24 Months

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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