A little bird (or 2!) sent me a note and reminded me that I had not written in awhile. To be honest (and I apologize) I hadn’t noticed. So then I thought well it’s because nothing interesting has happened and then I thought well maybe sooooommme interesting things have happened it just never occurred to me to write about them here. Big things happened today though. More on that later. (This is kind of like the teaser they give you at the beginning of a news broadcast. You won’t hear anymore until 2 minutes before the end. ;))
It’s been quite a month. I had been feeling really guilty for the longest while because since we left Thunder Bay in May we had had no contact whatsoever with Sam’s birthmother. His grandmother (I’m not going to use “birth bla bla bla here cause it just gets cumbersome when used for relatives other than his birthparents) calls regularly. She had visited as well as his step grandfather and aunt and cousin. We had sent e-mails and pictures to his grandmother, his step grandfather, his grandmother’s friend, our social workers etc. etc. etc. but his birthmother was lost for awhile and then when she was “found” it took us a awhile to get any contact information on her. Finally, I got some info on her from her mother and the mother must have spoken to her as well because last week she called! She only has my cell number, we let it ring and then called her back (blocked our number) on our land line. Daniel spoke to her because I’m just not a good phone person (don’t speak to my own family on the phone!) but it was just good to have contact with her. The next day we exchanged a whack of e-mails and I sent her some pictures. Now I have an e-mail address for her etc. so we can keep in regular contact.
The e-mails really brought home the difficulties this young girl is dealing with. She is brain injured and only attended school until grade 5. So different reading an e-mail from her rather than Kamryn’s birthmother. Very sad.
Okay now that we are all down in the dumps let’s change tracks.
A couple of years ago, a neighbour of mine told me of a new school in the community. It was a francophone Catholic school in the “Montessori tradition” (it’s not true Montessori but it’s very close). It’s a publicly funded school but VERY different from our neighbourhood school. She thought we might be interested in putting Kamryn on the waiting list. I set out to find out more information but couldn’t find anything. It sat on the back burner of my mind for awhile and then got lost in the shuffle. We have to register Kamryn for school next month and in trying to find information on registering her I ”found” “the School.” I was soooo very bummed because now there is little chance of Kamryn getting in having wasted two school years NOT on the waiting list. Still I e-mailed for information and since it costs nothing to sit on the list I figured what the heck.
The Director of the school nevertheless contacted us and wanted to tell us about the school personally. That got me all excited but she ended the conversation by telling us that if Kamryn didn’t get in there was always her neighbourhood school that is very good. Sigh. Hopes dashed. To be honest though before I knew for sure this “super-school” existed I was thrilled with the school she will likely attend. We put both Kamryn and Sam on the waiting list regardless and I tried to push it from my mind (that’s not to say that I didn’t plan which pieces of uniform attire I should purchase for her lol).
So I’m busy pushing it from my mind and yesterday they call to invite us on a tour of the school. What the heck?!? So now my hopes are up again except Daniel explained (he talked to them; remember I don’t do phone calls) they also want us to fill out paperwork for both kids. Does that mean they really just need us to fill out waiting list paperwork? I’m hoping that the waiting list can’t be all that long if we are getting a tour of the school. Seems like a waste of time to me if she doesn’t have a chance of getting in. I’m hoping it’s a case like Grad School where they FORGOT to tell me about my scholarship/TAship until I went to the school to visit about a month before school started. Maybe she is already in (I doubt that’s the case but that didn’t stop me looking at “school shoes” (ones that fit the uniform code) while out shopping today. We go for a visit on Feb 8th. Hopefully we will impresss them enough to gain admission. It’s a really small school (130 students in Jr Kindergarten though Grade 6) so even a few people on the waiting list makes admission unlikely. Cross your fingers for us.
Okay back to more somber stuff.
We took Sam to have his language screened last Friday. He's not startlingly behind but to me he always sounds like he is talking with a mouth full of marbles.I'm not horribly worried. He's talking; he's just not progressing. The words that he had 6 months ago that we could barely make out are still almost impossible to understand. Instead of saying whole words he says the first syllable only. He's just kind of in a rut and because of his "history" we've paid a lot of attention to his language acquisition. My thoughts going to the drop-in were that I just wanted someone else to tell me that he wasn't lagging (he was right on where he should be in June when he came home) but it's been a nagging thought in my head that he wasn't "going" anywhere for a few months now. At his 18 month appt. the doctor suggested we get his hearing tested and I told her we would wait and see. Lately though the half words and the grunting (he does alot of pointing and grunting) have really been getting to me so we went to the drop in. It's a prescreening that they do for no charge (well it's covered by government health insurance) and then if necessary you get sent on to a more involved evaluation. I expected her to say "oh he's fine"; don't worry." But no, she saw definite delays. We'll see what comes of the real evaluation. Could very well be that this is just a huge waste of time. Waiting lists are huge though. He won't get a real evaluation before June (we'll have an info session and consultation on how to best work to encourage his language in March sometime). If he needs services we're looking at September or something silly like that. Ugh!In the meantime, we have an appointment to get his hearing checked in March. Don't think there is anything wrong with his hearing though; his receptive language is awe inspiring (I think he may listen better than Kamryn because he hasn't quite learned he can ignore me yet) but it will be one test we won't have to deal with later.
Of course, since the screening clinic he seems to be talking more and more. We are working with him more but still that doesn’t explain the increase. So I dunno. I guess we will wait for the experts to tell us whether to worry or not.
Okay the news I teased with. The final paperwork for the finalization of Sam’s adoption arrived today! We’re almost done! We have some forms to sign and get notarized and mail back to his adoption agency and then we just wait. I’m thinking his adoption could be final by spring but I don’t know. Would be nice though.
Well that’s about all the news I have.
