HAPPY HALLOWEEN

BOO! Have a great Halloween everyone. We looove Halloween around these parts!

It's that time of year

The germs are back! Tis the season and all of that, boo to cold and flu. Every year we tell you to go away, really you are not welcome here. Yet, once again our house is invaded. Just in time for Halloween, once again.
Sneezing, coughing, crabiness is ready to be shared within our little house. I'm sure the bug caught a nice ride with my darling children, straight from school of course.
I'm also sure that we have helped spread this bug far and wide since I was the bad mother and sent both my kids to school yesterday and to gymnastics practise.
I do know that the kids were nice enough to share the bug with their father and I.
On the plus side, both my children were in bed, fast asleep by 7:00. However, their mother isn't too far behind.

Thinking about a career change

Okay, so technically I don't have a career but I am thinking of a change. I do have a BA in psychology, never used really but at least I did graduate once upon a time.

We also happen to have a satelite campus of a community college at our huge state of the art arena, located 5 minutes walking distance from my front door.

This college only has 5 programs, yet 2 of these programs are something I would be interested in regardless. One is Social Service worker and the other is an ECE (early childhood educator) diploma. Those both loosely tie in with my dusty old psych degree. Better job prospects with the ECE, however do I want to work in a daycare setting??? Social Service Worker would be more emotionally demanding, but it also relates more to psychology (again, loosely) which I love. I do love working with children though (at least I think I do).

Just seems like the right time to go back to school, Avery will be in grade 1 next year, so full time and Brennyn will most likely be in afternoon kindergarten (can always get someone to watch her the odd morning when Blair is working or coming off night shift).

Hmm, decisions, decisions. Oh, and I somehow also have to find some money to pay for this adventure, so I have to make sure I can find a job at the end of this journey to pay back this found money (aka loan).

Nothing to report on the search

Guess I'm a little discouraged. I knew that it would be very difficult to locate Avery's birth sister, but it's still disappointing. I'm going to attempt to e-mail the Norwegian adoption agencies one more time and see if they will assist me. I wonder what my agency would do if someone e-mailed them from another country looking for a birth relative?? I'm wondering if this has ever happened?

It's difficult when most adoptive families don't believe it's possible to find birth family in China. It's not easy, and it's still fairly rare, but it's happening more and more. There are even birth families in China searching from that end. There are adoptees starting to search for their birth parents as well. Trust me, it's happening, the walls are starting to come down slowly.

Harvest festival

Our great town has so many activities for families. Yesterday was the annual town harvest festival. All the shops downtown hand out candy to the little ones dressed in their Halloween costumes.
It's always so much fun, and I love to see the downtown streets full of families dressed in their Halloween best.

Of course, this could be because Halloween happens to be my favourite holiday, but I digress.

We saw the usual, princess after princess, transformers, cute little witches.
What did my girls dress as, you ask? Why, a flesh eating zombie (complete with blood dripping down the clothes and a half eaten hand) and a vampire. It was great. I couldn't talk Avery into wearing her pj's and housecoat, complete with panda slippers. I thought that would have made the coolest zombie, but what do I know?

After a fun morning of trick or treating/scaring little children, we spent the afternoon making paintbrush Halloween cookies. It was a complete day spent eating sugar, the best kind of day around (mom and kids, someone has to test all the treats and make sure they are safe).

Nothing new on the search side of things

Guess I'm at a crossroads, not sure what to do next. I am so happy that so many people from Norway have clicked on the link to check out my blog, however, I have no new leads. Not sure how to proceed?

I can't explain how frustrated I feel right now, knowing that Avery has another sister out there. Perhaps they really do not want to be found. Again, I have to say, as an adoptee, I know how important it is to have information about your birth family. It's not like we even have much contact with Avery's birth family anyway. I have really only received 1 direct letter from them. I haven't even had much chance to QQ lately either (been a little busy with my youngest daughter, who is doing so well after her surgery).

However, Avery has a letter from her birth family that explains why she was placed for adoption. We don't have to guess why she left where she was (okay, so in truth, we also now know that she was never left anywhere but taken directly to the orphanage). I don't know why I feel like I have a mission to find this little girl?? So, I will ask again, if anyone out there has any search ideas, please leave a message on my blog or e-mail me.

I have received a suggestion (thank-you W) about contacting media. I'm a little hesitant to use this approach since I'm not so sure the other family would appreciate the attention?? I'm going to have to think about this, interesting idea though.

Any help in the search is appreciated

These were Avery's referral pictures.

Again, I thank the person who posted my blog address on the Norwegian Forum! I se that my traffic from Norway has increased dramatically. Has anyone adopted from Gao An in the past 6 or 7 years who may have contact with other families who have adopted from Gao An Jiangxi? I'm just not sure how I should be searching (I am no detective, just a mom who really wants to find all my daughter's birth family). Here is the information once again: My daughter's birth sister was born Feb 23 2004 (however, you never know if the orphanage gave the correct birth date to the adoptive family) from Gao An Jiangxi. She was adopted by a family from Norway. My e-mail is blair1849@rogers.com. Any help is much appreciated.

Search information (still looking for my daughter's birth sister).

EDIT TO ADD: my e-mail address to make it easier if anyone has questions blair1849@rogers.com

Just saw an increase in traffic from Norway. Here is hoping that someone will recognize this information. I won't post the girl's orphanage name on here for privacy reasons but if anyone needs more they can leave a comment. I am looking for my daughter's birth sister who was born February 23 2004. She was adopted from the GAO AN SWI JIANGXI (don't have the date of adoption, but it would probably have been late 2004 or early 2005)? I know that she was adopted by a family from Norway. I understand that this family may want their privacy and not be interested, but I do have some pictures of the birth family for them. Thank-you so very much for whoever posted my blog on the Norweigan forum. I really appreciate any help I can get!

She amazes me everytime

Nothing like a last second surgery, but you take what they give you (well we do anyway, that obviously isn't the case for everyone since we were not the first family our surgeon's secretary called). Anyhow, we managed to get a babysitter for Miss Avery, pack a bag and get us to Sick Kids by 10:00 Thursday morning. Again, Brennyn went the whole day without food and did not complain once. It's like she knows that she has no choice in the matter (because at home she says she is hungry every half hour, no matter how much she has eaten). She just does what she has to do, without a complaint or crying, complete with Brennyn humour. It's just amazing. The surgery was to seperate her finger and thumb (she has syndactyly) and was 5 hours in length. The Dr. said it would be 5 hours and the man was not kidding. I stayed the night with Brennyn and Daddy went home. Once again the staff at Sick Kids were great. The nurses are so helpful and patient with children and the parents. Speaking of parents, there was 1 family that came in while I was sitting in the surgical waiting room. I counted 33 people, not including the teenage kids that left to go walk around downstairs. It was like I was watching an episode of the Sopranos. Nice to see the support this family had, but thank goodness the waiting room wasn't as busy at that time of the evening (most of the surgeries were long over) or no-one else would have been able to sit down.

This picture was taken about 2 hours after surgery, little monkey was still out cold. She did wake up for a few minutes after surgery, in the recovery, but preceeded to sleep for most of the night after that.

There she is, 13 hours after her surgery. You would never know she just had a major operation, she was cracking jokes with the nurse, blowing kisses to the doctor. Thank goodness she is comfortable at Sick Kids because we do spend a lot of time there! 2 operations down and at least 3 more to go! Crossing my fingers that this operation is a success, we won't know for sure until the cast comes off in 3 weeks.

Surgery tomorrow

Sick Kids called this afternoon. Brennyn is scheduled for hand surgery tomorrow morning. We always seem to get the last minute booking, but what can you do. You really have to be flexible and accommodating. This surgery is a little more intense than the last surgery, so I am a little more nervous for my baby. She bounced back so quickly last time, I'm crossing my fingers for her.

overdue pictures

Found these pictures in a file on my computer. Avery's trip to the dentist 6 months ago, she loves her new dentist!

Blair and Avery attended a few of the team Canada soccer matches this year. Here's hoping Canada makes it a little farther in their quest for the World Cup.

The girls and I did a lot of this in the summer. Such a beautiful summer this year, great weather for hanging at the trailer!

Not the best start to the day, our car was backed into by a giant white pick up truck this morning while we were in the bank. Nothing like having someone knock on the door while we are in a meeting with the bank person saying "so sorry to interupt, but do you own a mazda". You know it's not going to be good news. Oh well, car has been towed and we have a rental for a week. Seriously, who knew a pick up could do that much damage backing up? The hood is squished, headlight smashed and bumper half off. The truck of course, had no damage (it was like a white tank). On an unrelated topic, still no luck on the birth sister search. I think most people imagine I am crazy to even try. I've tried the Rumour Queen forum, a few China adoption forums and e-mailed the Norway adoption agencies. I have had a few very helpful folks e-mail me, some even volunteering to post on a Norwegian chat forum. Nothing from the adoption agencies. It's not looking very likely that I'll find them, but I'll keep trying.

Comments

For some strange reason it seems people are having a difficult time commenting on my blog (not that many people comment on my good old blog). Not sure why this is?? Any blog experts out there who can help?

Small update to the search

I am so excited, was on QQ this morning and Avery's cousin messaged me that he had some answers for me. He e-mailed everything I need to know. This search may be possible after all. It's still very, very challenging, but I feel that we have a chance. I have her birth date and her orphanage name. All I can hope for is that this family belongs to one of the many chat groups that exist in the China adoption world! She is also born in February like Avery, actually she is 2 years and 3 days older! EDIT: emailed the adoption agencies in Norway. I'm sure they'll think I'm some kind of nut. I think it's the best chance and I thank the people who were kind enough to send me the e-mail addresses and the names of the agencies.

Frustrating

I knew the search for Avery's birth sister would be difficult, if not impossible. I mean, we've barely come to terms ourselves with finding Avery's birth family, never mind looking for another member of the family. Yet, I can't stop myself. Not just for Avery's sake (of course I want to find her birth sister so she can have contact) but for this girl. Perhaps her parent's don't want to have a relationship with birth family, perhaps they don't even think it's possible?? Yet, here I sit looking at pictures of the family in China. Wouldn't everyone want that for their child? As I mentioned before, as an adoptee myself, I know how important pictures of your birth family can be. Just to have that chance to see what your biological relatives look like is priceless. I know, some people think it's not important, but trust me, it is. It just takes away that guessing game. That is why I am doing this. I worry about posting on the chat groups, but at the same time, I feel it's my best starting point. I just don't want to put too much out there because this is my daughter we are talking about, and again, as mentioned before, this is her story to tell one day.

Just wanted to post some pics of my girls. Got a note home from Brennyn's school recommending her for Occupational therapy. Made me feel like parent of the year. Our physio from Sick Kids never mentioned Occupational Therapy so I didn't even realize Brennyn could benefit from this. I filled out the paperwork without even calling the teacher, I was in panic mode. Now that I've had a chance to think about it, I have some questions. For instance, is the occupational therapist coming to the school? Is this going to disrupt Brennyn from class? It's great that they even offer this kind of service through the school, I just don't want Brennyn to feel any more different from the other kids, singled out.

Hi Ho Hi Ho

It's off to work I go. Going back to work for a few months (in the retail world, it's called CHRISTMAS season). My boss called and asked if I would come back part-time and she would even work around my DH's schedule and Brennyn's Sick Kids appointments. To be honest, we could use a little spare change around here, so I said yes. I really do need to figure out some sort of future career, but this will do for now. The payscale for the world of retail stinks, but I really do love working with people and kind of miss it (a tiny bit). At least I am able to work part-time right now, and not have to rush out and find full-time work, in this lovely economy.

5 year group reunion

This weekend was our Children's Bridge group 237 and 238 5 year reunion (the technical date of the anniversary is Nov 5th, but this is the day they planned for the party). We have never attended the reunion before, we had been under the impression that the get togethers were more for group 238 (we're 237). I am so happy that we were able to attend this year. I can't describe how amazing it was to see all these families 5 years later. The kids have changed so much, while the adults look exactly the same (okay, so some of us may have a few more gray hairs). We went apple picking, the kids made carmel apples (Brennyn just ate the candy in the dishes while she thought no-one was looking), bounced around in a bouncy castle. It was a great day!