12
Oct

Around our house

October 12, 2010

If you had come over to visit over the past few days you would’ve seen us:

 preparing Samuel’s “Introducing Your Family” package.

(It only took about 5,000 tries to get this one!)

When I mailed it today, the postal worker at the mail counter asked me if I reeeeally wanted to send it.  Surely it would be too costly (it was a lot!).  I felt like saying, are you kidding me?   This is for one priceless kiddo!

Garnet received this balloon from us for his birthday.  For a whole week he asked if he could send it to Jesus in Heaven.  Finally, before bed one night we sent it off into the night sky.  I think his smile speaks volumes.  This guy has a big heart for Jesus.

He is also really growing his range of vocabulary.

Lately we’ve caught him saying, “Yes, you may.”

Another time we heard him say, “The deal’s expired!”

(The deal, for those of you who don’t know, is that he told each of us that he doesn’t want kisses anymore <sob>, except on his birthday.  You can guess the sheer volume of kissing that went on that day!  The next morning?  Apparently, the “deal” had expired.)

<chuckle>

 

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21
Sep

Back to Homeschool

September 21, 2010

With the numerous interuptions and false starts we’ve had this Fall, today was finally the day I declared the official “Back to Homeschool” day.  Somehow with all the physio appointments, homestudy visits, clean up after our various home projects, our first day kept getting pushed back. Our kids always start back a week after the rest of the local school kids return to class.   Usually this is our “Not Back to School” celebration involving a trip to a very quiet mall in which to shop for fall clothes, one last trip to the beach or to Grandma’s pool in the middle of the week, and it usually gives me some extra time to get the rest of my straggling to do list all caught up. 

Without further ado, here are the somewhat smiling faces of this year’s class of students to Beacon Rock Homeschool.

First, we have James.  Entering Grade 10, at least a foot taller than last years photo and sporting a lot less hair, he has chosen his Star Wars Role Playing Guidebook as his favourite memorabilia item for this season.

 

Next up, we have Faith.  Also showing that summer growth spurt, she has chosen her favourite pet, Sparkle, and the latest script that she has authored, a sequel to her first show, Hannah’s Doom. 

 

Now we have our newcomer to the world of first day of  “Back to Homeschool”, Miss Grace.  Grace has been excitedly asking for us to begin for some weeks now, and she chose as her favourite item, not only her Princess dress, but also her fairy wings (courtesy of cousin E.).  An elegant choice, don’t you think?

 

Last but not least, we have Garnet.  This will be Garnet’s first year of full day homeschool with us.  He is unsure if that is a good thing at this point in his career, but he is unwilling to let it get him down.  He eagerly chose his Indiana Jones sword and his “frog gun” (it apparently turns all items in its path into… you guessed it, frogs.  100% for spirit and imagination, my delightful First Grader!

Won’t you join me in congratulating them? 

It looks like a great year ahead!

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10
Aug

Well, he finally managed to have it done…

August 10, 2010

 

Do you remember this post from a couple of weeks ago?

Well, he managed to get it all shaved. 

And I was the one who finally did it.

 We decided to have our naturopath do a full assessment and this required a 1 ounce hair sample.

Unfortunately when his assistant looked at Garnet’s short buzz, she declared it too short for a little snip.  Instead it would require another ahem more severe buzz cut. 

And I got to do the honours.

After making short work of his hair, we ducked into the next door barber shop (convenient don’t you think?!) in order to have my hack job hair cut evened out a bit. 

Stephen came home and after a few minutes of assessing the situation, he took it down even farther.

He was smooth as a billard ball.  Truly.

And now he is growing it out.

His impression of the whole experience? 

Well, upon climbing into Grandma’s truck (I’m still not driving but I’ll save that for another day), he looked put out. 

I asked him about it and he asked me why it still didn’t look like Uncle S’s head? 

And that’s when I realized that he has black hair and S. has blonde hair.

It starts so young.  Our desire to appear different or more like our idols. 

The candy he received from the barber seemed to help heal his damaged spirits though. 

Quite the charming little monk  monkey though, isn’t he?

 

Good thing we adore him so much!

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6
Aug

Frogs

August 6, 2010

As is the norm in our house, Garnet was the first to wake us up this morning.  When he does, he inevitably wants a story.  Sometimes its a memory about a specific thing.  Sometimes its one that Steve or I will make up.  Or like this morning it’ll be a specific Book.  He confrimed with his Dad that a Bible story was okay and then he removed the bookmark and got it ready for his Dad to read. 

Today’s story was about Elisha and the healing of Naaman.  At the end, the story book had a prompt that asks, “Who healed Naaman?” 

And who do you think Garnet thought was the Healer in the Bible story? 

Frogs. 

Yep, frogs. 

Apparently this particular illustrator really likes frogs (something that we had never noticed before as adults!) and sure enough in many of the stories there is a cute little frog watching from the sidelines. 

Guess we need to be more specific fom now on! 

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5
Aug

Garnet’s CWI visit (December 13, 2007)

August 5, 2010

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28
Jul

This and That

July 28, 2010

I’ve been playing at the absentee blog owner these days.  But I’d like you to meet my new best friends:

The Crutches

And…

Ms. Walker

 

Yep, 2 X-rays later and I’ve been pretty much off my feet for the past 10 days.  It’s just a sprain, but it seems to be taking its time healing up as it is in a bit of a funny spot across the top of my foot.  Darn flip flops, you betrayed me with your sporty cuteness. 

sigh…

 

On another note, Garnet has been up to his usual cuteness.  He was looking a bit like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo.  He’d look at us with his chin tipped up in order to try and see beneath his

bangs (Am I allowed to call them that on a boy?).  Stephen took him to our friend’s to get a buzz cut.  The whole week beforehand he spent telling us he wanted hair like Uncle S. (my brother who has buzzed his entire head to nothing but a polished sheen).  Atractive though it may be, Steve told our friend to leave him a bit of hair so he wouldn’t have to deal with sunburn. 

Well, our little guy hopped out of her salon chair rather perturbed!  He wanted hair like his Uncle and that was that!  That’s all we heard about for those first few days and then one day he bent over as I was talking to him and what did I see?

 

 

Oh yeah.  He’d tried to take matters into his own hands!  LOL

The funniest bit was the fact that he didn’t hardly miss a beat.  He wasn’t even embarrassed to be caught (not like him at all!).  He just kind of sighed the long-suffering sigh of a five year old.

{Perhaps I ought to take his style preferences more seriously!}

In hindsight, he did wake up that morning claiming to be Curious George!

 

All in all we’ve been up to purging the house with a few ice cream breaks.

 One of those gems I have been unable to part with finally ended up at the Sally Ann. 

These are my two boys’ favourite movies from when they were preschoolers.   I think I could still recite every word of them!

Wiggle Bay was beloved by Garnet since the week he came home & Fred Penner was watched so much that even though it got fuzzy in places, it was still the top pick movie of any given week by James between the ages of 3 and 5.  Good memories.

 

Faith and Garnet took some time to dance the other day.

And here’s a beauty shot of our ice cream lovin’ princess.

 

And a HUGE thank you to everyone who’s fetched my crutches, watched my children, schlepped me around (thanks Mom!) and generally taken care of me.

Especially my dearest, oldest boy James, with his new title of Chief Cook and Bottle Washer! 

Thanks Son!

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14
Jul

So I got called a control freak parent today.

July 14, 2010

Now, I may be a bit controlling at times (Yes, I know.  No one in my real life is surprised.)  I may even be a bit of a freak of nature.  But a control freak parent?  I never thought so. 

Let’s have a little English lesson, shall we? 

con·trol

/kənˈtroʊl/ Show Spelled[kuhn-trohl]

–verb (used with object)
1. to exercise restraint or direction over; dominate; command.
2. to hold in check; curb: to control a horse; to control one’s emotions.
3.to test or verify (a scientific experiment) by a parallel experiment or other standard of comparison.
4.to eliminate or prevent the flourishing or spread of: to control a forest fire.
5.Obsolete . to check or regulate (transactions), originally by means of a duplicate register.
 
 
Sooooo I suppose I do exercise restraint over my kiddos.    ahem
 

freak

/frik/ Show Spelled[freek]–noun
1. any abnormal phenomenon or product or unusual object; anomaly; aberration.
2. a person or animal on exhibition as an example of a strange deviation from nature; monster.
3. a sudden and apparently causeless change or turn of events, the mind, etc.; an apparently capricious notion, occurrence, etc.: That kind of sudden storm is a freak.
4. Numismatics . an imperfect coin, undetected at the mint and put into circulation.
5. Philately . a stamp differing from others of the same printing because of creases, dirty engraving plates, etc.
6. Slang .
          a. a person who has withdrawn from normal, rational behavior and activities to pursue one interest or obsession: a drug freak.
          b.a devoted fan or follower; enthusiast: a baseball freak.
          c. a hippie.
7. Archaic . capriciousness; whimsicality
 
I am bit unusual compared to the majority of other parents I know these days.
 
Uh oh –  perhaps that stranger knew me better than I thought! 
 
 
 
And this turns out to be the best way for me to get into something that I has been shifting in our home since our trip (well, actually, beginning on our trip). 
 
You see, when we brought Garnet home at age 3.  We sheltered him (I think this is what the person saw in me = control freak parenting).   We made sure we were the numero uno in his world.  We worked hard at creating our own little microcosm in the form of our family.  We had to go back to square one and teach him what a family was.  We had to teach him that he didn’t have to deal with the world on his own (at 3!).  And it worked.  He has his struggles to be sure and as we hit each developmental milestone we see behaviours and emotions pop out that we thought were banished.  Only now I am hesitant to even believe that they will ever be banished.  I think that they will be there under his skin for the rest of his earthly life.  His beginning is, of course, what makes him who he is today and who he will develop into tomorrow.  I have the full knowledge that Jesus can walk with him through this and that what He did on the cross created a new start for Garnet.   But, on the flip side, will the shadow of the past ever be completely gone?  No.  It will always be there somewhere deep inside.  His perspective on it has the ability to change though.  That is what we ache to see in him.  A confidence deep down inside that comes from the ability to build on what was to what will be.
 
 When Grace came home last fall we tried to do the same thing.  And I don’t think we were successful.  (I know it’s only been 6 months – there’s lots of time!) 
 
For example, in China, we had been advised  by all in the “know” (attachment therapist, other APs, our very experienced facilitator), to simply let her bond to whomever she would on our trip.  Meaning that she should find her safe person or people and hang on, realizing that once we got home we would resume our parenting and lifestyle as we did with Garnet.
 
Grace very obviously chose Grandma. 
 
My folks had travelled to China to meet Garnet and came again for Grace’s adoption.  And we are so thrilled that they did (Just so you know Mom & Dad!).  They were an incredible help.  They have a strong empathy and avid interest in our family’s connection to China. They have made connections to our facilitator.  They have (especially my Mom) invested a lot of time learning about adopive parenting, trauma, special needs, and China’s social and societal customs.  Also, our kids respond well to them as travel companions and disciplinarians as the need arises (although the disciplinary part is rarely seen – I don’t know where they get their stamina from!). 
 
So when we were in China.  Grandma came first and then Mama.  Everyone else may as well have stayed home.  (Although I’m glad they all came because oh.has.it.been.good. to have you all be in the knowabout Grace’s life.  It has helped to reaffrim that I am not crazy and that I saw what I saw and experienced what I experienced.  KWIM?)  Once we got home she grieved.  Oh how she grieved!  It had begun in China and just seemed to grow until in enveloped every one of us.  IT became all consuming.  And I’m not talking about a few days or a week, but months! 
 
If an adult adoptee or Grace herself should read this in the future, let me explain that this is not the point of my long ramble.  She needed to grieve.  Still does at times.  She will probably always have that hole right there in her heart, just as we see it to this day in Garnet.  I am not complaining about her grief, rather I am concerned about our part in it.  And that leads me further into my ramble.
 
We spent months not sleeping, making contact with her loved ones in China, pouring over her photos and having her recount in her early days crazy Chinglish, just how much better China was.  How much she ached to be there.  How much all the other adults in her life were missing her and so sad she wasn’t with them.  And believe me when I say that I am oversimplifying what she went through.  What form of roller coaster that we rode with her.  Those adults in China rode it with her too.  We all tried our best to support her in this pain she was experiencing.  And we made a huge mistake. 
 
In the midst of the dwelling in the pain (which was very essential!), we forgot to remind her of her present and of her future.  We neglected to take the reigns of control from her grasp and take our role as her new parents to its fullest degree.  We forgot to teach her what a family was.  Who parents are in the life of a child.  That it’s okay to be loved on like a baby.  That when you need to grieve it feels best when you can do it with a loved one rather than try to take care of business on your own.  And because of that, my friends, she was unable to attach to her new reality, thereby preventing her from connecting with her new family. 
 
She is so often like a sugar starved toddler running around looking for her next lollipop.  Who will give me what I need?  Who will fill this hole?  And so she runs.  From here to there. 
 
Some days it is so wonderful.  I get a heartfelt hug in the morning or a spontaneous “I love you” at bedtime or she asks after her Dad while he is at work multiple times a day.  Other days I need to tighten up a little on the “control freak” role (see I do have a point! LOL).
 
Is the purpose of my post to beat myself up over the past months?  No.  I think we did many things right.  She is definitely growing in her attachment each day, whether it is visible or not.  I guess my point is simply that sometimes one needs to take stock and really size things up.  For me, this is a season of tweaking my parenting. 
 
I’m so thankful that, so far, even Mama’s can have a second chance.
 
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6
Jul

What lies beneath…

July 6, 2010

We are long home. The oldest 2 are at camp this week, Stephen is working on some projects from home and we decided to move some bedrooms around and create a playroom. In the photo Steve is holding all of the debris he could reach inside of Garnet’s duct work. blech So now we know what was lurking under the floorboards at night. lol

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6
May

Wishing and Hoping

May 6, 2010

Stephen and I had really and truly hoped that when our two youngest finally were united, they would find fulfillment in the shared experiences of their early years. 

Today I saw it fulfilled.

There they were, in their fort under the school table.  Chatting away over Garnet’s photo album about “Their China”. 

It was all I could do not to shout, “Yippee!”.

 

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2
May

A new glimpse

May 2, 2010

Thanks to this post on Rumor Queen, many of us in the China IA world have been racing around the web in order to locate new photos of our kids.

Here’s a new one of Garnet.

 

At this point, this is probably the youngest photo we have of our little man.  Would I normally be joyous over a simple photo of a regular old exam?  No.  But, this is post surgery.  This is his history.  And I am delighted to see it.

We’ve also found a few photos of the baby rooms in each of the kids’ orphanages.   Both kids have had a lot of questions about their babyhood lately and I’m so pleased to have the photos to show them.

I’m so thankful for the internet and for the generosity of the many other IA parents we’ve met or been exposed to over the internet. 

Off to search some more…

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