Thursday, February 25, 2010

I so appreciated your notes.... Let me begin by saying, we have every intention of still participating in our adoption group activities! We are so fortunate to have made many friendships in this circle of very special people and we will always stay in touch. Plus, we won't be that far away! We can easily pop back and forth and not miss much!!!! The Christmas Party is a given, and Sugaring off too! And then of course if there is a summer gathering etc... The only thing I may miss and boy will I miss them is the Mom's Night outs! OK< as I type I know I will do my best to come to the odd one at least!!!! There is one this weekend which I will sadly have to miss as we are having an open house event here on Sunday, and I will be busy prepareing. I pray that someone pops in who wants to make this house their home. We have had 3 visits so far.... I will keep you posted when I have any news!

Next week is March Break! Victoria is so looking forward to her spring break! For obvious reasons!!!!

Mara-Grace is very excited for next week also. We told her about a special surprise happening Thursday. Victoria is booked to babysit Hannah and Kevin and I are taking Mara-Grace to see Disney On Ice Princess Classics! I cannot wait! It will be a special little evening out just for Miss Mara! When we told her this morning she was beyond thrilled!

Hannah Faith had her first blood work done today! We learned of the most wonderful private lab that comes to your home! (Thanks for this info Doris!)It was incredible! The nurse came to our house and took Hannah's blood tests. She sat very still and was as patient as a peach with the whole procedure. She did cry understandably, but remained still etc... I was so proud of her. She even waved goodbye to Andrea the nurse!!!

Well, I suppose I should be on my way now. I may try to change the blog background (yes, again!!!! I love the change but cannot seem to settle on a favorite right now!).

All the best.

xo Jen

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Where to begin?

Good evening!

I hardly know where to begin tonight.... I have neglected updating our blog, and feel it! There is so much I want to say.

I will try to summarize as much as I can!

Our holiday at Mom and Dad's was great! It was so wonderful to be there for the week. Sadly though, my beloved Gran had to be taken to the hospital. We suspected she had had a stroke and has had such a rough time of it lately... She is still at the hospital and is responding well to her physio. Please keep her in your prayers. On another note, I was able to introduce Hannah Faith to her other Great-Grandmother. It was wonderful seeing Grandma (who even gave me a new pair of her handmade mittens!!! I cannot begin to express how much I treasure mittens from Grandma!) and having her hold our girls and meet Hannah for the first time. Hannah wasn't sure about me leaving her on Grandma's knee to take a picture, but she seemed to love Grandma from my arms! A few more visits and she will be rocking along with Grandma in her chair!

Hannah Faith had her first check up and will soon have some blood work done. Today, she had her first dental appointment after Mara-Grace! No cavities for either little lady!

HUGE news, Hannah received her Canadian Citizenship!!!!!! Officially!!!! Now, we will work on her passport so we can do some travelling beyond the borders!

Hannah has also taken flight!!!! She is WALKING! Really walking!!! And proud as punch doing so!

We celebrated Chinese New Year and began the year of the Tiger with much celebrating at home!

We also celebrated Valentine's Day! Our home has been decorated for Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year for the last month! Can you tell we were excited for both holidays?

Now, here comes some rather shocking news. It was completely unanticipated. I cannot even really begin to explain how this wasn't in our plans, and yet it all seemed to fall into place as though it was just in HIS plan. Long story short, my parents have been talking of selling their home. This was always something that made me sad inside for many obvious sentimental reasons. Not only did I grow up there, but Kev and I have many incredible memories there.... We had our Graduation pictures taken there, we also had our wedding reception on the grounds, we also lived with my folks for a year and brought Victoria home from the hospital to that home, not to mention our first kiss was had there etc... as I said, sentimental reasons. Regardless of so many years of incredible memories, I fully understood that my parents were ready to downsize and move into town. Well, as my parents were talking with Realtors, we all kind of happened on the idea of our moving back to the area and buying their house. Honestly, it still baffles me as to how it just all happened. We had thought of this in the past, but didn't think a move would be wise or possible. Now, however, it just all mapped itself out. The decision made sense. We have listed our home for sale and are crossing our fingers that it sells quickly. The move comes with mixed feelings. We have been in this area for 12 years and have loved our time here. We have made many wonderful friends and roots here and it will be sad to move from them... At the same time, it will be special to be close to our families again and have our girls see their Grandparents regularly. We will miss so much here, but we are also looking forward to the prospect. All is a go with Kevin's work and he will work from home many days and also out of the Ottawa office. Victoria has surprised me the most with this. She was the most sure about the idea of moving. At 15, she is excited about starting a new school and making some new friends. She is one brave, confident cookie!!! Hannah continues to smile through life and at 18 months has no clue what this means! :) Mara-Grace at 4 has needed much reassurance about the little things. She is now excited about the idea and seems more secure knowing that we will remain together and our things will come with us to our new house. Of course, this move will be contingent on the sale of our home... Ideally, we would like to move in the summer....

I pray that all continues to fall into place and that we can continue to hold on to all that has become so dear to us here.... You know who you are!!!!

Much love and blessings from our home to yours. xoxo

Scrapbooking at WiddlyTinks.com
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Photo Albums at WiddlyTinks.com
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Photo Albums at WiddlyTinks.com
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Digital Scrapbooking at WiddlyTinks.com
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Digital Scrapbooking at WiddlyTinks.com
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Scrapbook at WiddlyTinks.com
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Digital Scrapbooking at WiddlyTinks.com
Photo Tinks by WiddlyTinks.com


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Photo Tinks by WiddlyTinks.com

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Hello!

I am not sure how to start this post….

A few weeks ago, I found a local Chinese School that I phoned twice for information. The good news was that they had a new session starting Jan.30th. They explained that they had a class just right for Mara-Grace’s age of 4. It is geared for children whose primary language at home is not Chinese. They explained that the class would consist of learning the language by playing, songs and doing crafts etc. Excellent! We have been so excited to start this new experience and we have talked way up Mara’s Chinese school! Boy, were we all jazzed up and ready to go! I feel like we prepared Mara the best we could that we would bring her in to ‘school’ for her class at 1pm, stay a few minutes, and we would come back at 3 to pick her up. She seemed more than ready for this new adventure.

Saturday finally arrived and Mara-Grace wanted to wear a dress of course and her new Chinese bracelet. She was prancing with pride and excitement!

We arrived at class and met her teacher. There were a few chairs set up facing a chalk board. The Chinese school is held on the weekends in a local school.

We stayed a few minutes and Mara still seemed quite happy and didn’t seem upset at all. I felt she was prepared as best as possible, and we left her. It was so hard for me. I have never left her apart from with her big sister and my Mother. It was beyond difficult and I questioned leaving her etc. and felt like I had lost one of my limbs. But there she was, looking so excited about this! Somehow, that helped ease a bit of the heartache.

We hung around the halls (out of sight) for about 20 minutes and then left the building. We arrived back at 2:25 (class was out at 3) and we stood outside the classroom. Kev peaked in and said that he could see her, still sitting in the chair we left her in. Then, he told me that he could have sworn he just heard the teacher say very crossly that if one of the students didn’t listen, they wouldn’t be allowed to go home. WHAT?! It couldn’t have been. As I type, my heart is thundering thinking of what came next. I told Kev that if that is what he heard and I hear that I am barging in and taking Mara and I will NEVER take her back here again. It mustn’t have been correct. So we stood there listening. Then Kev says, “Oh no, Mara is standing there crying”. Oh my God. I took a step towards the window to look in when I heard and saw very clearly the teacher with Mara-Grace next to her pointing at a little boy. She said, “If you don’t pay attention, I will not let you go home. You will not be going home. You will have to stay here and not go home.” That was it. I barged (and I mean that literally) into the classroom and I immediately asked Mara-Grace if you was ok. She was sobbing. The teacher said, “She just missed you”. I was ready to yell but somehow I stayed calm. I said, I told Mara to come into the hallway with me. As I looked at my little girl, who was so very eager to come to this class, I felt my heart breaking. She was petrified. She was clinging to me and sobbing uncontrollably. I talked to her calmly and asked her if she was scared here. YES! I asked her if her teacher was a bit of a cranky pants. YES! I asked her if she had any fun before feeling sad. NO! I asked her if they sat on there chairs the whole time. YES! (OMG They are 4 ish. College students have a hard time sitting and being alert for 2 hours) I asked if they sang. NO! I asked if they did a craft. NO! I asked if they had to listen and repeat words the whole time. YES! I asked if she thought that she would like to come back and try again with mommy and Daddy in the room. NO! She really was so upset. I was in shock at what I had heard. What didn’t we witness? We waited till class was finished and we went in to gather her coat. I asked how it went. The teacher said she was lonesome and cried. Why didn’t they phone us? She said she told her to calm down and we’d return. Really? I am sure Mara was indeed lonesome as this was obviously not what we had signed up for. I asked when they did a craft. They didn’t. I asked when they sang. She said they did rather defensively. She said for the first 7 minutes they had singing. So I said, “Oh, so for 7 minutes out of two hours”. That is rather difficult for little children…. I said that this class is obviously not what we thought. We will not be subjecting her to this again. I was so upset and yet, I tried to keep my head about me. I felt like they broke my baby girl. 3 years of love and reassurance and she had come so far and I really felt it had been undone by this horrible situation. I know now that thankfully, after much discussion Mara-Grace will be ok. But she was absolutely exhausted that evening. We all were. It certainly took a lot out of her. I explained that we made a mistake and we thought the class was very different. We explained that we found another Chinese school that we will go with her etc… We tried to somehow reassure her that it just wasn’t the right one for her or us. Just not what we thought. My poor baby girl. When Kev said that we had witnessed what she said to that little boy, she wasn’t phased at all. It was just her way. How worrisome. I noticed one of the fathers whose son was also looked adopted kind of listening to us. I do hope that he gives some thought to what he is leaving his son in. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe what had happened. I feel so guilty for leaving her. No matter how I work this in my mind, I feel that I did the right thing removing her from this situation. I rework it and try to comprehend this, but I just cannot. In my opinion, we should not have been told this class was something it clearly wasn’t. It is inhuman to think little kids can sit and listen and repeat for 2 hours. And NEVER was it at all acceptable to say what was said repeatedly during that class. To no child, let alone some who have come to their families through adoption and have had to personally deal with separation etc. To be told she wouldn’t let them go home. I cannot wrap my head around her mindset. Incredible how it seemed appropriate to her. Anyway, that was our first experience with ‘school’. I pray that we can prepare Mara again, and the next experience will be one to treasure.

I had planned to come and stay with Mara-Grace and Hannah at my parent’s house this week. So, here we are! I am thankful that we are here to be a little help. My Gran had to be taken to the hospital and will be there about a week. I am happy to be here… I will drive home on Friday morning. I will post more about our week later.

Much love. xoxo