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.