorite bookstore and we were pretty successful... the fish still wasn't as good as in Newfoundland, but it was a decent second.

A family tradition that we do every spring, is going to the Cabane a sucre. This year, we went a little later in the spring, so there wasn't really any snow left on the ground, but it was a beautiful sunny and warm day and it was a nice way to spend the day with the family.

This is Britney looking in the sap bucket and declaring "it's just water"

Also in the spring, Eric's mom goes to visit her parents for about six weeks, they live in Abbotsford, BC. Before she left, we all got together for a brunch at our house. I love hosting brunch... yummy crepes... maple syrup, omelet and bacon.

Eric's sister had some time off, so we decided to go and visit a friend of ours who lives in New Hampshire (NH). I had a crazy thought one evening that we should drive to New York City while we were in NH (I should mention that I really didn't realize how far NH was from NYC). Rachelle has always loved Nate Berkus... and so I wrote to the show and asked for tickets. Lo and behold they gave us tickets to the show... we did go to visit our friend in NH, but only for one night, then we headed to NYC... and NATE!

We stayed in NYC for two nights and three days. The first day, we drove straight to the Hotel/Hostel that we were staying at, dropped off our things and headed over to NATE. It was a little surreal for both of us to be at the taping, even though we were kind of disappointed with where they sat us (as far away and high up as possible). At the taping, NATE told us that we were all going home with a BBQ. We were sure that they would be giving us a gift card, or certificate or something, but as we were leaving the show, we were given a garbage bag that held a small charcoal BBQ. We had a long trek back to the Hotel/Hostel in the rain with our BBQs. We then headed to Times Square - if you've never been to Times Square at night...it is something that truly must be experienced - the lights + the ads + the people = sensory overload! The next day, we had planned a full day of shopping - we walked for more than 12 hours...oh my aching feet. We finished off the day with a delicious dinner at one of New York's best Indian restaurants. The third and final day, we went shopping again at Chelsea Market and then we headed over to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Eric and I have been talking about visiting NYC for the past few years, and this year, we've decided to go to NYC for our summer vacation...well actually, for a few days during our summer vacation. We both researched NYC hotels and Eric found one for us for the end of June. We'll be going for three nights and four days. I love that NYC is so big that you can visit more than once and each trip can be an entirely different experience.

Over the Easter weekend, we hosted another brunch for Eric's family for easter, and my mom hosted easter dinner for us and my brother's family. Oh...the chocolate...I made these cute little eggs...delicious!

We've been watching the hockey playoffs...and sadly tonight, our team is out (they lost to Renee's team).

As far as the wait goes, for now, it's going well, we've accepted that the call will come when the call will come, and so we are trying to be patient and keep busy while we wait...now if only the phone would ring!

29 Months

2011-03-27T22:21:00.000-04:00

March was a crazy busy month... Tammy watched over Eric's young cousins Lea and Justine during March break at the cottage aunt Lise rented in the Laurentians - skating and sledding fun was had.

Eric's grandmaman was released from the hospital after falling (again). So we moved her to a new floor in the seniors home with the services she needs. We all got togther and we managed to move her in and have everything settled in one day.

We've been doing a little decorating around the house, putting things up on the walls and hanging new curtains.

We live about 5 minutes from the St-Lawrence river and we discovered a park called Recreoparc which we went to for the first time last weekend - we walked with the puppies, it was a neat discovery - a natural oasis in midst of suburbia.

This weekend was in a sense, the final culmination of Play it Forward Kids for 2010... Tammy and her brother Tim planned out a day for two really special kids who's guardians wrote in to explain their special situations. Both kids shared a dream, they wanted to see the Montreal Canadiens play and their favorite player is Carey Price (the goalie). So it was decided we'd work on both their dreams. The first boy had a mild case of autism and was under the full time care of his grandparents (lets call him Jeffy). The second boy (Billy) lives in a group home and had been abandoned by his parents and then lived through a failed placement in a foster family. With what could be gleaned from the letters it seemed a sure thing that Jeffy had the harder luck in life, but Billy really broke both Tammy and Tim's heart. He had a really good social worker accompany him but he just would have no connection with adults. As the day went on the social worker explained as opportunity allowed just how Billy's issues with attachement affected him - he is unable to trust adults. Billy without the degree of "physical" issues still had way more behavioral problems than Jeffy did. The day itself went really well - Billy and Jeffy got along really well (Billy was saying at the end of the night Jeffy was his new best friend, and he didn't want to leave). We had a Lincoln Navigator Limosine pick up the boys and drive them to the Bell Centre, we toured around the area, ate lunch at a restaurant, the boys were then treated to a tour of the Bell Centre and the Hall of Fame, and then the hightlight of the day...great seats @ the Bell Centre for the hockey game and a ride on the Zamboni! The Canadiens had a bad game, but the rest of the day was tons of fun... The day ended with a drive home in the Limosine. Here's a link to my FB photo album.

Tammy, leading up to (and through the first half of the day) was pretty stressed - but most everything worked out well. We over-planned and then were able to cut back some things to tailor the day for the boys. We'll never forget these two little ones.

We've now completed 29 months of waiting...we really, really hope that our turn is coming soon. We're doing ok, we're keeping busy, but we're really ready to start on the next phase...the wait continues...

What someone wants you to know...

2011-03-19T23:10:00.001-04:00

I've been reading Kristen's blog "Rage against the minivan" for awhile now. She has a series entitled "What I want you to know" where readers are invited to submit a blog entry about topics that are important to them. Reading the series has been both inspiring and challenging. This one entry in particular speaks about how some people's questions and comments can be insensitive (especially when the questions or comments are in front of adopted children).

What I want you to know - adoption and assumptions

p.s. don't forget to read through the comments...they're just as interesting as the entry itself!

28 Months

2011-03-16T23:27:00.000-04:00

I can honestly say that this month flew by, I guess it's because we've had some pretty busy weeks and weekends.

We've been working on one of the last areas of our house, the hallway/side entrance and stairs. I have a hard time choosing paint colors and since we pass through this area many times a day, I was very nervous. We finally settled on a taupe (Studio Taupe by Behr) - and I couldn't be happier with it! While we were at it, we decided to redo the newel posts and handrails, tons of fun. It was challenging and isn't quite done yet, but it's looking good. I thought I'd share some before and after shots of the hall, I apologize for the poor quality of the shots... it's really hard to take a good picture in the hall because of the light coming in from the big window.

These are two before shots... I had actually started to prime the door frames - they were the same color as the door.

Here are the after shots, we painted all the doors and trim white, and the light fixtures, and door hinges. We're still working on the stairs.

At the end of the month, we celebrated Rachelle's birthday we had an Oscar themed party - minus the tuxedos and dresses.

The pre/post adoption support group started up again (after the Christmas Break) and we watched the documentary on young Quebeckers who were adopted internationally called "Terre d'accueil... 30 ans plus tard" we had already seen it but it was interesting to get other peoples reactions to it. If your high-school french is up to snuff we highly recommend it.

27 Months (...a little late)

2011-02-08T21:00:00.004-05:00

This month has not been that great for me, I came down with a cold on New Year's Day and couldn't leave the house until the 12th of January. It wasn't anything too serious, just a cold but it really wiped me out! I haven't really been feeling great all month... here's hoping that next month will be better!

While I was sick, I started working on a quilt. Eric's grand-maman was a quilter, and she gave me a ton of fabric, some of which she had pre-cut into 2.5" squares. I decided to do a patchwork quilt with every other square white. It is really difficult for me to do any sort of random pattern. I like things to be organized. So, under the influence of cold medication and stuffy sinuses, I began my patchwork quilt. Eric joked that I needed to finish the quilt before the medication wore off... I haven't finished the quilt yet, to be honest, I kind of got stalled on it... but I only have a little left, so I'll have to get sewing next week.

Last weekend I drove to Ottawa to visit friends. We had a great time... we did a lot of shopping at thrift stores and were pleasantly surprised at all the loot we found!

This week, marks one year since we moved into our house. I thought it was about time that we finish painting - every single thing in the house had to be painted. We finished painting the hall/side entry. I'm so excited, it now looks like it belongs in our house now. The only rooms left to paint are the Little One's room, and the Attic (my sewing room).

I finally printed out our pictures from our summer vacation to Newfoundland, and I put them all in albums... yes I did say albums with real pinted photos; it took two of them. I loved that vacation so much... I loved Newfoundland, it was a wonderful vacation. I would love to do a scrapbook type of thing to highlight some of our trip... maybe someday.

Adoption-wise, it's been a bit of a tough month for me. I have come to grips with the fact that the wait will be longer than expected, and I'm not liking it. It makes me angry, and scared and I'm tired of waiting for our "family life" to begin. I know that there is nothing that I can do except wait, and so we're waiting and we're trying to make the best of it, but it isn't fun... I was talking with a friend today about the adoption process and the timelines and was saying how our bodies are programmed to wait for 9 months for a baby... today (27 months) would mean that we just completed our third pregnancy and yet... we are still waiting for our little one to arrive.

The Playroom - Mural - How-to

2011-01-18T22:36:00.000-05:00

We first saw the idea of the mural on the Pottery Barn Kids website (the image is no longer available on the PB site).

We painted all the walls in the room, and let them dry for a few days before proceeding to paint the mural.

We found a map online that we wanted to use, and photocopied it onto an acetate (Eric campaigned for an upside down map - the answer was no). We did decide to use a pacific centric map so that the Philippines would be in the middle of the room.

We borrowed a projector from our friends, outlined the image from the acetate using chalk, then painted right over the chalk outline with a small craft paintbrush.

We saw this image on design dazzle, and we love the compass on the ceiling and want to incorporate it into our room too. We have the acetate, all that's left to do is paint it.

As much as we like how the mural turned out, if we were starting the room over again, there is one thing that we'd do differently. We had toyed with the idea of painting the wall with chalkboard paint, but I was too nervous that the color would be too dark (and then I'd want to paint over the expensive chalkboard paint), If we were to begin the room again, I would paint the wall with chalkboard paint, and paint the mural on the chalkboard. That way, you could draw all over the wall and erase all your drawings, but not erase the map outline.

I'll leave you with one more picture of the mural.

The Playroom - in progress

2011-01-03T22:16:00.006-05:00

The playroom is a small bedroom just off of the livingroom in our home. We feel that having a play space just off of our living space will be ideal for our Little One.

We've toyed with all kinds of ideas and colors for the playroom. We wanted something that was gender neutral, but bright and playful. We finally decided on a bright blue, a dark purple wall with a mural, and red accents. The room isn't quite finished yet, but I thought I'd share what we've done so far.

26 Months - Maligayang Pasko

2010-12-12T04:09:00.023-05:00

Maligayang Pasko! Merry Christmas to you!

December was like a whirlwind! We had an early Winter storm, which meant that we most definitly had a White Christmas! Mom and I began our Christmas baking early in the month because we knew the month would be busy. We made a bunch of different cookies and we froze the batter for baking later.

We spent a week in early December helping Rachelle to paint and prepare for her move to her first home!

After a month and a half, we finally got the go-ahead to "finish" mom's kitchen. We were waiting for a specialist to come and inspect the house after we had the flood in October. After his report, we were able to finally finish the kitchen (just in time for Christmas!!) We still have some finishing touches to do, but the kitchen is functional - which came in pretty handy for Christmas dinner.

Here are the before and after shots:

Mom and I spent the week before Christmas baking, decorating and shopping. All the preparations made for a week with not much sleep, but that helped me not to focus on the obvious - that we were celebrating yet another Christmas without our Little One.

On Christmas eve, we went to visit my grandmother and then we went to church for the annual Christmas eve candlelight service. It was a beautiful service, however I cried through most of it. For the past two years we thought that we would at the very least have our proposal for our Little One by now. We understand that we just have to wait, but the wait is long and it is not always easy, and on days like Christmas, it is even more difficult.

Following the Christmas eve service we had some of our family and friends over for a buffet dinner. We had fun...there was far too much food! It was nice to be surrounded by those we love. After everyone left, and a visit from the "pyjama man" we changed into our pj's and finished wrapping our presents.

Christmas morning was celebrated with my brother and his family. We loaded up the car with all the gifts and headed over. This year, we both moved, and we now live only a five minute drive from each other - it was nice to be able to spend more time with family and less time in the car! After the delicious brunch we opened all the gifts, then we were able to spend some time with the kids playing with their gifts. Eric's family came over in the late afternoon, and we enjoyed a yummy dinner even though the turkey took forever to cook and dinner was served a little later than expected.

Boxing day, we went to our church's annual family skate where I tried out my new skates...I love, love, love them! For the first time since I was a kid, my feet didn't hurt while skating! We then came home and spent the rest of the day in our
pj's in front of the fireplace.

26 months and counting...

25 Months and 1000 days

2010-11-28T02:23:00.013-05:00

We celebrated our 25th month of waiting for our Little One in the USA. On Thursday (American Thanksgiving), we drove to Wrentham,MA with some of our close friends. After the 6 hour drive, we arrived at 10:30pm at the Wrentham Outlets, there was a major traffic jam on the highway to get to the outlets, and the stores didn't even open until midnight! We shopped all night, and after a hearty breakfast at Cracker.Barrel (I LOVE Cracker.Barrel), we headed to our hotel for some much needed sleep. We slept until noon and then headed out to do more shopping. We found some amazing deals and some new treasures (like my beautiful teal coach purse! 50% +50% +20% off) and an amazing deal on an espresso maker!

Earlier this month, we went out for dinner with another couple who is also adopting from the Philippines. We met at the CLSC courses we took in the spring and have decided to stay in touch. We went to a small filipino restaurant in Montreal. Before dinner, Eric and I walked around the neighborhood which has a few filipino shops and we had fun looking and buying some authentic filipino foods. We bought all the fixings to make Pancit and Pork Adobo. We made our homemade filipino dinner and we really enjoyed it! I particularly liked the pancit!

In our quest to finish working on the house, we decided to tackle the playroom. The room is a combination playroom and library (for all of Eric's books), he's pretty happy to finally have his books out of storage(it's only been 10 months since we moved in!). Our inspiration for the room came from this bedroom that we saw on the Pottery.Barn website.

After getting more bad news on the adoption front, we decided it was time to get another puppy...Introducing...OSCAR!

After losing Hobbes in the spring, we thought that since we were close to the end of our wait for a proposal we would wait before getting another puppy, but after all the bad news lately and the possibility that we may have to wait for another year before we get the call, we decided that we would get a puppy now. We've had Oscar for about three weeks, he's a cute little guy don't you think?

1000 days...it's been 1000 days since we started the adoption process...I'm really hoping that the end of the wait is near!

Down for the count?

2010-11-21T01:47:00.008-05:00

We got word today from our agency that ICAB has officially extended our waiting time (at least for families in Quebec) to between 24 and 36 months.

We are so incredibly saddened by this news, we thought that 2010 would be the year we became a family and now it looks like it may be 2012.

We know we'll get through this...but right now we feel...well, we think we might know how Margarito felt...

11 years and an adoptive family conference

2010-11-06T00:02:00.012-04:00

11 years ago today I married my friend! (I know its cheesy) We didn't know then what the future would hold, and even though we have had our share of trials along the way, there has been a lot of fun and happiness too...and I would do it all over again!

This morning, some of our extended family and friends participated in a pre-adoption conference. We were so thankful that so many of our family & friends were able to attend, it really means a lot to us! We have had only positive feedback. Many said that they learned something new, or that they saw things from a different perspective after the conference. It has increased everyone's excitement, for some it was a reality check...this is happening and it's happening soon!

It was also Eric's grandma's 85th birthday, so after the conference we went out for lunch with his family. We try to get together a few times a year to keep in touch...it was really nice to see everyone! Grandmaman was looking great, and she was happy to have all of the family together...especially little Jade!

Since we had such a busy day, we decided not to celebrate our anniversary today, so we had a few friends over, and I made homemade pita bread...the first batch didn't turned out too thick and tough (we'll use them for pita pizza's this week). The second batch turned out great! I think might be making pita on a regular basis.

Pre/Post Adoption Support Group - Meeting #2

2010-11-05T03:47:00.004-04:00

Tonight was the second pre/post adoption support group. We have been having a hard time dealing with the extended wait times, and tonight we shared some of what we were feeling. I found it particularly refreshing and was somewhat emotional to be in a room with a dozen other pre&post adoptive parents and a social worker... when I talked, I felt like they listened, and not just listened, but that they heard me... there was an empathy that comes from having lived through similar situations that touched me deeply. I went into the group feeling rather low (as I have been for most of this month) however, when I left, I felt somehow more uplifted. I will be forever grateful for the people in the group... they (and you, my friends) have encouraged me more than they could ever know.

2 years ago today...

2010-11-04T22:59:00.006-04:00

Two years ago today, we got the wonderful news that we were officially approved by ICAB (on October 27, 2008) to (one day) become parents of a Little One.

We both thought that today would have been a great day to get The Call...but it was not to be...and so we continue waiting for you, Little One!

Little One...we can't wait until the day when we can finally hold you in our arms!

24 Months

2010-10-27T00:31:00.024-04:00

We have reached the two year mark in our adoption journey...

We are happy to have two years behind us, knowing that we are that much closer to our Little One, however, we are sad, anxious and somewhat frustrated, we are now entering a different phase of our adoption journey... the unknown. We now have no idea how long it could take for us to receive our referral and the parameters that we once thought we had have been removed. As far as we know there haven't been any families who have passed 30 months. We are hopeful that we'll get the call soon-ish.

Here's a recap of the past month... I feel like I should warn you though, it's been a rough month...

The month started with the news from our agency that they project that it is likely that couples who are waiting to adopt will have to wait longer than the original 18-24 month wait time. This news sent me (Tammy) into a little bit of a tailspin... I was having trouble dealing with the news, I allowed myself to be sad for a couple of days.

The next setback came around the middle of the month. We've been having a pretty rainy fall... and on October 15 we had a particularly bad rain storm, we noticed that there was water in the house and after investigating we realized that we had a leak somewhere... the area of the house that was most effected by the leak... was mom's kitchen!! We had just finished laying the tile on the counter - all that was left was the backsplash and a couple of finishing touches. The cleaning company came in, and the insurance company came in and we're waiting for a building inspector to come and tell us where the water may be coming from. After the cleaning company came with their blowers to dry out the walls and the floors (we had 6 blowers and a dehumidifier going for 4 days and nights), they prepared a report for the insurance company - their recommendation is that we open the wall and the floor to find out how much water damage there was and to disinfect any wood that may have come into contact with the water. That means that the kitchen that I've been working on for 6 months...may need to be torn out and started over! The insurance will pay for the damage inside the house, but not the cost of repairing the foundation.

The third traumatic event of the month was our discovery that our heating wasn't working... we were able to have that fixed (for now) but we discovered that our bi-energy system is not working and it'll cost a pretty penny to replace the broken heat pump. Needless to say I could have done without all three of these events this month.

Not all was doom and gloom though this month, we went apple picking, which is always a fun fall family highlight. We had a big Thanksgiving dinner, Rachelle was home for Thanksgiving dinner for the first time in two years. We went shopping to buy some gear for our Little One. We helped with the Play it Forward Kids Champs game that pitted the winners of the Kingston tournament against the winners of Montreal. We got some cool media coverage from a local TV station (CTV) and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun.

While doing some blog reading today, I came across a post by one of my favorite "Mommy Bloggers" - The Meanest Mom - the post was entitled "we are where we are for a reason". I was encouraged by the fact that while it's no fun to be stuck where we don't want to be...we are where we are for a reason...and it was just what I needed to hear today...so thanks Meanest Mom for reminding me.

A Baby (Little One) Carrier

2010-10-21T08:59:00.010-04:00

Last weekend, we asked our niece if she would help us to try out a baby carrier for our Little One. We have been looking around for one that would allow us to carry around our Little One and since we don't know how big (or little) they will be when we get them, it's important to us that we get a carrier that will allow us to carry a child for as long as possible. Our niece is 4 years old, and although she's quite tall for her age, she doesn't weigh 40lbs yet. So we picked her up on Saturday morning and headed over to a great shop near us; FloUrbain. We knew that she may change her mind at any moment, but we hoped that that wouldn't be the case. We looked all around the boutique and let her touch and play with whatever she wanted to, so that she would feel comfortable. We had to wait a little while to try on the carrier; when it was our turn, Brit said "Auntie Tammy, I think I changed my mind". We decided to try the carrier on using the 15lb doll at the store. Afterwards, I convinced her to come to a corner of the store where we would be by ourselves (without the salesperson) and she agreed to jump into the carrier...it was surprisingly easy to put on and carry her around in it....and she was able to tell me that it was comfortable. Then it was Uncle Rikki's turn to try the carriers both with the doll and with Britney.

We decided on the Ergo Baby carrier. It was an investment, but we plan to use it to promote attachment and to help us when we travel, so we thought the expense was worth it.

We also bought some "Little People" from Plan Toys...I loved playing with Little People when I was little, so when we saw these little people...we couldn't resist!

When we brought Britney home, we showed her mom how the carrier worked...Britney was so comfortable...she didn't want to get out...she snuggled in and rested for about 5 or 10 minutes with her head on my shoulder while I talked to her mom...this from a little munchkin who can't sit still for a minute!

Britney...Thanks so much cutie for helping Auntie Tammy and Uncle Rikki...it means a lot to us that you helped us with this special purchase! We can't wait to see you playing with your new little cousin!

Still waiting...

2010-10-21T08:40:00.004-04:00

We received an email from our agency on October 1, 2010 about the possibility of our wait time passing the projected 18-24 months. Although there has been no official word from ICAB, our agency has quite a few families who have passed the 24 month mark, or who are about to do so (like us). They informed us that we should be prepared to wait for another 6 months or so!

It was really hard to hear, and we had a hard time digesting the news, we thought that our wait was almost over... We took the time to grieve, and to digest the news. We're still hopeful that we'll get the call soon...but we're also starting to wrap our minds around the fact that we may not be parents for another year. It is difficult, but we know that there is a reason for everything.

23 months...three weeks...three days...and counting...

23 Months

2010-09-27T00:39:00.011-04:00

This month has been really busy...between canning, working on mom's kitchen, a birthday or two and voila... here we are at month 23.

At the end of August my friend and I drove out to a tomato farm. We bought 6 bushels of tomatoes (thats about 360 pounds of tomatoes!). We also bought all the other supplies we would need to make homemade salsa and spaghetti sauce. We spent the next three days canning. It was a lot of work, but it was so worth it in the end... we have yummy homemade sauce and salsa for the year! This was our second canning weekend, I think I forgot to mention that we canned beets one weekend in August.

We have been working on mom's kitchen, the cupboards are all installed. We decided to do a tile countertop and so we had to reinforce the cupboards to make sure that the weight of the counter would be supported. We ordered the tiles and the special moldings to finish up the tile... We've had a terrible time getting the supplies in. The company ordered the wrong kind of moldings not once, but twice! So once we get the moldings in, the kitchen will be done. I thought mom would have her kitchen for Thanksgiving, but, now I'm not so sure... we'll have to see!

This past weekend we went apple picking... well it rained so we picked one bag of apples and then we bought the rest (6 bushels of apples) to make apple sauce, apple butter and to can apple pie filling. Yum! I bought a shelf to hold all of the canning that we've done this year...I've done canning in the past, but never this much before! It's fun... especially when you have lots of helpers!

We were invited to an information session given by our adoption agency. The session was animated by a nurse, she shared information about the kinds of health issues you may encounter when you adopt. At the session we met Patricia face to face! I used to work with Patricia's brother and we both started the adoption process at the same time, however we've never met before... we read each other's blogs and have encouraged each other along the way, but it was nice to finally meet Patricia and her hubby Yan.

Oh and there were birthdays...

Eric's mom's birthday was at the beginning of the month... we went out for dinner to a lovely french restaurant...Auberge Handfield it's a family favorite! Rachelle came home from Belgium on the 8th of September...MSF sent her for epidemiology training (the study of epidemics). This will be her last trip for a little while, she starts work at the Jewish General Hospital at the end of the month.

I celebrated my 36th birthday this month... I spent the day with my friend and then came home to a lovely party planned by my hubby... there was good food and wine and lots of friends and family... it was wonderful!

For the past year we have volunteered at our church leading the youth group. It has been a wonderful experience. We are grateful that we had the opportunity to be a part of the teens' lives. However, with our upcoming adoption, we felt that we needed to step down and focus on things at home for now. It was a difficult decision, but we know that it was the right one for our family for right now.

So, here we are with 23 months completed...I must say that the 24 months is quickly approaching and there hasn't been a proposal since July. We have heard that our agency is annoucing that the delays are lining up to 30 months. Hearing the news that the wait is going to be officially extended has been difficult for us. We knew that it was possible, but you always hope that it won't happen. So, we're preparing ourselves to wait a little longer.

22 Months

2010-08-28T00:41:00.015-04:00

At the beginning of the month, there was the official end of summer vacations around here, mom was off of work for the first week of August, we went down to Burlington for a day, we went to bleu lavende, on a mother/daughter day with rachelle and ruthie...we ate at the ripplecove inn...it was lovely. Then, just when I thought that things were going to slow down a little...I had forgotten a small detail about the month of august...

My brother has been organizing a ball hockey tournament called Play it Forward Kids for the past 8 years. The proceeds of the tournament go to help underpriviliged kids get some sports equipment so that they can participate in sports that they otherwise would not be able to. It's a lot of work and every year he gives so much of himself to this tournament...and he loves it! Just to watch his face on the day of the tournament...and even more so on the day when the kids get to come and choose their sports equipment. Every year the tournament grows, and this year, it expanded to include 2 cities, Montreal and Kingston. The two tournaments were on back to back weekends in August. Both events were great successes...way to go, little brother! My "area of expertise" is registration (which I normally loathe) however, this year we brought technology to the park and registration was a breeze with the help of my laptop!!

With the help of my friend, we began working on the walls of the new kitchen at my moms. The room was used by the previous owners as a classroom for homeschooling, and there was a chalkboard on one wall and a corkboard on the other...the chalkboard needed to be covered with plaster...to smooth out all the millions of holes the previous owner put in the wall with a nail gun to put on the border of the chalkboard...I can assure you that you could have hung off the molding around the chalkboard and the wall would have fallen before the molding would have given way...there were so many nails! Repairing the corkboard wall was worse...they glued the corkboard to the wall and when we removed the cork, the glue stayed on the wall...so we had to scrape it off, and in the process damaged the wall underneath. So for the kitchen, I would say that for one whole week, it was plaster, plaster, and more plaster...and finally, the next week, paint! It is finally ready for the cabinets!!

We are still discussing the playroom...I think it won't be official until the paint is purchased!

Even with all the keeping busy the wait is getting to us...we don't want it to, we're trying to be patient, but I think we both never really thought that we would be waiting for this long...we both thought that we would have had our proposal by now. I realized recently that it is highly unlikely that we'll have our Little One home for Christmas this year and that was a sad, sad day. We know that it is all out of our control, and we know that we need to be patient and that God's timing is perfect. However, in those quiet moments when I'm alone, and the longing in my heart makes it hard to breathe...it just feels like the waiting will never end.

The Chasing Moose Tour - Day 11

2010-07-29T11:38:00.006-04:00

We arrived early in the morning in Sunny North Sydney, since I had a good sleep on the ferry, I started driving and Eric went to sleep. I drove through Nova Scotia, and then we switched drivers, and he drove through half of New Brunswick, and then I drove the other half of New Brunswick and into Quebec...we switched drivers just outside Quebec City, and Eric drove home.

Before starting the drive home, we decided that we would only drive the 16 hours if we really felt like we could do it, otherwise, we would stop and stay over somewhere in New Brunswick. The drive went well and we were feeling good, so we decided that we would drive home.

The majority of the drive was uneventful, it wasn't until we got just outside of Quebec City where we hit a storm, and the rain was coming down so hard I thought that we may have to sleep there for the night. Thankfully though we pushed through and we only hit a couple of spots with really bad rain.

We were so glad to arrive home safely and to be able to sleep in our own bed! However, we're dreaming of...Newfoundland...

The Chasing Moose Tour - Day 10

2010-07-28T23:41:00.019-04:00

Today, our plan was to drive to Port-aux-Basques and tour around the area. Our Ferry wasn't until midnight, so we knew that it would be a long day, and the only day of our trip where we could "stop and smell the roses" whenever we wanted to.

While we were touring around Newfoundland, we had passed many Brooks, and each time, I wanted to stop and take a picture, today was the day where I would do just that, we stopped and took pictures whenever we wanted to. We took our time driving to Port-aux-Basques.

We stopped at the Wreckhouse site - the most windy spot in Newfoundland. It was a stunning site!

En route to the Rose Blanche Lighthouse, we came upon the Barachois Falls...there was a boardwalk like path that was in bad need of repair, but that only added to the adventure. We walked right up to the pool at the base of the falls. It was stunning! I loved the landscape on this side of Newfoundland. After the little hike to the falls and back, we made our way to the Lighthouse.

It was a really beautiful site, and while we were there, we witnessed a marriage and a baptism.

We headed back to the Port-aux-Basques area for supper. We ate COD...Yummy! Afterwards, we walked along the boardwalk, while there, we saw a ferry come in and an older man came by to ask us if we wanted to buy and old fishing boat....I wish I would have taken a picture of the boat...it was awful...the old man said the price was good, but that the boat needed work. We could see that the boat needed a lot of work, and he informed us that there had been some homeless people who had been living in the boat for a while. We thanked him for telling us about the boat for sale, but told him that we weren't interested in buying a boat.

We still had a long while to wait for our ferry, so we decided to tour around. We stopped to buy some gifts. Then we drove around and ended up at Grand Bay Beach. Grand Bay is the home of a Piping Plover Reserve. We were lucky enough to see a couple of them...but they're small and they move really quickly, so both photos we took are blurry. There was a lovely boardwalk on the ocean. There were lots of rocky beaches and we saw our first sand beach in Newfoundland there. We stopped at two rocky beaches...at one, there were many Inukshuk's and Eric decided to add to the collection. And at the other, we went down to the beach to throw some stones in the water and to check out the temperature of the water (it was cold...like turn your skin red kind of cold!). We continued walking along the boardwalk until sunset, unfortunately there were too many clouds for it to be a spectacular show.

I'm so glad that the last moments we had on the Rock were spent walking along the ocean...I LOVE Newfoundland...and I already know I'm going to miss this place...and we haven't even left yet!

Once it was dark outside, (around 10pm) we headed over to the Marine Atlantic terminal to wait for our ferry home. The ferry was a little late leaving Newfoundland. Once we boarded the ferry, we headed for the air seats. We were lucky enough to have found them again, and I had a good sleep (on the floor - the chairs are not so comfy after sitting in a car all day).

I guess since we're leaving the province tonight that the offical Moose count for our trip was just 2! I know we could have seen more if we had chosen to drive more at night, but we thought it would be safer to drive during the day (and we could see more of this beautiful province....Good bye for now Newfoundland...we'll be back one day!

The Chasing Moose Tour - Day 9

2010-07-28T01:13:00.012-04:00

Today we are leaving St.John's and heading to Grand Falls/Windsor. We packed up our room and headed out...we stopped at The Rooms on our way out of town. The Rooms is a museum, art gallery and archive in the heart of St.John's, we enjoyed our visit, it took us about two hours to go through, but at the end we were rushing (there's a 2 hour maximum for the free parking). We probably could have spent all day there! We stopped at some stores on the way out of town and then we were on our way to Grand Falls/Windsor.

We stopped at Blue Mountain in the Terra Nova National Park.

We stayed at the Carriage House Inn B&B it was the most modern of all the B&B’s that we stayed at. We loved the decor of the room, the king sized bed and the bath with jets! We were pretty tired so we decided to stay in and relax - we didn't even have dinner. We started watching a movie, but we were so tired that we didn’t finish watching it.

Of all of the days of our vacation, this day was the one where we took the least photos and it was the day that we rested the most.

The Chasing Moose Tour - Day 8

2010-07-27T00:47:00.011-04:00

This morning, we headed over to Cape Spear, the most easterly point in North America. It is a lovely site with a working lighthouse and the whales came to give us another show – not nearly as spectacular as the one on Quirpon, but neat to see either way! We walked around the site and watched the whales which took us about an hour and a half.

(That's Eric under the flower)

On our way back to St. John’s, we stopped in Petty Harbour. It was a pretty little town, The harbour was different than any other we’d seen.

After taking some pictures, we headed back to downtown St. John’s (One of Eric’s favourite spots). We did some shopping and then we went to Kelly’s Pub for Fish and chips. It was recommended by Joy, our hostess at the B&B and we were not disappointed. It may have been the best fish and chips we had while we were in Newfoundland. Their coleslaw was amazing!

It was incredibly hot that day, and we headed back to the B&B to shower before dinner. We were a little early for dinner, but we didn’t want to get all sweaty again, so we decided to tour around a little in the car. We drove up to Signal Hill, and got out of the car for just long enough to take a couple of pictures and then we got back in the car and drove around a little more and then headed out to Torbay for dinner at Renee and Brian’s.

When we arrived, we were greeted outside by Renee and Sid (their dog). I was so excited to meet Sid, but as it turned out he didn't like me – at all, but he did like Eric. I even tried to woo him with a bone from dinner, but he would have none of it! Dinner was wonderful....Eric especially liked the warm blueberry crisp for dessert!

I think we were all a little nervous at first, but we soon found out that we had lots to talk about! We were supposed to go for a walk, but we got to talking and it looked like rain, after awhile though, we decided to go for a walk. We headed to Signal Hill to get some pictures of downtown at night.

We headed back to Renee & Brian’s and we chatted a little more, and I didn’t realize the time...it was midnight when we left! Renee gets up super early and we kept her up super late! (sorry Renee!) Thanks so much for everything! Our visit with you was one of the highlights of our trip and we hope that you’ll come and visit us in Montreal really soon!!

21 months

2010-07-27T00:17:00.013-04:00

As with each passing month, we can hardly believe that we have reached this benchmark - well we say that, but then again it seems to have taken forever to get here... and since we don't know when the end of our wait will be... it seems like we'll be waiting forever to get that elusive CALL. We know that the key is to keep busy so time passes more quickly, and so we have been, but that doesn't change that longing to finally see the face of our Little One!

This month has mostly been about vacation. The first week of the month was spent planning the final details for our vacation, and preparing for our trip. We were away for 11 days. We watched our niece for one week, and my mom watched my niece and my nephew for one week. So to say that this month was busy is probably an understatement!

Mom is still on vacation so we have another week of vacation activities planned and then we'll be getting back to work.

We are very anxious to get the call... we thought that being on vacation would help us to not think quite so much about the adoption, but we found that we were thinking more about our Little One, thinking about how different our vacation would have been with our Little One in tow.

We have also through the month still been dealing with the passing away of our dog, Hobbes. We miss him a lot.

We have a long list of things that need to get done in the house. We've (re)started the debate on the paint colour in the play room... We're pretty much settled on not painting it black - otherswise it could go so many different ways - at this point Eric is campainging for red and I'm thinking brown...and once we know if it's a boy or girl...we can accent with gender appropriate colors...i.e brown and blue...brown and pink...brown and turquoise...you get the idea...we'll keep you all posted about what we decide...feel free to weigh in on the debate!

The Chasing Moose Tour - Day 7

2010-07-23T09:45:00.010-04:00

We left Twillingatethis morning, it was a beautiful sunny morning, we packed up our things, packed the car and since it was such a beautiful morning, we decided to head out to the Lighthouse/Lookout one last time to take some pictures of the lighthouse and of my favorite house in Twillingate.

As we left Twillingate, we stopped to pick up a sandwich for the road at The Cozy Tea Room - where we had toutons yesterday...oh so yummy! We headed towards Gander. Along the road, we came to a 16km stretch of highway that they called rough roads. It was 16km of dirt, gravel and pot holes! While we were driving that stretch of road, from Twillingate to Gander, we saw a horse tied to a tree with just a rope and we nearly hit a dog, he jumped in front of our car...I guess he wanted to play!

The drive was beautiful from Twillingate to Gander, but between Gander and Mount Pearl, there was thick fog, and rain.

Arriving in the Mount Pearl/St.John's area felt kind of surreal, after seeing all of the quaint fishing villages along our way, it was weird to see the housing development filled suburbs. It was very obvious that there were a lot more people living in this part of Newfoundland. Have I mentioned before that I don't like crowds very much?

We drove in to St. John’s, found our B&B and checked ourselves in. We unloaded the car just in time before the rain! We called Renee to let her know that we had arrived in St. John’s and then we rested a little. While talking to Renee, we made plans to get together for dinner tomorrow evening(July 14th). We decided to go and explore downtown St. John’s and to see if our friend Matt was free. Matt had plans with his family for dinner but told us that he would be free after dinner for coffee. We walked around downtown, on Duckworth and Water Streets. There are lots of neat shops, but we didn’t do any shopping, we went to dinner at a pub/brewery called Yellowbelly’s. The food was ok...but the service not so much. After dinner we walked around a bit more while Eric was exchanging texts with Matt. We decided to meet up at a coffee shop near our B&B called Coffee Matters. It was a nice little shop with a few tables outside, and since it was hot out, it was nice to sit out and enjoy the breeze. We sat and chatted for awhile and then we walked around downtown again but this time from a different route, and in a more residential area, where they have all the “Row” houses. I love them all. I love the colors and how each owner has made their own house unique! I took a lot of pictures of those houses.

On the way we stopped for Ice cream at Moo Moo’s, where they make homemade ice cream. After walking around downtown, we headed back to the B&B...I was so tired! So we said goodbye to our friend Matt, and went to bed...there was no air conditioning, but Joy, our hostess was kind enough to find us a fan. Eric said to me as he was lying in bed while I was working on the blog "I don't know if I'll be able to sleep in this heat" I looked over about 3 minutes later...and he was out like a light!

The Chasing Moose Tour - Day 6

2010-07-13T00:25:00.011-04:00

We woke up to another rainy morning. We ate a nice breakfast of French toast with fruit, and fresh coconut scones and partridge berry muffins. We had to change rooms in the B&B, so we packed up and moved rooms. Our host was kind enough to take care of doing a load of laundry for us.

We headed out around 9 and we decided that today would be mostly a museum day since it was raining so much. We stopped at the Durrell museum, it was an interesting place, and there were lots of neat old things to look at, including a stuffed polar bear! There was also a craft shop in the museum so we were able to get some shopping in. There are lots of affordable handmade items in the craft shops. Then we went to the Twillingate Museum, again there were lots of nice and interesting things to look at and there was a craft shop there too.

We then headed over to the Auk Island Winery. We sampled almost every wine they make...and we went on a tour of the winery...it was neat to see since we make our own wine at home. We went for lunch at a little tea room where I had toutons for the first time! Toutons is fried bread that is served with molasses. Oh My!! It was so good. Eric had beef soup and a ham sandwich.

We then headed to the Prime Berth, a fishing heritage museum dedicated to the cod fishing industry that was. After that, we were pretty tired and we headed back to the B&B for a little nap.

We woke up at 8pm! We went for a quick dinner (at R&J’s – we had a hamburger and their wedge fries!), another tour of the town, we went back to see the lighthouse on the cliff, and then we headed back to R&J’s for dessert...partridgeberry pie with ice cream and coffee.

We toured the town again. I have been playing around with my camera to try to get it to take some pictures at night, and I think I have finally figured it out! We took some pictures around the town and then headed back to the B&B.

We’re heading to St. John’s tomorrow..but first...
Here's a picture of the house that is on the Kleen.ex Box this summer...Highlighting some of the most beautiful places in Canada...except the picture on the Kleen.ex box has three huge icebergs...and it's a beautiful sunny day...Oh well...we loved Twillingate anyway!

The Chasing Moose Tour - Day 5

2010-07-13T00:00:00.009-04:00

I woke up at 5:00AM. I don’t know why, I just couldn’t sleep. I got up and showered and got ready and then headed out to take some photos around the b&b. We packed our things and after we had eaten, we were on our way.
A little house beside Hillside b&b

The view out our window at Hillside b&b.

We drove to Roddickton to drop off some things and have a quick visit with my friend Ruthie’s parents. It was a nice drive on secondary highways, so the roads were not as nice, but there were hardly any other drivers out there! We were about 40 minutes outside of Roddickton when we finally saw our first Moose! Actually there were two moose in a clearing on the side of the road. I stopped to take a few photos. Eric was extremely nervous, he didn’t want me to stop, I think he thought the moose were going to charge us! After a few pictures, the moose went back into the woods and we were on our way.

Once in Roddickton we had coffee with Ruthie’s parents. It was nice to get to know them a little, I’ve been friends with Ruthie for about 12 years now, but had only met her parents a few times, but it was always just a quick visit. After our visit, we headed out and began the long drive from Roddickton to Twillingate. The first third of the drive was nice, it was a nice clear day, and then when we got to the coast it was foggy! We couldn’t see the coast for all the fog. Once we got to Deer Lake it had cleared up and there was no rain for the rest of the drive. Driving through central Newfoundland reminded us of driving through northern New Hampshire or Vermont. We arrived in Twillingate at about 7:00pm We drove to the Lighthouse at the very edge of the island before heading back to our b&b.

After checking in we asked where to get some decent food on a Sunday night our host told us only one restaurant would be open – R&J’s... We were both a little nervous about going to R&J’s because the outside looked like a truck stop, but we were pleasantly surprised when we entered. The inside was nicely decorated with an amazing view of the wharf, and the food was delicious! We had cod (again!) and this was the best cod that we’ve had to date! After dinner it looked like it was going to be a beautiful sunset evening, so we headed out to find some places where we could take some pictures. We were not disappointed, the sunset was one of the most beautiful that we have ever seen and coupled with the quaint fishing village, it was perfect.

We headed back to the b&b to get some rest. I was happy to be able to connect to the internet and chat with my mom, my sis-in-law, and my friend, and to upload some pictures to the computer and catch up on some blogging.

Moose Count : 2

The Chasing Moose Tour - Day 4

2010-07-11T23:37:00.008-04:00

When the alarm went off this morning, and I looked out the bedroom window and all I saw was fog...I was disappointed. This was not turning out as I had planned.

Breakfast, was an omelette with eggs, sausage, mushrooms and tomato which was served with toast made using homemade bread, and there were five different kinds of jam (bake apple, partridge berry, rhubarb, apple, and strawberry) – all homemade of course and all delicious!

After breakfast, we packed up our things. We then read for a little while and around 9:30 we headed out for a walk. We were pleasantly surprised when we got outside to see that we could see the ocean! We started walking along the path, but we were quickly distracted by the sights and the sounds of the ocean. The rugged, natural beauty of the place is breathtaking.

As we were walking, Eric heard something and headed towards the edge of the cliffs. There were two whales swimming by! What a sight to see. We continued walking along the edge of the cliffs...I almost lost my shoe when I stepped in a wet marshy spot! We walked for about an hour and a half, and as we did, the fog lifted a little...but only to make room for the rain, by the time we got back,we were drenched! There is a whale watching room (a little house with 2 glass walls) on the edge of the cliffs, so we went there to read for a while and to try to spot more whales. We did see some whales, but not too many. After awhile, I was still cold...there’s something about the foggy rain and the wind up there that the cold just gets into your bones! We went back to the Inn and read for a bit before lunch. We ate homemade soup for lunch with fresh bread and carrot cake for dessert. It was delicious! Just after lunch we were told that the whales were feeding just off the point. So if we were very careful, we could walk down the cliff at the point of the island and see the whales feeding.

We headed down there and we were not disappointed!! The whales put on a spectacular show just in front of us...we could see them coming up to the surface with their mouths open and see the fish scrambling to try to get away...and then the whale closed it’s mouth and went back under! There were schools of seals...probably more than 50 in each one...and in the air, Gannetts flew overhead...the ocean’s waves were crashing up on the rocks just in front of us...it truly was spectacular! We were there for at least an hour and a half and there was whale after whale feeding and jumping and rolling over...I think there may have been 3 different kinds...minke, humpback and maybe another we're not too sure...and there easily could have been more, we just couldn’t keep track anymore. We took lots of pictures, but the action happens so quickly that you just want to stand back and watch it all unfold. We could see the water begin to move and then we saw the fish literally jump out of the water to try to get away from the whales, then we saw the humpbacks jump out of the water and open their mouths to eat the fish!

We headed back up to the Inn and it was time to leave. We said our good-byes to our new friends and made our way down to the dock.

We had a quick ride back down the island. When we came around the point of the island, there was a whale that we surprised and he had come up for air as we passed. At first it was just Eric and I in the boat, and then we picked up some extra passengers who had walked the whole length of the island.

We were dropped off at the wharf. We then headed to our b&b (Hillsview) in Gunner’s Cove. We passed it by accident, so we kept going to the next town (I was hoping to find a little road that headed out to the coast so that we could try to see the icebergs in town). We weren’t successful, so we headed back to the b&b. We checked in and then downloaded all our pictures onto our computer (we ran out of room on one of our cameras!).

We then went back to the Norseman for dinner...I again had the cod...it was delicious...again! Eric had a steak which was also good. He had a chocolate terrine served with bake apples and I had the partridge berry pie! We arrived back at the b&b at 10pm, hoping for an early night...but I started writing and Eric was reading...he’s been asleep for an hour or so now...so he’ll be driving the first leg of our long day of driving tomorrow.

We’ll be driving to Roddickton to drop off some gifts to my friend Ruthie’s parents. We tried to call Ruthie’s parents to let them know that we’re planning to arrive tomorrow at around 10am, but my cell phone doesn’t work out here...hopefully by the time we reach St-Anthony tomorrow I’ll be able to call to let them know when we’ll arrive. After Roddickton, we’ll head to Twillingate where we’ll be for two nights...what a luxury! I’m off now to see what I can plan for us while we’re in the Twillingate area. Then I’ll be off to bed myself.

Moose Count – 0

The Chasing Moose Tour - Day 3

2010-07-11T21:05:00.006-04:00

We left Rocky Harbour at 7:30am. The drive to L’Anse-aux-Meadows was nice, it was another foggy and rainy day, but the landscape is beautiful and the drive along the coast is breathtaking. There are many small villages along the way and I wanted to stop in each one! We saw quite a few men fishing by the side of the road wherever there was a brook...I have to find out the definition of a brook. I always thought it was a small river...the brooks here are huge!

We arrived in the l’Anse-aux-Meadows area around 11:30am and we were both really hungry. We decided to eat at a restaurant called “The Norseman”, we had read some reviews about the restaurant and we were not disappointed! The food was amazing! I had pan fried cod and Eric ate a caribou burger. Both were delicious! The plates looked so nice I wanted to take a picture, but I was too shy.

After lunch we went to l’Anse-aux-Meadows. It is really a beautiful sight. You can see that great care was taken to decorate the site as it would have been. We walked around the four buildings, and then we walked on a path that took us up hills and around rocky cliffs overlooking the ocean. It was beyond beautiful. It was a grey, rainy, foggy day, but it didn’t matter.

We then went over to Norstead, a Viking village, where there was a festival going on. We toured the site, and talked to all of the “characters” at the village. While we were watching the ladies use a loom and knit, we decided to buy Eric a hat that was made on site by them. While he went back to the car, I stayed talking to the ladies, I had just started to talk to them about the surprise I had planned for him later when he came back and the ladies were making all kinds of noise (they didn’t realize that it was supposed to be a surprise), saying "Oh that's nice...oh you'll like that!". Eric was confused, and I told him that he had to go back outside so that I could finish telling my story. So by this point, he knew something was up. I asked him if he wanted to know what the surprise was, and he said no, so we finished our tour and it was almost time for us to catch the boat over to the surprise location. We got in the car and I drove to the little town of Quirpon (the people here pronounce it "Carpoon"), I told him that there were supposed to be some Icebergs there and I was hoping to catch a glimpse.

We drove down to the dock and when we saw the sign for the Quirpon Lighthouse Inn, I said here’s your surprise. At first, he thought that we were we were just going on a boat tour, so he was a little confused when I told him that we had to bring our back packs on the boat, I then explained that we would be staying at Quirpon for the night, and he was rather surprised afterall! We got our things together and waited for the boat to arrive to pick us and the other guests up. There was a couple from Germany, and a Mom with her daughter and her grandson from Pennsylvania and us. The waters were pretty rough and it took us almost an hour to get to the other side of the 6km island. We saw 2 icebergs on the way – they were pretty far in the distance, but they were icebergs! Eric enjoyed the boat ride and he spent most of the time talking to a local celebrity, Earl Pilgram, an author. He was standing on the edge of the little boat, with the spray splashing in his face...and he loved every minute. The fog was so thick that when we arrived, we could not even see the lighthouse! As we stepped off the boat, the inn keeper said to us “now just walk on up to the house beside the lighthouse”. We began walking on the path, but we couldn’t see the lighthouse, and we weren’t too sure about the path...but eventually the lighthouse came into view and we arrived at the house.

The lighthouse is on top of the hill on the right...what? can't you see it?!

Oh! There it is!

We were welcomed in by Madonna, she told us where we could find our room, and we headed up to find a cozy little room. It was perfect! It really felt like we were staying at a friend’s house! I had a little nap before dinner. We headed down to dinner at 6:30pm where our group was joined by a couple, who had been at the island for 2 days and had 2 days left before they were off on their tour of Newfoundland, Labrador (1 night) and then on to Nova Scotia. We ate Jiggs Dinner for supper (salt beef, peas pudding, dumplings with molasses (YUMMY) potatoes, turnip and carrots) – it was delicious!! With lemon pie for dessert...the pie crust that we have had in Newfoundland is quite different than any other that we've tried, it's not flaky, it has a cake-y texture. After dinner we joined the other guests in the living room to chat, then Eric and I went for a walk – since we were leaving in the morning I wanted to get the most out of our time on the island. We walked only so far because it was starting to get dark out, and it was so foggy that we couldn’t see anything. I was pretty disappointed about the weather – I realize that there’s nothing I could do about it, but since we were only going to be there for one night and the weather really wasn’t cooperating...I wanted it to be rainy...because at least then we would have been able to see the ocean...with the fog...we knew the ocean was there, but we couldn’t see it.

We headed back in to the Inn, where we had a glass of wine with the other guests before they all headed up to bed. We stayed up a little later and chatted, and had a little more wine. We asked Madonna if it would be possible for us to stay on the island until the afternoon, because we knew that there was a boat of people coming back to the island that night, she told us that it wouldn’t be a problem, we could stay on the island until 5pm. We were thrilled, I set the alarm for very early because I wanted to go for a walk and maybe watch the sunrise if the weather was going to cooperate.

Moose Count – 0

The Chasing Moose Tour - Day 2

2010-07-08T20:14:00.011-04:00

Newfoundland is beautiful...in the rain and in the fog, it doesn't matter, it is just beautiful, the landscape is amazing...a "take your breath away", make you want to cry kind of amazing.

After we got off the ferry, we stopped at the Visitors Information Centre and we picked up some pamphlets (and brushed our teeth - We'll know for the return trip that you can take a shower on the ferry - well you could in the air seats!)

We drove to Rocky Harbour, stopping quickly in Corner Brook for gas and Pineapple Crush (a friend from home recommended it), and then we stopped in Deer Lake to see a Giant Moose. We had reservations for the Western Brook Pond Boat tour, so we stopped to pick up our tickets, and our park pass and then we went to Western Brook Pond and we walked the 3km trail to the dock, only to be told that due to the rain and the fog, we wouldn't be able to take the tour after all. We were really disappointed, and the 3km walk back to the car in the rain was not fun! Rain + Sweating + Humidity makes Tammy a grumpy pants! On a positive note, we were able to take some amazing pictures and see some amazing vistas that we would not have seen if we hadn't tried to go on the tour.

We stopped in Rocky Harbour to take some pictures and get reimbursed for the boat tour, and then we checked into our hotel, Fisherman's Landing Inn. It's a nice place, clean, well located, friendly staff, good food (Eric ate cod, which I tasted and it was delicious, I ate a stir fry, and we had blueberry crumble for dessert - really, really expensive wine - 4.95 for a half a glass! and the bottle was nearly $30 - for regular old wine...nothing fancy). We almost didn't stay here because I had read a review on Trip Advisor that made me think maybe we shouldn't stay here, but I must say it's a nice place.

We came back to our room and we "touched base" with some friends and family at home and we began working on our journal. Now...I have to plan Day 3, I am going to try to have our bags packed with enough of our supplies so that when we get to the surprise location tomorrow, it will hopefully still be a surprise(that is unless he peeked at the papers I've been hiding ;)

p.s. Moose seen: 0

The Chasing Moose Tour - Day 1

2010-07-08T20:05:00.006-04:00

We're on the road!

I should start by saying that for me, the day before the trip and Day 1, the day we began our trip blend into one. I was packing and getting ready for the trip, so I only slept for 2 hours before waking up at 3:45am and leaving home at 4:30am. Needless to say, Eric drove for the first leg of the trip, while I got some much needed sleep. I slept for about 2 hours then once we reached a little town called La Pocatiere, and we saw that they had a Tim Horton's we decided to get a coffee and a bagel for me and we switched drivers. I drove from La Pocatiere, QC to Sackville, NB. Eric then took over again and he drove from Sackville, NB to North Sydney, NS. We basically drove 16 hours straight from Montreal to North Sydney - just stopping for gas (and pee breaks), coffee, and an amazing sandwich.

I was pretty tired, and I was thankful that I had some Pistachios with me...munching on them helped to keep me awake while Eric got some needed shut-eye. I knew that I would not be able to drive once it started to get dark, so Eric drove in the morning, I drove during the day and he drove in the evening.

For dinner, we ate at Lick-a-Chick's in the North Sydney area...I must say...it was some pretty good fried chicken...but my tummy was not too happy with me...the greasy food...ugh

We were early for our ferry (which was good because the alternative would have been to be driving at night through Cape Breton) So, we waited 4 hours for the ferry. We were parked in line, and we just waited, we tried to sleep - Eric was able to, but not me, my butt was not happy about being in the car after spending 16 hours there...so I walked around a bit and looked at some travel books. We finally boarded the ferry and we walked upstairs. We followed a bunch of people in front of us and at one point, we had gone up too many levels and one of the ferry workers asked us where we were going, so Eric said we're looking for the seats. So the nice ferry worker pointed us to the "air seats". It was a darkened room full of comfy air seats. And the room was empty (well there was one other person there, but she went away later). I could not get comfortable in the "air seat" (see above about how my butt was feeling!) and so I took out my quilt, and my pillow and wrapped myself in my quilt and I laid on the floor in front of the seat and I took a gravol...just in case...and I fell asleep for 6 whole hours! Eric woke me up at 8 o'clock and the ferry arrived at 9:30am. This was one of those times where being clueless totally paid off!

p.s. Moose seen: 0

Vacation

2010-07-06T22:21:00.006-04:00

We have been trying to decide where to go for our vacation for a few months now. We really feel like we NEED to get away.

At the beginning of July, Eric booked his vacation dates and it was only a few days later that I realized that the tickets we had purchased back in March for the "Young at Heart" show fell right in the middle of Eric's holidays. We tried to figure out what to do...we really wanted to see the show, but we also felt really strongly that we needed to get away. We tried to consider all the options, going on two mini vacations and coming home for the show between the two...going on one bigger (more expensive) vacation and then staying home for the second week of holidays...staying at home and doing day trips...really we tried to consider every option. We eventually decided that it was more important for us to go away than for us to see the show...and we could see the show another time (like in Boston in the fall for example).

So, we've decided to go to Newfoundland for our vacation! We're so excited. Neither of us has been there before and we're sure that it will be an exciting adventure. It will be a crazy road trip...with lots of hours spent in the car...but the sights and sounds will be worth it I'm sure. We'll be meeting Renee and her hubby (and hopefully Sid too!) while we're in St. John's!

We'll be leaving VERY early on Wednesday morning and we'll drive 16 hours to get to the ferry. Then we'll sail across to the island (which will take 6ish hours). Hopefully we'll sleep on the ferry because once we arrive in Port-aux-Basques...we're going to hit the ground running! We'll be staying mostly in B&B's and we'll be doing A LOT of driving!

We each have one thing that we are most looking forward to...for Eric, it is the Viking festival near l'Anse-aux-Meadows, and for me, it's Icebergs...I'm hoping to see just one...I talked to a nice man while making a (secret) reservation and he told me that it wasn't the best of years for seeing icebergs...I told him I just wanted to see one and he assured me that I should at least be able to see one (especially at the secret location!).

So...we're off...we'll be back in a couple of weeks! We'll be sure to post many photos and to document our journey!

House and Garden and mom's new puppy

2010-07-05T11:56:00.013-04:00

View from the front of the house...our backyard is actually on the side of the house. Right behind the cherry and plum trees.

The little perennial garden in front of the house. All the plants are so tiny this year! I can't wait to see this next year! We're putting in a small fence and a gate (to close in the yard in the front), and we're going to be putting in a fence between the garage and the house and using that space as a shaded patio. Our deck is in full sun all day and all evening so sometimes it's a little too hot out there.

Our vegetable garden...Mom and I built the cedar planters. We'll have to build a couple more for next year. We have already harvested almost all the beans, the carrots are coming along, and so are the tomatoes cucumbers and the zucchini. Don't mind the patchy grass...we re-seeded the yard and the grass is still coming in.

Introducing...Darcy...my mom got a puppy on the weekend...he's a cocker spaniel mix...and he's totally adorable. It's nice to have him in the house...but I must admit, I'd forgotten how much attention they need. It's ok, Darcy...cuz you're cute!

Vacation

2010-07-01T23:20:00.008-04:00

We have been trying to decide where to go for our vacation for a few months now. We really feel like we NEED to get away.

At the beginning of July, Eric booked his vacation dates and it was only a few days later that I realized that the tickets we had purchased back in March for the "Young at Heart" show fell right in the middle of Eric's holidays. We tried to figure out what to do...we really wanted to see the show, but we also felt really strongly that we needed to get away. We tried to consider all the options, going on two mini vacations and coming home for the show between the two...going on one bigger (more expensive) vacation and then staying home for the second week of holidays...staying at home and doing day trips...really we tried to consider every option. We eventually decided that it was more important for us to go away than for us to see the show...and we could see the show another time (like in Boston in the fall for example).

So, we've decided to go to Newfoundland for our vacation! We're so excited. Neither of us has been there before and we're sure that it will be an exciting adventure. It will be a crazy road trip...with lots of hours spent in the car...but the sights and sounds will be worth it I'm sure. We hope to meet up with Renee and her hubby (and maybe Sid?) while we're in St. John's!

We'll be leaving VERY early on Wednesday morning and we'll drive 16 hours to get to the ferry. Then we'll sail across to the island (which will take 6ish hours). Hopefully we'll sleep on the ferry because once we arrive in Port-aux-Basques...we're going to hit the ground running! We'll be staying mostly in B&B's and we'll be doing A LOT of driving!

We each have one thing that we are most looking forward to...for Eric, it is the Viking festival near l'anse aux Meadows, and for me, it's Icebergs...I'm hoping to see just one...I talked to a nice man while making a (secret) reservation today and he told me that it wasn't the best of years for seeing...I told him I just wanted to see one and he assured me that I should at least be able to see one (especially at the secret location!). I promise to tell you all about the secret location when we return...for now, it's a surprise for my hubby.

So...we're off...we'll be back in a couple of weeks! We'll be sure to post many photos and to document our journey!

20 months

2010-06-27T23:31:00.011-04:00

Twenty long months...we're nearing the finish line (I hope!). I keep telling myself that we're closer to the end than to the beginning...and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's true.

We've finished up our Pre-Adoption classes. The six weeks flew by and we are so happy that we were able to take the course...we'll write up the summary's for the last couple of courses soon.

Hobbes died...and we've been dealing with it, I don't think we realized the effect of having a sick dog had on us. We worried a lot about him, and about each other; we worried about knowing when to make the right decision for him and now, we're tired.

Eric has been sick with sinusitis and a bad cough for almost a month now...he's finishing up some antibiotics (which don't seem to be helping), so I think he'll be off to the clinic again to see what they think should be the next step to help him get better

We've been gardening...and planting new grass! We had a dump truck full of earth to move and spread over our entire property and then we re-seeded the lawn. The grass was in dire need. The new grass has grown in nicely...we still have some pesky weeds...but we're working on them. Our garden is growing nicely, we've had so much rain in the past few weeks that the garden is actually growing out of control! We've already begun to eat some beans and lettuce, and we've been using the fresh herbs...there's nothing like it! We also planted a perennial garden in the front of the house...there were no plants there and it looked so bare! I like how it turned out and can't wait for next year to see how the plants will fill in. We also need to finish fencing in the yard. The previous owners didn't close in the fence (?!) so we need to put up a gate and install a section of fence. While we were digging the holes for the fence posts we decided that we would also gate off the side of the house (I'll have to post pictures) and put in a small shaded patio area. So we put in the fence posts, and now we need to put in the fence and then we'll work on the patio area.

We were supposed to have a beach day on the 24th (St-Jean Baptiste Holiday), but the weather didn't cooperate, so we had a BBQ instead at a friend's house. It turned out to be a fun day and we were able to enjoy the town's fireworks from their yard while sitting by the fire.

My mom has two birthdays...according to her mom, she was born on June 26th, but according to the (Nova Scotia) government, she was born on June 23rd...so we celebrated both...just to be sure ;) On the 23rd, we had some friends come over for cake and ice cream...and on the 26th, we planned a (sort of) surprise party. We told her that my brother and his family was coming over in the afternoon...we neglected to tell her that we had invited more people to the party. She had surprise after surprise all afternoon while the guests arrived...It was so fun to see her face!

On the adoption front, not much is new, we haven't had any news and there are many families who have passed or who are close to passing the 24 month waiting time. It is discouraging to know that things are moving so slowly and we don't know why. I am trying to stay hopeful, but at the same time, I am preparing myself that it is entirely possible that we too will pass the 24 month waiting period.

Pre-Adoption Class 4

2010-06-12T01:00:00.003-04:00

We were mourning the loss of our Hobbes, so we didn't attend the class.

The class was given by a CLSC nurse who talked about the services offered to adoptive families. We were told that the information that was shared could be obtained by contacting my local CLSC when we receive our proposal.

We're looking forward to the 5th class...it's all day Saturday and we'll be discussing attachment.

Hobbes

2010-06-10T00:39:00.007-04:00

Hobbes Bonk Walker
January 29, 2007 - June 10, 2010

19 Months

2010-05-27T23:21:00.012-04:00

...one month closer Little One!

Early in May we met some new friends; Jessica, Jon and Nathaniel. Jessica and I met through the adoption e-mail groups we belong to and our paths kept crossing in one way or another so we thought it was time to meet face to face. It was a fun and relaxing afternoon. It was nice to get to know them and to discuss adoption with them... Oh and Nathaniel is an absolute cutie pie!!

Mom was back at the hospital again with her dry eyes, and ripped cornea, we ended up going back to see her opthamologist and hopefully it won't happen again, but if it does, we know that we can call the doctor, without having to wait all day at the hospital.

We found out that Hobbes has cancer... you can read about it in this post.

Our pre-adoption Class offered a (somewhat) local CLSC...you can read about it here...here (coming soon)...and here(coming soon)..

Work began on mom's kitchen, we worked on the layout, bought the cabinets, have hired a plumber and the installation should begin next week! - You'll have a kitchen soon mom.

With the nice weather (read heat wave in May), we have begun working in the garden we'll be planting this weekend. We are especially looking forward to reaping the benefits. For mom, it will be her first garden ever, so that will make it extra special for us.

Pre-Adoption Class 2

2010-05-22T02:33:00.009-04:00

This week we discussed the grieving process in adoption; the importance of parent's grief as well as the grieving process that we can anticipate our child having. It is evident that it will be challenging dealing with issues that we know little about and for which our child will lack the tools to communicate...

The animator shared with us the importance of having a Roots Box as well as having a Treasure Chest. Both Eric and I wrote down that we need to talk to Uncle Tim about making the Roots Box and the Treasure Chest. He said he's got lots of ideas already... We can't wait to see what Uncle Tim creates for you, Little One. I don't think we've mentioned it here before, but your Uncle Tim and Auntie Charleen are very much looking forward to meeting you, Little One!

We liked most of the ideas that were shared about the Roots Box, and we're looking forward to putting our own together for our Little One. I especially liked the tip to plasticize everything (not the originals) so that the Little One can play with them...afterall it is their Roots Box.

Pre-Adoption Class 1

2010-05-22T02:32:00.006-04:00

While meeting with our social worker last spring, she recommended that we take a Pre-Adoption course that is offered at a (somewhat) local CLSC. It is a six or seven week course that covers a bunch of adoption related subjects. We're really looking forward to the courses!
Tonights class was basically an introduction to the series, and an introduction to our classmates (there are two other couples adopting from the Philippines (one couple is waiting for their acceptance, and the other has been waiting just two weeks less than us) two couples adopting from South Korea; and one couple adopting from Vietnam).
The main topic of discussion was the evaluation of a "case study", a boy named "Simon". Simon was a two year old boy who was born in Quebec but his biological mom could not take care of him, so he was sent to live with a foster family in a remote part of Quebec (where they only speak french). One day, his foster mom told him that a forever family was found for him, in Tanzania.
We discussed what it would be like for little Simon to travel from one side of the world to the other, how he would feel, how he would probably have sensory overload, how he would probably be scared of a lot of things, including the people who were to be his forever family, how there would be many different sights, sounds smells, clothes etc...
I really enjoyed going through the "case study" it was very eye opening. We have discussed how difficult it could be for our child to adapt to us and to our home and our family and friends, but going through the exercise really helped to bring it home for us. We now have some tools to help us for the inevitable discussions about why everyone can not meet us at the airport.

Hobbes

2010-05-14T23:45:00.009-04:00

Following Hobbes' surgery last month, the vet told us to keep and eye on Him to be sure that the Cancer hadn't spread. Last week, I felt that his lymph node under his leg was inflamed, but I wasn't sure, so I brought him to the vet on Monday we were referred to an oncologist. On Tuesday afternoon, at the oncologist's following some tests, we discovered that Hobbes' cancer had spread and that it is extremely aggressive and spreading rapidly. The oncologist told us that even if we did everything we could do (which would cost thousands of dollars) he might still be alive in 6-12 months. Any care that we would choose for him would be palliative. We don't feel that it would be fair to him to put him through chemotherapy and more surgery, so we asked what his prognosis would be if we chose not to go that route. The oncologist feels that he might only live for 1 to 3 months.
For us, getting Hobbes was the beginning of starting our family. Eric had never had a pet and he thought it would be a good way for us to transition from a somewhat selfish lifestyle to one where we have to care for, teach, and worry about another being in our care. He was right of course. Facing losing Hobbes before we adopt is incredibly difficult. As we have dreamed about our life with our Little One, Hobbes was always considered part of that picture. We are devastated, but trying to enjoy the time that we have left with him.

She knows who her REAL mom is

2010-05-10T13:05:00.004-04:00

Eric brought me this article to read yesterday morning, you might want to get a tissue before reading the article. Here's the link:

She's been with me all these years

18 Months

2010-04-27T03:06:00.005-04:00

We've finally made it to the eighteenth month! We're excited to know that we could get the call anytime now, however, we know that there are at least two families in Quebec who have been waiting for 26 months (2 months past the projected 18-24 month waiting times). We are hoping and praying that "the call" will come soon and while we wait, we're keeping busy...

In March, Tammy's grandmother fell ill and needed to have two rather risky angioplasty procedures. We're thankful that she is now recovering and is feeling much better.

Hobbes (our "puppy") had a small bump on his side that developed into a sore, following a visit to the vet and a biopsy, our vet informed us that it was a mastocytoma and had to be removed right away. Poor Hobbes had to have surgery to remove the tumour and left him with a 6" scar on his side! We've spent most of the past month nursing him back to health...tomorrow he goes to the vet to have his stitches removed! We received the report following the surgery and it said that all of the tumour was removed. We have to keep a close eye on his health, but he should be fine. Talk about a relief!

Eric had some holidays left over from last year that needed to be used up, so this past weekend, he had a 6 day weekend. While he was off, we decided that it would be a good time to begin working on mom's kitchen. So, in the last seven days, we took up the floating floor, discovered a carpet under the floating floor, took up the carpet, screwed down the subfloor, put in a new plywood floor, screwed in the new floor, put down the tile, and grouted the tile. I should mention that it was the first time we ever tried our hand at tiling... good thing that we had a good friend along to hold our hand through the process! We also decided that we should re-tile the entrance to mom's and the side entrance to our place (which meant removing the old cracked tiles - that's crazy big job). So as of tonight...the kitchen is tiled...and the entrances are ready for tiles! Poor Eric is going back to work and he didn't even have one day off! I guess he's going to go and "relax" at the office tomorrow ;)

Little One... we want to meet you so much... we are tired of waiting... we are anxious to know you and to love you and though we know that the timing will be perfect when you finally come home to us, the waiting is hard. We hope and pray that you are well cared for and most especially that you know that you are loved!

April 18th...

2010-04-15T22:58:00.006-04:00

Predictions...predictions...months back, some friends of ours predicted that we would get our proposal on April 18th. The fun thing about predictions is that they give you a deadline to look forward to, the unfun thing about predictions is that when the deadline passes, you feel a little let down. Oh well! The wait continues...

17 Months

2010-03-27T09:58:00.006-04:00

Gram-Gram (Tammy's Mom) is moving in today! We've been planning this day for a while now and it’s a little surreal that the day is actually here.
On the home front, this month was a continuation of last month - paint, paint and more paint! We are getting close to being done with the paint... but now we have a kitchen to install in Gram-Gram's suite.
Rachelle was home for a month and a bit and just this week left for a two month mission with MSF in Haiti. We got word yesterday that she arrived safely... is living in a tent... and is very very busy.
On the adoption front, there was a proposal this week in Quebec... it was the first since January, we're hopeful that more proposals will be on their way soon, however with the Easter Holiday coming up it may be mid-April before there’s another proposal... but you never know! As far as the wait goes, we have been so busy that the weeks and months are just flying by - which helps a lot! We are anxious to get The Call, and when the cell phone rings we often think... this could be it; however, we are conscious that there are some families from Quebec who have been waiting for more than 25 months at this point... so I guess you could say that we're cautiously optimistic.

16 Months

2010-02-27T12:35:00.008-05:00

Today marks 16 months of waiting for our Little One...will it be "Sweet 16?". We have been very busy this month so the month flew by! We moved at the beginning of February and we've been painting for the past month. We bought a great house...that needed a lot of paint!! We saw the size and layout and loved the house... and figured "well it's just paint", a month later and the painting is only about half done... We've received a ton of help from friends and family and are not sure how to repay them - maybe cookies (!?) The place is starting to look and feel more like our home...so that is nice!

We have to start focusing now on setting up the basement for Tammy's mom who is moving in by April first. It will be an interesting change in our lives - but a very welcome one.

There weren't any proposals in Quebec in February :(

We're hoping and praying that our update will help our file get noticed and that we'll be getting our proposal really really really soon. We're keeping a level head about it though, we know that there are many couples who have been waiting longer than us, so we're starting to mentally prepare that we'll be waiting until at least the fall for our proposal.

The other big news in February was that Rachelle came home from the Philippines! She was there living in Mindanao for 6 months while working for Doctors without Borders. She loved it! She brought us home many stories about the Philippines, some travel tips and some dried Mango!!! Oh so Good!!

And so...back to painting...and waiting...

Update Completed

2010-02-16T23:07:00.002-05:00

On Monday afternoon we received a call from youth protection to tell us that our update is completed and ready for pick up. I went to pick it up and I drove it directly to the Agency's office. The office was happy to see that our file didn't need to be translated! I'm glad to know that our update is now on its way to ICAB! We're ready! Little One....we're ready for you!

While we're waiting, we're settling in around here...doing more painting...most of the boxes have been unpacked...Once we're done upstairs...we'll move to painting the basement...Mom will be moving in before we know it! I think we may wait to decorate the Little One's room and the Playroom until after we receive the proposal...but you never know when the decorating bug will bite!

Waiting on others...

2010-02-15T00:35:00.004-05:00

On January 31, we received notice that ICAB (Inter Country Adoption Board) in the Philippines requested an update for all families who were approved for adoption in 2008. So in the midst of trying to paint our new place so that it would be ready in time for the move on February 6th, we now had to do an update to our file with our social worker. We are actually pretty excited about the update, because there have been quite a few positive changes in our life over the past 15 months and we are excited to share them with ICAB. However, anytime there is paperwork to do...well...it takes time...the social worker...the youth protection office...the adoption agency...and finally...ICAB itself. It can be time consuming and exciting, but the waiting on others is the hardest part.

15 Months

2010-01-25T13:34:00.011-05:00

Well, tomorrow marks the turning of another chapter in the story of our lives...15 months waiting for our Little One AND we get our new house! We're almost completely packed now...which was my goal...we wanted to have our house almost completely packed by tomorrow...so that in the next week and a bit we'll be focusing on the new place; cleaning; painting; and slowly moving in. We're pretty excited about going to the new place tomorrow, we actually bought the house back in August and we haven't seen the house since then. We do have some photos...but it's not quite the same!

We're excited about the move because we'll have more room and it will be a better home for our Little One, but we're sad that our Little One will never see the (first) room that we prepared for them. I have been having some trouble sleeping so the other night I slept in that room, and when I woke up in the morning, I was once again struck by how much I like waking up in the room. The other day Eric took a video of our house and hearing him talk about the Little One's room brought tears to my eyes...we'll prepare another room of course...but we're a little sentimental about this room.

In the past couple of months, there have been a few proposals and it is always exciting to hear that there are proposals in Quebec...I was especially happy to hear about the families who had been waiting for 23 months and finally received their proposals. And I have to admit that there was a point last week where I thought..."I hope we don't get the call this week because it'll be too crazy!" Talk about keeping yourself busy to keep yourself distracted from the adoption process! That moment was short lived though...don't worry...we are back to looking forward to getting the call! Oh and as far as their room goes...we're going to wait for now and once we receive our proposal...then we'll begin the room!

For you, Little One

2010-01-11T12:57:00.013-05:00

We're packing...cleaning...organizing...did I mention packing? We began packing for the move, by packing up our Little One's room...it's amazing...they're not here yet...but they have lots of stuff already. We want to make sure that all of the boxes for the Little One are clearly marked...you know...just in case we get the call.

Many months ago I began a quilt for our Little One's crib...and thought that I would make a smaller version to send to our Little One when we get the call. Just to be sure the quilt would be ready, I took a break from packing one evening and finished the quilt!

Manigong Bagong Taon!

2010-01-01T16:22:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year!

Here's hoping 2010 will be the year that we welcome our Little One home!

Things to remember to teach my child

2009-12-31T02:24:00.004-05:00

I just found a link to another blog and loved the idea! I often think about things that I want to remember to teach my Little One, and I am afraid that I will forget about them once I am in the thick of it all...so here's a reminder...to myself...re-read this post...and make one of your own...to remember to teach your Little One.

Here's the link http://motleymoms.blogspot.com/2009/03/things-to-remember.html

...I copied it below...for quick reference...hmmm...now to write one for us and our Little One!

Jesus loves you.
Smile. Everyone is more lovely when they smile.
If you don't know the words to a song, just sing the word "watermelon" over and over. It will make your mouth look right. (Trust me.)
Don't feel you have to change or be different to be acceptable. You are just right.
If there are no paper towels to dry your hands on, just fix your hair a bit. It works every time.
Learn the secret whistle and use it to find me when you can't see me. (Note to self: teach children to whistle.)
Put off plucking your eyebrows, shaving your legs, and coloring your hair for as long as possible. Once you start, you can never stop.
Choose your attitude when you wake up every morning. Fake it if you have to.
Always carry 2 hankies, one for show and one for blow.
Hold hands.
Learn how to make a "specialty dish." Something complicated that you can cook perfectly. (Trust me on this one, you'll use it more than you think.)
Knowing how to make a cup out of a piece of paper is a life skill.You always have time to tell someone that you love them.
Tell stories.
Cut a pie in 7 pieces, thus creating the perfect-sized slice of pie.
If a member of the opposite sex is getting fresh and they don't understand the meaning of "no" then stick your finger down your throat and throw up on them. (This has never failed.)
Nothing you ever do will make me not love you.
Have people over, even if your house is messy and especially if it is dusty.
Sing songs. Silly, serious, off-tune. Sing loud. (And not only in the shower.)
Keep cut and serve cookies in your freezer for unexpected guests. (Plus, it makes it seem like you were just baking when they stopped by!)
It's always worth it to tell the truth. It's not always easy

14 Months

2009-12-28T00:07:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas...and Happy 14 months to us!

This past month was an exciting and busy one for both of us, which was great because the month passed pretty quickly! Eric had to travel for work; first to Belfast, Ireland and then (only 36 hours after getting home) he travelled to Wichita, Kansas. I was very thankful that we were able to "chat" a little every day. On Christmas Eve, we hosted a small party for some of our family and friends. On Christmas day we went to my brother's in the morning and then we came home and had a small Christmas dinner with my mom, and Eric's parents and his brother. It was a small quiet family celebration.

House Update:
We sold our house! And we'll be moving in a little more than a month! This next month will probably also fly by...seeing as we'll be packing and planning our move and once we get the new place we'll be painting and settling in. We're really happy about the move. While we love our current home, it is a little small. The new place will have more living space and Gram-Gram will be living just downstairs! We're nostalgic about leaving this house...it is afterall the house where we planned on starting our family. We have already painted the Little One's room...we're a little sad to know that our Little One won't see it.

Christmas is just around the corner

2009-12-19T00:40:00.003-05:00

Our Christmas preparations are in full swing; the tree is up (an extra special thank you to Gram-Gram...Thanks Mom!), there are lights in the window and the shopping is almost done. All that's left to do now is the rest of the baking...oh and the wrapping!

I love Christmas...spending time with family and friends...relaxing and celebrating!

Over the years, the Christmas season has at times been both joyful and depressing, fun-filled and stressful. There were some Christmases where we felt like we spent the day in the car for all of the visits we did; there were others where I was so sad I felt as though I wouldn't be able to make it through the day; and then there were others that were joy-filled and magical.

This year is special it may be our last as a couple...we have waited for so long to be parents...now I wonder if I will miss the relative calmness of our Christmases...and wonder how we will adjust to the relative craziness that is Christmas with children...whatever happens...we're looking forward to it!

13 Months

2009-11-25T00:11:00.006-05:00

This past month has passed so slowly...I think the realization that we could get "THE CALL" soon has made everything feel more real...and it now seems that time is standing still.

This past weekend, we celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary by taking a trip with some friends to New Hampshire. We all got a jump start on our Christmas shopping...which is great!

House update:
As for the house...another area of our lives that's in limbo! Have I mentioned that I'm not very good at waiting and being patient? So far we have not been able to sell..the market in our area was very slow in September and October, and has been picking up since November, but so far, we haven't had any luck. We are somewhat discouraged about it; we would love to be able to move to a new home that would have more space for us, and where my mom would be close too, but so far it doesn't look like it will be happening anytime soon. We have begun to make plans to finish the basement in our current home, this will give us some additional living space, which will enable us to stay in this house a little while longer...we should know more in the new year...

Hero of the year

2009-11-22T23:33:00.003-05:00

CNN announced the 2009 Hero of the Year...Efren Peñaflorida, from Manila, who started a "pushcart classroom" in the Philippines to bring education to poor children as an alternative to gang membership. Click here to read the entire article.

Efren Peñaflorida is the founder of the Dynamic Teen Company. His story is truly inspiring!

I'm looking forward to watching the show on Thursday (I've already set the timer!).

Special Edition - side track

2009-11-08T21:45:00.003-05:00

Eric here... So I've got a side topic from the adoption for you all in blogland.
On Nov 6th me and Tam were married for ten years... 10 years! So what does that mean? We got through the seven year itch... managed to keep the puppy alive for nearly three years now... went through a battery of psych tests and profiling all of which concluded we were mostly harmless and "normal".
But ten years sounds significant in and of itself - no? Each year we've been married has held it's share of highlights (and lowlights) and this tenth year will certainly have it's share. I guess the point is that I've learned this marriage I have is what I make of it and the circumstances of our life together do not define the relationship we have; merely give it its colour.
Alright cheese-ball blog entry over - as you were.

10 Years

2009-11-06T23:26:00.006-05:00

If you would have asked me on my wedding day when I would be having children, my response would have been..."A.S.A.P!" I always wanted to have children at a young age. I never thought that we'd be married for 10 years before having children, but then again, you never know what life is going to throw your way. In retrospect, I think it may be a good thing. We have had a chance to face some of life's greater challenges and we have come through them together and stronger and now as we look towards parenthood, I am confident that we'll be able to handle the challenges parenthood will bring.

We plan on celebrating our anniversary sometime soon in the Philippines...I'm off to daydream a little of a white sandy beach by the crystal clear ocean...

One Year Later...

2009-10-24T23:56:00.016-04:00

31,556,926 seconds... 525,600 minutes... 8,760 hours... 365 days... 52 weeks... 1 year... waiting for our Little One!

We're not too sure how we feel about it...earlier tonight we were talking to Rachelle (through the wonder's of Skype! - she's working for Doctor's without Borders in the Philippines) she said she feels like celebrating...and at the same time, she feels sad that it's only been a year. Ummm, yeah... that pretty much sums up how we've been feeling too!

We've been told to expect to wait for anywhere between 18 and 24 months...so we've basically completed at least half of our wait (we hope!). We do feel that the year has passed quickly though and so we'll keep doing what we're doing.

The adoption process can seem pretty surreal. We know that things are happening behind the scenes as we're waiting to be matched with our Little One, but on the surface nothing seems to be happening. And one day we're going to get the call that will change our lives forever! In many ways, it seems like that day will never come and yet when that day does come it's likely that we'll feel like we won't be ready!

We're hoping and praying that our file is going to be matched very soon, but we know that God is in control and his timing is perfect and so we know that when the time is right...we'll be getting that elusive phone call! In Quebec, there haven't been any proposal's since July so we're hoping that very soon there will be a bunch of proposal's. We're sure that the recent typhoon's have not helped at all, we have heard terrible stories and seen horrrible pictures about the devastation caused by the flooding. I had been thinking about the water damage, the humidity, and the mold...and Rachelle reminded us about the filth, garbage, the illnesses and the "disgusting" feet (from being immersed in the water for so long!). We have also heard that there has been damage at some of the orphanages and so we are praying that they would get the supplies and the help that they need and that all of the caregivers, their families and the Little Ones would be safe and secure.

Little One, we love you already and we cannot wait to meet you. Keep growing, be healthy and safe and mostly...know that you are loved! We pray for you, your parents, and your caregivers regularly. It will be very soon that your Mommy and Daddy will be coming to get you!

A quick update about our house... We haven't sold our house yet, but we have found a house that we would like to buy. If we sell this house before February then we'll be moving, and if we don't, well, we'll be doing some renovations to give our current home a little more living space and we'll be staying put. We'll be happy with either outcome...we just don't like all the waiting (doesn't that sound familiar?!)

image from comicvine.com

Out of the blue...it hit me!

2009-10-16T00:40:00.002-04:00

Earlier this evening, I was talking to my love and while he told me a cute story about himself as a little boy and as he was talked I thought to myself... I can't wait until our Little One does these kinds of cute things... then I the thought... wait, our Little One may not do these things...because they won't be just like either of us and just like that, I went from laughing to crying... out of the blue... a moment of mourning... in a sea of excitement and anticipation while we wait for our Little One...

Eleven Months

2009-09-28T18:19:00.005-04:00

I was just thinking about the past year; one year ago, we were in a rush to complete our adoption dossier. We were stressed about appointments with the social worker and the psychologist (who isn't?). We just wanted to have our file sent off to the Philippines; due to some unique circumstances, it took us nearly 8 months to put our dossier together; we just wanted our file to be sent.
I never would have thought that "the wait" would have been so easy! Now don't get me wrong... I want to have my child with me now... I have been waiting a long time to become a mom. However, I have to say that one of the most surprising things for me about the wait has been the patience that I have regarding the whole situation. There was a time when I was almost certain that we would never adopt... that we would never have a child. I suppose the knowledge that we will become parents soon helps to make the wait easier. I still have days and moments where I think too much about our Little One and how they're not with us yet... I think about where they are and hope and pray for them that they are safe and most especially that they are loved. However, I can't dwell on the fact that our Little One is not with us, because that will only make me sad and I can't do anything about it, so I have determined that I will do what I can to get ready to be a good mom, and be as ready as possible for our Little One to come home to us.
Eric here: Summer is done and what a crazy one it was. Now I'm thinking the summer might have been tame with how the fall is shaping up...

The news just came in about tropical storm Ondoy... crazy times in Manila I hope that people can pull together and get themselves back on their feet fast.
Toodles for now
Rico

10 months

2009-08-30T00:41:00.004-04:00

Another month has passed...we're one month closer to our Little One...knowing this makes us so happy...we just wish we knew how many more months there are to wait.

So this past month we've been having "fun" trying to sell our house and looking for a new one... We found a new one but selling our house has been a challenge. We'll try for a little longer - but if we don't get another serious offer soon we'll put our plan on hiatus (we don't really feel like moving in January).

For the past little bit, we've been helping some friends build a deck, well...actually the girls are building the deck and the guys are shopping and preparing the meals! Talk about learning experiences!

Nine Months

2009-08-02T19:40:00.006-04:00

Nine months already...our baby should be here any day...WAIT...we're not ready...the room isn't finished, we don't have all the supplies...what are we going to do?! Just kidding! We're adopting...and that means that we probably have at least another nine months to wait...but that's ok, because if the second nine months passes as quickly as the first nine months, our Little One will be here before we know it.

We have been very busy this month...we had a mini "stay-cation". Eric had some time off of work and we decided that since we'll have an amazing vacation to the Philippines sometime in the next year or so, that we would stay close to home this year. We did enjoy a spa day in Mont-Tremblant, took care of some things at home, had dinner with some new friends and then drove to Burlington for a day trip. We have been contemplating a move. Its a big one...we're thinking of buying a new house that would give us more room and would have an apartment in it for my mom. Our house is for sale and we're playing the waiting game...while trying to remain patient. Have I mentioned before that I don't have much patience when it comes to waiting? So we're keeping busy cleaning the house and showing the house...and cleaning the house and showing the house...

We also spent an extra special week with our nephew and our niece. Since I'm not working for the moment, I was lucky enough to have a whole week with them. We went to Parc Safari, a children's museum, and a farm and we spent two days at home swimming in their pool. It was the first time we've been able to spend so much time with them and it was so fun...exhausting...but fun!

Eight Months

2009-06-28T00:48:00.002-04:00

Already eight months...hard to believe that it has passed so quickly and harder yet to think that we have another 10 or more to go!

This month we met some of our bloggy friends for coffee...they don't live in our area. It was so nice to meet them in person. It was interesting to talk about the various phases of adoption, and see how similar or different our experiences have been. I am looking forward to seeing them again soon. And I have been thinking of how great it will be when we can introduce our Little Ones to each other!

Eric's sister Rachelle who just came back home after a year of working with MSF in Africa, was offered a six month position in the Philippines again with MSF. She accepted and is leaving for the Philippines this weekend. We are proud of her and the work that she is doing to help people. The situation however brings with it, mixed emotions for me, while I am happy for her that she is doing something that she loves and is good for the world, I am sad too because I want to be getting on that plane to go to the Philippines. I was surprised by my reaction, and after some contemplation, I realized that going the Philippines means much more than getting on a plane, it has become symbolic - kind of like when a woman goes into labour, she is not just going to the hospital, she knows that this is it, she is going to see her baby very soon. Rachelle and I have talked about it, and she was very understanding, and now that we've talked about it, I am feeling better about it. I will miss her terribly... I always do... but we'll manage stay in touch... thank God for e-mail!

I started to work on the Little One's quilt this month. I have chosen the fabrics, blues, greens, yellows and brown. I have the top of the quilt finished and now have to think of the pattern I'll use for the back of the quilt.

That is all the news for this month...we're enjoying the beginning of our summer holidays and looking forward to spending time with family and friends from near and far this summer.

Shared Joy...

2009-06-05T01:17:00.005-04:00

Tonight (or rather, this morning!) I am thankful for friends!

I had a get-together tonight with two special friends and it was so fun to talk a little about our adoption and to have them share our joy!

Thanks for your support and encouragement!! It means a lot...it is fun to dream of the day we'll pick up our Little One! It is also fun to hear others talk of their excitement about our adoption! I feel so blessed to know that our Little One is loved and highly anticipated, by our families and friends!

We can't wait to meet you, Little One!

Seven Months

2009-05-27T08:44:00.015-04:00

We've been waiting for seven months! Time seems to be flying by! Well, at least it is for us right now anyway.

As far as our adoption process, not much has happened this past month. We have not done any more work on the Little One's room. I did sleep in there one night though...and it is a really pleasant room to wake up in! We haven't done much reading, just some articles and blogs on the internet.

We were pretty busy getting ready and participating in our friend's wedding. Jen is a great girl - honestly one of the nicest people you'll ever meet and Marty is a great guy too! The wedding was beautiful even though it poured rain all day! Imagine the puddles! Jen had a great attitude and kept saying...it doesn't matter if it rains...I'm getting married today...and it's "shower's of blessing"...the wedding was fun...how could it not be with six kids...that's right, I said six kids (under 8) in the bridal party! I wish them both a happy marriage (with lots of little ones!).

My sister-in-law (Eric's sister, Rachelle) came home! She is a nurse and took a one year sabbatical from work to join Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontiers - MSF). She went to Africa where she worked on three different projects, one in Ethiopia, Central African Republic and Burundi. We are so proud of her and the work that she has done. She is an amazing person with a huge heart! The projects that she was working on were all nutrition oriented, the people didn't have enough food and MSF was there to make sure that the children were not dying of starvation. It is really difficult to hear her talk about the malnurished children.When she showed us her photos, I was reminded again that we have enough, even too much...and we sometimes take our food, clean water, home and health for granted. I'm glad that she is home safe and sound...because the areas that she was working in were not the safest.

My mom decided to get her driver's licence...she took the test to get her learner's permit and passed with 99%! Way to go mom! I am so proud of you...soon you'll be driving all over town and you'll wonder what took you so long!

So that is our little update for this month...looking forward to holding our Little One in our arms soon!

Dreaming of our turn...

2009-05-18T17:28:00.016-04:00

This morning while reading some e-mails from our Agency's Adoption Forum, I came across a video about a couple who adopted from the Philippines. The report was done by TQS, on a show called 90 minutes de bonheur (90 minutes of happiness - what a great name for a tv show!).

A husband and his mom wrote in to the tv show saying that they would like to surprise the wife/daughter-in-law by painting and decorating the baby's nursery. The couple had been waiting for their referral for some time, and they were feeling discouraged. The tv reporter and crew then surprised the unsuspecting wife with many surprises! It's a tear-jerker! Get your kleenex ready and click on the link below.

(for those of you who don't speak french...I post a translation in the comments...I don't want to ruin the surprises for those who want to watch the video - it's worth it to watch it)

http://ft1.tqs.ca/videos/90-minutes-de-bonheur/2007/11/adoption-international-19733.php

...after watching the video...we are dreaming of our turn...when will we get the call...where will we be...what will our reactions be...how will we announce it to our families...so many happy things to think of today!

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T19:54:00.004-04:00

I had a wonderful surprise today when my mom gave me flowers to celebrate that I am "expecting"... I cried, of course. Thanks Mom...

Today I have been thinking a lot of our Little One's mother. I know that she has had (or will have) to make difficult decisions, decisions that will affect her life and mine for the rest of our days. I will always be grateful for, what I can only imagine is, a huge sacrifice made for our child...

I am truly blessed to have a great mom... and I hope to be as good a mom to our children.

Blurb

2009-04-29T15:07:00.004-04:00

I've just heard about this great website...and I can't wait to write my own book!

All you have to do is download their free software...choose a background...add your photos and text...and away you go...I can think of so many ideas for books...I have a friend who's getting married...a sister-in-law who's spent the past year in Africa working with Medecins Sans Frontieres...a neice and a nephew who love books...some favorite recipes that I'd love to make into a personalized cookbook...or...an adoption journey book...our journey to you, Little one!

Six Months

2009-04-27T21:41:00.004-04:00

So I'm told it's been six months since ICAB retained our candidacy to adopt. Notice that I'm somewhat oblivious to the specific passage in time. I've found it particularly interesting how the timing seems to be such a concern - I remember my wife pointing out nutters on the posting boards getting up in arms over comparing the timing of adoptions.
Now before you chuck your pro-biotic yoghurt/muslix at the screen... just hold on.
I get that in a nearly real sense this is like a gestation period for women and that this is ultimately the fulfilment of many years of a difficult emotional voyage. bon-bon c'est correcte... However I'm just saying that for me, time is zipping by - work is nuts - theres a growing list of stuff thats needs to happen around the house.
I've had a long standing sense that as far as taking care of a kid emotionally, spiritually and academically I'll be fine. The whole health thing is more of an issue to refer to mom/sister/wife who are either nurses of better informed... as long as food goes down and comes out the other way all systems are go to my mind. But the logistics are just enough to drown in... yikes.
So yeah I think that the time we have pre-kid is valuable and needs to be spent wisely - we need to talk about discipline - household management - is fixing the roof or getting a fenced in yard the bigger priority... all stuff that will become significantly more dificult to chat about when there's +1 in our mix.
So six months gone who knows how many more to go. Insha Allah, as they say.
Uncle Rikki signs off -a.k.a. Dad

Six months have passed and we're doing ok! The wait so far has not been as bad as I had expected it to be. We're keeping busy and I can now see that before we know it we'll be holding our Little One in our arms. I was sure that this wait would be excruciating, but so far, I'm doing ok and for that I am glad (as he stated above, my hubby knew he would be fine).
I picked up my Tagalog book again today...and ironically, I am starting to feel a little stressed that there won't be enough time for me to learn some Tagalog before we go!
As mentioned in previous posts, we have been doing a lot of reading and it seems like the more we learn, the more there is to learn, it can be overwhelming, but we'll just try to keep reading and learning as much as we can.
This blog has encouraged me through this part of our journey, it has been somewhat therapeutic to write about what is going on and where we're at in our journey, and it has the added benefit that family and friends (both old and new!) are both supportive and encouraging.
Tammy - a.k.a. Mom

The Little One's Room...in progress...part 2

2009-04-22T19:34:00.004-04:00

I felt inspired today to do some work on the Little One's room, so I dug out my paint and paint brushes and headed upstairs...

I worked on the deciduous trees first, and then on the grass and flowers at the bottom of all the trees, I still have some work to do on the evergreens. The main project I worked on today was to paint the Hobbit Hole. Eric had drawn an outline on the wall, but I needed some inspiration, so I looked through his copy of The Hobbit and there were some great illustrations, that was all the inspiration I needed!

Here are the pictures of some of the trees and the Hobbit hole.

A little reviewing...

2009-04-21T18:24:00.004-04:00

After my last post, I received a couple of questions that got me thinking about the books that I was reading, so I've written a little blurb about each one - just my thoughts...

Attaching in Adoption
One of the main concerns I have about our adoption is about attaching with our little one. My husband read Deborah Gray's Attaching in Adoption before I did, and since he knows me so well, he recommended that I only read certain chapters that are more relevant to our current situation, so that I don't stress myself out needlessly. Attaching in Adoption is an important resource book for every adoptive family, and it will stay in our Adoption Library.

Conquering Infertility
I must admit that when our social worker first recommended a book about conquering your infertility, I was a little confused. We'll be married for ten years this year and after undergoing infertility treatments; being diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome; and taking time to grieve the loss of the biological child we will not have; I can honestly say that at the point in time when the social worker recommeded this book, I felt that I had dealt with my infertility. I got the book anyway and began reading it anyway, and it helped me to see that, I had dealt with the main issues related to my infertility, which was reassuring since we're now on a different path. It also helped me to understand why I had behaved and/or reacted in certain ways in certain instances/situations. Although I wish I had read this book while I was first dealing with infertility, I am glad to have read it and to know for sure that we are in the right place and on the right path now.

Secret thoughts of an adoptive mother
This is one of my favorite books! I admire Jana Wolff's humour, candor, and honesty! Reading her book is a little like reading a friend's diary, in it, she openly shares her thoughts and fears regarding her adoption. Although the paths to our children are different (she chose open domestic adoption), her concerns about being an adoptive parent really resonated with me. While reading this book, I slowly began to feel that the feelings, and thoughts I have/am having are "normal", and for that I am grateful.

Becoming a family
This book had great information about healthy attachments. The chapter "bringing your baby home" has lots of great information that I plan to use to help us educate our family and friends about what to expect when our little one comes home. The author shares important information about the need for your child to be physically attached to you for the first while to help to promote healthy attachment.

The whole life adoption book
I'm only halfway through this book, but what I like is that it is full of practical ideas to help you through different situations with your child. It has some suggestions for educating family, friends, educators, and important people in your child's life. There is a summary at the end of each chapter as well as a list of questions for small groups (it would be nice to have a small group wouldn't it?!).

Labor of the heart
This book is another one - for the journey to adoption, It was one of my favorite books about working through the decisions to adopt and preparing to be a parent. At the end of each chapter, there is a section called "Adoptive Parents' Workbook" that encourages the parents to evaluate themselves based on the topic of the chapter.

So...there you have it...my two cents...what are your favorite adoption related books?

A little reading...

2009-04-18T15:18:00.004-04:00

Books we're reading:
Attaching in Adoption - Deborah D. Gray
Conquering Infertility - Mind/body guide to enhancing fertility and coping with infertility - Alice D. Domar, Ph.D (this book was a suggestion by our social worker)
The whole life adoption book - Jayne E. Schooler & Thomas C. Atwood

Books we've read:
Becoming a Family - promoting healthy attachments with your adopted child - Lark Eshleman, Ph.D
Secret thoughts of an adoptive mother - Jana Wolff
Labor of the Heart - a parents guide to the decisions and emotions in adoption - Kathleen L. Whitten, Ph.D
Twenty things adopted kids wish their adoptive parents knew - Sherrie Eldridge

The Perfect Stroller?

2009-04-17T23:23:00.004-04:00

We've begun our search for "The Perfect Stroller" however, I must admit that I wonder if it exists?

Eric is 6'2" while I am only 5'2"...usually if the stroller is comfortable for me to push...then Eric has to practically bend in two to push it, and if the stroller is comfortable for Eric then I feel like a little kid trying to push a shopping cart!

So far our favorite has been the Chicco Cortina Stroller. Our favorite feature is the adjustable handle! Can you believe it an a-d-j-u-s-t-a-b-l-e handle?! (watch the video here...yes...the website has videos on its website that show you how to operate the stroller!) We think the Chicco designers are geniuses! The price tag is a little too steep for us right now (we're trying to be thrifty)...so we've been doing a little "window" shopping...online...ebay...craig's list...US stores...sales...even the Chicco store in Manila! I am learning to be pretty patient when it comes to hunting for a good bargain - and since we won't really need the stroller for another year or so - we have some time! We'll keep researching and hopefully find a GREAT deal!

What's your idea of the perfect stroller?

Five Months

2009-04-06T23:33:00.007-04:00

Eric's belated bits... so five months since acceptance; 14 months since "officially" starting the proccess and like umpteen years since we decided together to go for kids...

And so here we are today: mortgage, backyard, dog and other overtly "western family" trappings... But I am realizing more and more that those things are not what will make our family a good family or succsessful by any sense of the word... The measure of our family greatness must clearly be - - - my superpowers...
- What you have superpowers ?? - Indeed I do, and the application of those to our family dynamics - dog walking, mowing the lawn and kid raising and wife caring will create an atmosphere of awesomeness unparalled in all modern suburbia.

Otherwise stuffs good
'till the next chicane
Eric

Another month closer to our little one!
Thankfully, time seems to be passing more quickly as the months go by. Looking back and realizing that it's been 14 months since we started the process makes me think that we'll have our little one in our arms before we know it!

The Little One's Room..in progress...Part 1

2009-03-03T01:02:00.008-05:00

We have begun working on our Little One's room. Eric and I have had many discussions about how to decorate it. He wanted to paint a mural on all the walls in the room but I wanted a mural on only one wall (He's usually right about these things - he HAS chosen every paint color in our home!). He had tons of ideas and since I am a more visual person and was having a hard time envisioning his ideas, one night I had him draw on the walls with chalk and after living with the chalk drawings for months, we decided to bite the bullet and try to paint the mural on two walls in the room to see how we felt. After the trial paint job...the next morning, I began painting the first coat of the mural...on all the walls of the room! It took a couple of coats of paint on the bottom of the mural (that was the easy part). We had decided that the sky should have some "texture" and we chose to use two colors of blue paint and through trial and error; using many techniques; we finally have a beautiful blue sky. The next step is to paint the decorative elements...the clouds...the trees...the animals...the moose...and the hobbit hole...yes...I did say hobbit hole...Eric is a huge Lord of the Rings fan...so there will be a hobbit hole...

Here are some pictures of the room "in progress"...

Four Months

2009-03-01T22:27:00.007-05:00

We're four months closer to our Little One!
The waiting is not easy, but we are finding ways to get through it. We are continuing to read about attachment and about the Philippines. I just finished reading "Becoming a family" by Lark Eshleman, Ph.D. It has some great info about bringing our Little One home, it gives some great pointers about what attachment should look and feel like as well as some information about our homecoming/attachment time that we'll be passing along to our families.

I have already begun making lists for our trip (things to bring, things to buy when we're there, and thanks to Rachel a list of questions to ask...). I have a journal that I have been keeping since August 2008. I have been writing letters to our Little One every now and again, this is also the same book where we have started to keep our lists of things not to forget...I love lists!

If it is possible to do so, we would like to vacation in the Philippines just before we adopt, so we are doing some research. We will have to be pretty organized to be able to pull it off, because we won't have much notice to travel, but it is something that we both want to do very much. So far we have talked to our resource person from our agency and she doesn't think there will be a problem, other than being willing to travel without much notice. We'll have to investigate this a little further once we actually receive our referral, but so far it doesn't seem impossible...so we're hopeful!

Encouraged!

2009-02-26T02:05:00.002-05:00

I just finished reading about this family's adoption journey. I am so encouraged. I love the honesty, and the raw emotions that were shared. Even though I don't know this family, I found myself laughing and crying and sighing with joy and frustration at the process. Thanks so much for sharing your blog. I am so glad that I stumbled upon it! I especially love your "Tips for adoption travels".

There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about our adoption and about our little one coming home to us! I try not to think in terms of time frames, because I think that will make me crazy (some might say crazier :) ). Lately I have been focusing on decorating the little one's room; painting the mural and finding the right fabric for the bedding. It helps me deal with the wait when I have a project that I am actively working on.

Three Months

2009-02-05T08:28:00.007-05:00

So we've passed the three month mark...the wait has gotten somewhat easier since the holidays have passed. We are able to see that the end of our adoption journey is near.

This month, we finished painting the stairway to the basement - What a difference some paint and lighting makes! We still have some work to do on the little one's room, but we cannot agree on the paint scheme. Eric wants us to paint a mural on all the walls, where I want to paint a mural on only one wall. I think we are going to try painting two walls and see how it feels. We have quite a bit of work to do in that room, so we'll have to start working on it soon.

This month, we have been talking a lot about names for our little one. We are not going to be sharing our choice until after we receive our proposal, and maybe not until we meet our little one. It is interesting to hear our family member's suggestions and to play around with different names. Eric has a bunch of boy names that he would like, but I'm not yet convinced. In the event that we are proposed a girl, we have chosen a girl name that we agree on.

Two months

2009-01-05T22:57:00.006-05:00

This Christmas season was somewhat difficult; its been two months of officially waiting to adopt, and all Christmas events and happenings are seen through that filter. And there were two family members who were missing this year, one who passed away and one who is working halfway around the world with MSF.
Our house is in need of some renovations before the little one arrives. We began doing some of the reno work this month. We sanded, and primed the stairway leading to our unfinished basement. We had not painted the stairway when we moved into the house (three years ago) so who knows how long it has been since that stairway was painted... The walls are now ready to be painted, what a difference some plaster and primer makes! During our wait we are planning to tackle as much of the basement as we can.
We also have some work to do in the little one's room which we will be getting to...the "Moose themed" room has just about all the moose items that it will need (or can fit), so next we will be working on painting/decorating the walls.

Tammy has realized that once we adopt, when Eric comes home from work the ordinarily calm house will turn into a mad house with Eric, Hobbes and the little one running, jumping and wrestling until, during and after supper until she has had enough and she cries "that's enough, you need to calm down!" That is what happens now so we can only imagine what adding a little one into the mix will do.

Gram-Gram's Moose

2008-12-08T01:29:00.016-05:00

My mom used to make us crocheted stuffed animals when we were kids...I still have this one...

When thinking that we were going to have a child, one thing was sure, I wanted my mom to crochet a stuffed animal for them. So, we decided on a theme...moose...for a boy or a girl...it will be moose...so I commissioned my mom. I asked if she could make me a stuffed moose for our baby. We looked everywhere for a pattern, but we could not find one, but that didn't matter to my mom, she created one!

She used a teddy bear pattern, a pattern we purchased from here on Etsy, and her own creation. I absolutely love him! I think he turned out great! He's sitting in the highchair waiting for our little one. Thanks Gram-Gram! He will be well loved!

The beginning

2008-12-05T02:06:00.002-05:00

How our journey began
I was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrom (PCOS) when I was sixteen. I knew then that getting pregnant and giving birth to biological children would be difficult if not impossible for me. So before getting married, Eric and I discussed adoption as an option for creating our family. We did try to conceive naturally, and with the use of fertility drugs, but in the end, we were not able to conceive. After researching other infertility treatments we did not feel comfortable with the "success rates", so we started considering adoption and foster care. The two years that we spent trying to conceive took a toll on us and we decided that we needed to take a break from trying to conceive and just focus on us.
Foster Care or Adoption
We researched foster care first and were not comfortable with it because the laws in Quebec tend to be in favor of returning children to their biological parents/family. We knew that it would be too difficult for us to finally have a child and then lose them so we knew that foster care was not the way to go for us (at least for our first child). We then began researching international adoption (because we live in Quebec, all adoptions that are not through foster care are considered international adoptions). Around this same time, Eric's aunt adopted two girls from Haiti, after having one unsuccessful adoption in India. We were able to see first hand as his aunt adopted first one and then another how the adopted child could integrate into the family, community and country. Neither of the girls spoke French when they were adopted, however it was not long before they were able to communicate easily. We thought that we would adopt from Haiti too, we even attended an information session to help us to prepare. We were not quite ready to adopt then (around 2005), so we waited awhile, and then in December 2007, we realized that we were ready to adopt (knowing that the process takes between two and four years). Before announcing our decision to our families, we decided that we would research the country and actually register with an adoption agency before making it official with our family and friends. When we contacted the agency that Eric's aunt used, they informed us that we no longer met their criteria (we were not yet 35 and we had not been married for 10 years), we could not adopt from Haiti. We contacted another agency that facilitates adoptions from Haiti and were told the same thing. It was official, unless we wanted to wait another two years before beginning the process (and then wait for two to four years for the adoption to be finalized), we would not adopt from Haiti, we were saddened, by this news, but we decided that we would investigate other countries. Eric was doing most of the research for the countries, he contacted a bunch of agencies, asked all of the questions and then we discussed the information he collected. I was really happy that he took the lead on this part of the process, I was feeling discouraged and did not feel up to all the research. After much research, we realized that there was only one agency that was available for us, I must say that I was discouraged and was struggling with the decision of the agency. One day I was praying and asking God why the process seemed so difficult, and I was reminded that throughout the years, everytime I prayed about our adoption, I asked God to help us to find the child that he wanted us to have. I then felt comforted knowing that there was only one agency that was available for us. The choice was clear.
We were looking for an agency that would help us to adopt a healthy child, from an orphanage where the children would be well taken care of, where we could adopt within a reasonable amount of time, all while staying within our budget. Our agency meets all of that criteria. There was a moment where we were not sure about whether we would adopt from the Philippines or from China, but after attending information sessions and having all of our questions answered, we decided on the Philippines. We are both so excited to embark on the next chapter of our lives!

The announcement

2008-12-05T02:01:00.003-05:00

After deciding on a country and putting financing in place, all that was left to do was tell our families. We were each responsible for creating our announcement to each of our families.
Tammy's Family
We gave Tammy's Mom, brother and sister-in-law each a key chain, each key chain was identified (Grandma, Uncle Tim and Auntie Charleen). The key shows a penguin family of three. Each key chain was put in a box and they were all wrapped the same way. we gave them their presents after Tyler (5yrs) and Britney (2yrs) had gone to bed (we thought that they may be too young to understand, and wanted their parents to decide when they would be ready to hear of the adoption). There were more than a few tears of joy that were shed! I was surprised at how emotional I was, all I could squeak out was "We're adopting". It was so exciting to see them open their gifts and to tell them that we were officially (finally) on the path to adoption.
Eric's Family
Eric created a series of clues on cards and had one card for each family member. The clue cards were numbered and had a snapshot of the historical discovery of the Philippines by Magellan... It took them a while and some prompting - but after actually saying "We're adopting from the Philippines" they all got it... The best part was Eric's mom getting all nervous and acting out by sweeping the floor and cleaning the kitchen table (neither was dirty). So a D- for history and an A+ for cleanliness.

One month

2008-12-05T01:30:00.003-05:00

It's been one month since we heard the fab news that we were officially approved to adopt from the Philippines... and time has since moved forward like a dead sloth going uphill in a blizzard. So like we don't know if it's because we have been talking more about the adoption together and with others, but, wow...

We find ourselves daydreaming about being parents; about having a little furless monkey around and how that will change and challenge our family dynamics; about names for our child (like Van-Troy which is an awesome name); about our trip to the Philippines; about other adopting families and how they manage to deal with the wait.

and...the wait continues...

ugh...this wait is going to be long!

2008-12-02T22:47:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I read a post on the agency's adoption forum, there is a family who is leaving this weekend to go to the Philippines to pick up their child. They are so excited and are looking forward to spending their first Christmas with their child. I am happy for them, but at the same time, my heart aches thinking we will probably have at least two more Christmases until we spend our first Christmas with our child.

I'm a noob...

2008-11-09T08:51:00.000-05:00

i'm here mainly for comic relief...
happy skroolling