Remember me???

So I guess it’s been a while since I’ve posted eh? Wow . . . over a month. Where does the time go? There’s nothing specific taking up my time, just a whole lot of everyday living.

• Since we passed court on May 20, I’ve been “nesting”. Organizing, sorting, chucking, donating, cleaning, reorganizing, etc. I’ve gone through a lot of clothes for Denver, sorted them all by size and am trying to predict what size he’ll be wearing. On our last update pictures, he was wearing a 12 month sleeper that we sent along in a care package. It fits him pretty good already and wasn’t even six months old when the pictures were taken! I’ve gone through Victoria, Austin and Samara’s clothes. I’ve even gone through mine and Mike’s clothes and got rid of a lot of stuff that we never wear anymore. I’m feeling lighter!
  
  
• I’ve also been doing a bit of packing. Putting things together that will be useful for travel. I want to be somewhat prepared when we get the call to go ahead and bring him home. (Can you really be totally prepared for something like that?!?!?)
  
  
• We went to get our needles. Ok, when I say “we”, I mean Samara. The three of us went to the travel medicine clinic so we could get what we needed and as it turned out, Mike and I didn’t need anything because we were all set from when we traveled to China 2.5 years ago. Poor Samara though. We had been telling her that all three of us would be getting “poked” and then it turns out she was the only one that needed not one, but two needles. She was so brave though . . . cried a little until the nurse gave her a candy necklace. Candy works every time!
  
  
• I’ve been running again . . . mostly on my own (or with our dog Teagan) but trying to get back into the swing of getting up early to run at 5:30 am with the great bunch of girls that I used to run with a few months ago. I miss them when I don’t run with them and I’m much more motivated when I run with a group. I just don’t have the same conversations with Teagan!
  
  
• I’ve been doing a lot of typing. For those of you that don’t know, I work part-time doing medical transcription from home. I’ve been doing it for over seven years and I’ve been blessed to be able to stay home with my kids and still earn a bit of cash. However, it’s been taking over lately and I’ve been very overwhelmed with it all. So, I’ve had to cut back and let three of the doctors know that as of the end of June, I won’t be transcribing their notes anymore. It was really hard for me to let go of them but I know it’s best for me and my family . . . especially after Denver comes home.
  
  
• I was in BC for a week at the end of May/beginning of June. My sister-in-law had her third chemo treatment and so I was able to help out with the kids and whatever else needed to be done. It was so good to be there and visit and catch up and just see how they’re all doing . . . which happens to be quite well despite their circumstances. Thanks for letting me come and visit guys. Keep up the fight Christel – you’re a trooper and a huge inspiration!
  
  
• The kids are out of school for the summer already. Again, where has the time gone? Victoria finished grade two and Austin finished kindergarten. I can’t believe they’ll both be in school full-time next year! So here we are trying to get used to being all together all the time with no specific routine. I bought the kids some workbooks so they can work on math, reading, writing, etc. during the summer. We work on it for at least an hour every morning (during the week) and they actually love it. In the afternoon, the kids always have an hour of “quiet time”. That means they are each in their own rooms either reading or doing something quiet on their own. We all need this time. It’s good for them to take a break from each other and it’s good for me to have this quietness too. And then of course there’s a whole lot of playing in between too.
  
  
• We plan to do some play dates and visits with friends at parks or splash pads/wading pools too. My sister-in-law and I have decided to “switch kids” for a full day once a week. That means one week I get the girls and she gets the boys and the next week, it’s the opposite. She has a daughter Breanna that’s Victoria’s age, a son Zachary that’s Austin’s age and a daughter Cassandra that’s Samara’s age. So it works out really well and they play quite nice together. We’re hoping it will be a good change for the kids (and their mamas!).
  
  
• We’re getting together with a bunch of adoptive families (adopting or adopted from Ethiopia) next weekend. We’ve gotten together with the women and small children before but this time it will be our husbands and all the kids too. Can’t wait! Since we saw each other last time, two more families have gotten referrals and hopefully there will be more in the near future.
  
  
• It’s a very exciting time coming up for my friend Catherine. She’s probably about a month (at the most) away from seeing her daughter Hannah’s face for the very first time. After waiting over 39!!!! months, she should be receiving a referral from China in the month of July. I can’t wait! She’s been such an amazingly patient mama and such an example in the adoption community. Did I mention that she’s waited for 39 months??!?!?!?!?
  
  

So that’s it. I didn’t mean to be this long winded but I guess that’s what happens when you don’t post on your blog for so many weeks. I will try to do some more posts to catch up in the next little while. If you have a blog that I usually follow, I am still reading and following along . . . just not commenting all the time. I hope all is well with everyone.