There need to be better laws concerning adoption

So we had dinner at Daniel’s sister’s on Friday. I hate going to their place for meals. Pre-kids it was because Daniel always abandonned me chit chatting with his sister and brother-in-law while he went and rough housed with our niece and nephews. I hate chit chat but its worse with people I really have NOTHING to chit chat about with). Post-kids it was because it is SUCH a huge hassle. The house isn’t all that big and there are plenty of things for active pre-schoolers to break. Now they have this Golden Retriever "Puppy" running about (in this tiny house) that Sam is terrifed of and that keeps trying to sniff me - yuck. Also the chit chat hasn’t improved much.

On Friday though they wanted to ask about adoption. Specifially Sam’s adoption and how “final”it was. They have never shown much interest before now. It was odd until the trigger was revealed. There is a new adoption story in the news. Sigh. I didn't catch it until the 11 o'clock news last night because I've been ducking the news over the holdiays. No one ever seems to do stories about good adoption outcomes but then again those would be boring. Two parents desperate for a child adopt a lovely baby whose birthparent can’t parent for whatever reason. Birthparent and adoptive parents maintain a good healthy relationship. The child grows up happy. The end. Can’t get more boring than that. There are however lots of juicy bad adoption stories going around.

In Ontario, when birthparents place a child for adoption, they cannot sign anything until a full 7 days after a child is born not counting day 1 – so 8 days (in Kamryn’s case she was born on a Friday and there was a holiday on what would have been day 8 so it ended up being 11 days). After they have signed over their parental rights they have, again, a full 28 days during which they can change their minds. Birthparent counselling is mandated by law and is paid for by the adoptive parents through their adoption agency. It is against the law for the birthparent to receive ANYTHING from adoptive parents directly – no expenses, no renumeration, no medical bills (although the state generally covers those anyways) -- nada. Adoptions fail here like they do everywhere but I think it happens less often than other places and the horror stories are rare. Now we seem to have imported one – a horror story that is.

The awful thing is, I think the birthmother has been wronged; and while kidnapping her children probably not the best course of action she could have taken, I can see myself doing the exact same thing. She has arrived in our fair city from North Carolina (I think) after kidnapping her 17 month-old twins whom she had visitation rights with. She is 48 and got pregnant through artificial insemination. When the twins were born she was ill and depressed and was convinced (so her lawyer says) to place the children for adoption. She did so twice and changed her mind twice within 12 hours of placing them. For some reason the second time she changed her mind the children were not returned to her. I don’t know her medical (physical or mental) history but the children were not seized she voluntarily relinquished her rights and then changed her mind – within 12 hours! Those children should NEVER have been placed with an adoptive family and I can’t believe that it has reached this stage.

More will be revealled in the coming weeks I’m sure. The children’s adoptive parents were due to arrive in town today and I expect their side of the story will be on the news tonight. In any case a 48 hour cooling off period (hey birthmom didn't even make it through that) is not sufficient for a birthparent to make a decision like this. As hard as waiting over a month for a birthparent to be sure of his or her decision is, that really is fair amount of time. I’ve waited that long twice and I’d do it again. I can’t imagine the nightmare that is unrolling right now. There are however lots of juicy bad adoption stories going around.

It’s stories like this that make good people who would be good parents afraid to pursue adoption. It’s stories like this that make adoptive parents look like predators. It’s stories like this that give fodder to all the anti-adoption sites out there. I’m really angry about this. Better laws… there should be better laws.

As a completely separate aside, I e-mailed Sam’s birthfather over a week ago and heard (as I sadly expected) nothing. :(

Sam has a favorite song...

Santa brought him the album for Christmas and he regularly asks to here "Woohoo." Hearing him ask for it always cracks me up. He has SUCH defined musical tastes for a 2 year old. lol

This is the album Track 4.

Before I forget...

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was nearly perfect. I hope you all will have a wonderful New Year.

P.S. Santa brought snow. It started snowing about 10 pm on Christmas. It now looks (and feels brrrrrrr.... like winter. :))

The Joys of Mass with a pre-schooler.

So we went to mass Christmas eve - Midnight mass -- at 7 pm. ;) To get seats we had to arrive around 6. Then I had to keep both kids amused for an hour. Yuck. Sam goes to bed around 7 normally. Not because that is a convenient bed time for his parents but because he NEEDS to go to bed around 7. I knew the evening was going to be a challenge and it was. Before Mass began it was a huge challenge. It was less so afterwards although he certainly kept those seated near us entertained (some didn't appreciate his efforts all that much :P to them!). He did all right for what must have been interminably boring to a little boy. Kamryn did pretty well herself. They weren't quiet or composed but they did all right. Somehow we got tagged to bring up the offering. My father was working as an usher and my mother a "holy-cookie passer" (Daniel's name for Eucharistic Ministers; he calls them that to tease my mother); we know EVERYONE so not a hge stretch for them to ask us to do this but they've never asked before. Yay team. The kids did well though. We went to the back of the church at the appointed time and took our places. I carried the unblessed hosts and Daniel the wine. We each held a child's hand. They looked adorable in their matching outfits. I was of course stunning (lol) and Daniel dashing. The perfect little family. We get to the front of the Church and we pass up the offering to the priest and turn to return to our seats. Sam disolves into boneless boy and starts wailing. We can't understand a thing he is saying although it's evident that he doesn't want to go back to our seats. Daniel struggles to get him to come along and then just picks boneless boy up and carts him back to our seats. Everyone (well the less pious types) in the congregation started laughing. It was only on returning to our seats that we finally understood what he was yelling (loud enough for the people in Bethlehem to hear). For some strange reason he had gotten it in his head that we were going to "play." So he got to the front of the Church and when it became evident that there was going to be no playing he freaked. Odd boy but as I said in my last diatribe you have to love him. He's too cute not too.

Other hightlights of Christmas mass:

His loud announcement to the congregation (well it was to me but everyone got to share in his wonderful proclamation) on returning from the bathroom with Daniel that he peed.

His spontaneous but ill-placed shouts of Alleluia.

His loud questions about whether mass was over yet.

He was very cute.

Kamryn not to be outdone was gorgeous and remembered my admonitions not to role around on the floor in her new silk dry-clean only (yes, Mom is a nut!) dress.

I Like My Kids

I was thinking today of how much I like my kids. I was thinking that last night too. This is a good thing, I think, to be thinking. Not that there are a lot of times that I’m not liking them but there are times. As an adoptive parent those times really niggle at you. Is it all right not to like your kids sometimes? Of course I love them always. Even when I’m the most frustrated with them I would die for them but is it all right to feel sorry for yourself as you carry your kicking, screaming, and scratching (our new trick — yay!) kid through the mall and back to your hotel room because you just can’t handle one more public tantrum. At least a 5-minute walk (an eternity) past hundreds of people, each and every one of them staring openly and not one looking understanding. Is it all right if that happens at least once a week?

I think even more than infertility patients blessed with pregnancy, adoptive parents feel even less of a right to complain where a “normal” parent might gush complaints. It’s not that you finally have the child you wanted to so long. It’s just that there are soooooooo many people ready to blame your child’s normal “problems” on adoption. I actually had someone go on the other day about how wonderful adoptive parents are and use as an example a mutual friend of ours who is having problems with her “adopted” teen age daughter. She was comparing our friend’s child to her own biological children and the relatively few problems she had with them and talking about what a saint our friend was to have taken such a risk in adopting. Okay, I was a little rude in my response. Parents with biological children always have perfect kids!?!

Anyway, since I know that a good many people are ready to judge my kids because I didn’t give birth to them I don’t feel that I can be completely honest on those days where I wish it was easier. But those days do happen. I admit it. Okay I’m not the perfect Mom. I don’t think my kids are perfect all the time. Sometimes I know they are VERY imperfect.

Then there are the guilty feelings you put yourself through. There is a lot of ignoring the fact that they aren’t biologically related to you. Forcing yourself to ignore those qualities that you don’t particularly like that you might sooner excuse if you could see them in yourself or your spouse. Seeing their behaviors mirrored in your own personalities doesn’t make the behaviors more legitimate but maybe easier to understand. That stubborn streak isn’t yours – or is it? Have they picked that up from your reactions to things or is it something genetically ingrained.

Sam’s birthmother mentioned in an e-mail last week something that made me cringe a little. I had put in my Christmas letter that it was torturous for Sam to stay still. She wrote to me that she was happy that “he was hyper” and that he was “just like her.” Sigh – she’s trying to fix her life; she really is, but she is kind of a disaster. My biggest fear is that he will be too much like his birthmother. That too many of her challenges will be his as well. I can’t/won’t deny his origins but I so hope that being in a good stable home (birthmother’s was far from) and having the opportunities that she was denied will mean so much more for him. At two I barely have an inkling of who he will be in the future so much is unknown; it’s scary.

Kamryn’s birthmother had gone on about how painfully shy she was as a kid. We’ve worked hard to try to build Kamryn’s confidence and perhaps shift her away from that tendency. If you’ve met Kamryn you will note that she is far from shy. Is it our skill as parents or did her birthfather’s personality weigh in there? You know though, ever so often I see it and it always comes without warning – shy Kamryn. Put the right set of circumstances together and she is miserable. She’s quite gregarious one on one but in a crowd she can disappear a little – first day of school, ballet recital, home of a new friend … Is that just a normal four-year-old or is it a biological tendancy. Do biological parents have these little debates in their heads? Do adoptive parents? Am I a freak? More than once I have been accused of being overly introspective. Yes, I often have these little conversations about dumb stuff in my head.

It’s easy to look at my children and see their birthparents in their features. It’s harder to look at them and see their birthparent’s in their behavior.

Promised Photos.

These photos are all pretty self explanatory. I offer the first one up only as evidence that I did let them "help" to decorate the tree. :)

Random Christmassy type Ramblings

What follows is completely disjointed and lacking any flow (or connections whatsoever). Just some thoughts/experiences that I needed to share.

So I was going to write that this is what it must feel like to have Christmas in Dallas but then I thought I should check to see what the weather must ACTUALLY be like in Dallas. I was wrong being that at this moment it is something like ~24C (75 F) there! Ah beauty. Nothing beautiful at all about our weather. It sucks.

That is a debateable point out on the street though. MANY are enjoying this bizarrely warm (everything being relative) snowless weather. Jokes about tulips erupting from the ground and buds on the trees abound. We have had snow. Paltry amounts of wet snow that did nothing but tease and melted in the ensuing days. Whole oceans of rain have fallen from the sky though. Torrents. Floods. The sun is a rare site and when I got up on Sunday morning I lit the Christmas tree because it was just so dark. It was (although not having ventured outside I didn’t know it at the time) a balmy 10 C (50 F). It was amore reasonable 2C (35 F) today. So cold enough not to want to hang about in a cold wind but certainly not enough for snow. Winter without snow is just boring and ugly. With snow – 10 isn’t a problem. You don’t notice the cold (much!). You can ice skate and ski and build forts and toboggan. You can live. With just cold (even “warm” cold) there isn’t much to enjoy.

I have had only two Christmas in my life (to my memory) without snow. One was spent in the Carribean (they would NOT handly snow at all well) they other was a few years back. It wasn’t as awful because there had been snow and then VERY shortly after Christmas there was a good deal of snow. This year is somewhat different. As I mentioned – very warm, tons of rain and no sign that the weather will change anytime soon (although as a seasoned Ottawan I know that change is what our weather is all about.) I need it to be cold darnit! I need snow. Lots of snow. A good snowstorm with a solid foot of snow would be a good start. Okay rant about the weather over.

Despite the un-Christmassy feel brought about by our complete absence of snow we have gone about preparing for Christmas. Kamryn and I decorated our annual Gingerbread House this weekend AND I made cookies. I felt very… Martha Stewartish. Better though Daniel and I rolled up our sleeves and got to some real wor clearing out our basement (our aim is to finish it over the winter months so the kids will have somewhere to play come…ummm…. April(?) lol when they should be playing outdoors.)

I was very pleased with our progress but I’m staggered – completely and totally — by the amount of books the two of us have ammassed and simply stored in the basement. I don’t think I will ever purchase another book again (how’s that for an empty promise). The pile is embarassingly large. I have been ruthless in sorting (read I’m not sorting at all). I’m thinking anything that has been in a box six years that wse haven’t gone searching for we obviously have little need of. As such we’re at BIG box #6 and the pile still grows.

We have amassed quite a few boxes of clothes to donate though and that makes me feel warm and fuzzy this time of year. If a little embarassed that my family is the source of so much… stuff! Hopefully, someone can put them too good use and they can make someone elses life a little easier in the New Year.

Anyway…

Pictures of Kamryn and Sam decorating our tree and Kamryn and I decorating our Gingerbread House 2006 to follow - My picture server isn't behaving right now.

Cheerio.

A Whole Mish Mash of Stuff -- Life, Christmas, Birthparents.

I rule! Okay not really but I feel so in control this year (note I didn’t say I was in control just that I felt that way). House looking Christmassy – done. Christmas newsletter – written. Christmas cards – mailed. Christmas packages – mailed. Christmas shopping – done (except for some gift cards I have to pick up). The newsletter and the cards are generally the bane of my existence. It all just sneaks up on me. Not this year for some reason I got on the ball and got the pictures taken and the cards ordered in time. I got the newsletter written at work during the lull we are experiencing. I got them all out last week and for once MOST of the people on my list will get them before Christmas (might be dodgy for the outside of Canada people in that I think cards to Europe and the Carribean were supposed to be in the mail by December 5th and I didn’t get them out until the 8th. A well. Still they are gone!

My parents couldn’t watch the kids today and Claude had to work so I took a family day to play SAHM (okay I bent the truth a little and told them I had to take the kids for flu shots. We are allowed five family days a year but they must be used for illness or medical appointments etc. I do have to take the kids for flu shots but not until 5:30 pm). So Sam and I did a ton of errands this morning. We dropped off some old coats for the poor. We shipped Kamryn’s birthmother her presents and I bought all my supplies for baking cookies and squares. After I finish writing this blog entry I’m off to wrap all our presents.

Baking is the project for this weekend. We have no social activities planned for some strange reason (not complaining at all!) and Kamryn and I will bake, bake and bake some more. :) I even managed to pick up the raw materials for our gingerbread house. Unfortunately, I could only find an already assembled house which is kind of disappointing BUT really that step was pretty easy last year so I’m trying not to be too disappointed (I’m NOT doing one from scratch!). Kamryn actually asked about doing one without any prompting from me. It makes me all warm inside to realize that I’m creating traditions. :) Looking forward to the weekend.

Work has pretty much come to a grinding halt. Last Friday I had a last minute emergency tasking that I handled in stride and had me staying a little late at the office but that wasn’t too awful as it was the only work I had done all week. I also had to hang around because I’m competing for a promotion (and had waited until the last minute to complete my application!). I think looking at the many qualified people competing along with me that I’m mostly wasting my time (and my stomach lining!) but I couldn’t not put my name in. I will have to spend Christmas studying – ugh! I won’t mind if/when I don’t get the promotion (I kind of like my current job) but I NEED to get through at least the knowledge test (it's a pride thing). Let me get an interview and then don’t promote me but please let me get to the interview stage. The knowledge test is very scarey. To put it in perspective EVERYONE competing will have at minimum a Master of Arts (many will have PhDs) and EVERYONE is sweating this knowledge test. Merry Christmas. I’m guessing the exam will be in mid-January.

On the adoption front we have had an interesting development this week. We (well actully the adoption agency we used) has heard from Sam’s long lost birthfather. He sent the Children’s Aid an e-mail to ask how he find out some information about him which they then forwarded to our agency. Sam's birthfather still thinks that Sam is a Crown Ward and I guess had no idea he had been adopted (not for lack of trying on our part; he was served papers; he was called; he was pleaded with). Anyway he left his name, address and telephone number with the adoption agency. I have to sit down and write him an e-mail and find out what his contacting us really means. Sam has been on this earth 2 ½ years and he has NEVER even seen a picture of him – again not for lack of trying as Sam’s birthfamily were ready to move mountains to get him involved prior to deciding to place Sam for adoption. He had the opportunity to participate in the process once we got involved and all he did was make things difficult for us (wouldn’t sign any papers but wouldn’t return phone calls or show up in court either!) Anyway, I don’t know if his reaching out now is serious or not. For Sam sake we will reach back but we’re not even certain he is his birthfather. I don’t want to get to involved with him if he isn’t so I guess I need to find out the particulars of getting a DNA test done. At least I don’t have to hire someone to track him down first which I thought was going to be the case. I hope he is his birthfather (despite a rather unattactive history/profile) because any history (bad or good) is better than no history. :( We’ll see what happens. Watch this space.

Also in this edition of birthparent chronicles, Kamryn’s birthfather surprised us this Fall (I think I forgot to mention this byt pardon me if I already have) with a surprise wedding announcement. The guy we didn’t think would ever marry (he’s 45) got married. He’s living overseas right now and we don’t have a lot of contact with him (I keep asking him for an address and he’s yet to furnish one which is a little annoying and odd for him). I responded to his e-mail (the first one in almost a year) and he never responded back. He will (I hope) call over Christmas. He married a woman much younger than himself. Makes me nervous (and almost certain) that Kamryn will end up with some siblings. I had hoped that would never happen simply because it raises the question of “why them and not me.” :( Again, we’ll have to see. I’m also VERY nervous that the difficulty we are having staying in contact with him means he is drifting away. I hope not. :(

Okay on that happy note I better go wrap presents. Have to pick Kamryn up from school in an hour.

A LONG Overdue Update

My apologies in not updating in so very long. I know it’s been long and I’ve felt guilty about it almost daily. Not guilty enough to do anything obviously but I hope it makes some of you exasperated out there a little more forgiving.

Work, home, life — everything — has just been horribly busy. When it’s not busy; I haven’t felt like writing. I’ve felt like lying on the couch doing nothing. I’ve felt like reading escapist novels. I’ve felt like sleeping. So that is what I have done. I was so bad about blogging. I have even avoided opening my blog to check for messages, partially because I was afraid there would be a slew of messages from friends/readers who wonder why I have dropped off the face of the earth and partially because I was afraid there would be none. (as an aside; Katya saved me from that fate. Hi Katya).

Life has been busy but for the most part good.

Work has been absolutely, completely, totally insane. From about a week before I wrote my last entry until ummmm… today. Every time I thought a break was around the corner – oops fooled ya! There have been good parts to it all and bad parts. I wrote some pretty significant speeches — nationally broadcast speeches shown live on our news networks, speeches quoted on news broadcasts, speeches given entirely the way I wrote/edited them, speeches that I was proud of. Career enhancing.

I sweated blood and tears to write some others that were then changed so completely before delivery (the pretty much used the first 500 words of a 3000 word speech) that I wondered why they even asked me to write them in the first place (they were good speeches they just didn’t fit their political purposes). It burns more because they were GOOD speeches and it’s really hard to work that hard on something — to create a work of art in some respects – and know that only ten people or so will ever know what you did. Still, it’s not that anyone EVER knows what I do – the hallmark of a good speechwriter is your invisibility but I want people to experience my craft anyways. I told SUCH good stories. It wasn’t easy at all and it took a great deal of time — unpaid overtime. Ah well.

We had an “emergency” writing session one night where I ended up taking a cab home at 3 am for a bunch of speeches that while used were hardly Shakespeare. (it takes on average a week and a half to write a ten-minute speech properly. In an ideal world, we would have at least 17 days. We wrote these, beginning to end in about 11 hours) It wasn’t exactly a Shakespearean debate though – yawn. It did earn us personal notes of thanks and chocolates from the Minister though.

Anyway, we had too much to do and not enough time and our entire team (there are 5 of us) logged a lot of uncompensated overtime and lugged a lot of work home with us. You do that for a time and people start getting sick. That is EXACTLY what happened. All of us worked though some pretty serious colds that would normally have us home on the couch so then Mother Nature stepped up the challenge a little. I went down with Step throat. I have two colleagues out this week with various kidney ailments. Insane I tell you. The strep throat knocked me on my keister and kept me home from work for two days although I worked two days with a fever (pre-doctor visit) because I had no choice. That was last week.

This week work has slowed to a manageable, even pleasant, pace. I’m crossing my fingers that we can get through Christmas without the necessity of a major announcement.

On the home front, Daniel has been amazing. He has had to be. I couldn’t juggle everything and I dumped a lot on him. He nursed me and both kids through sickness last week and he’s kept the household limping along since the end of October without much help from me.

The kids are doing wonderfully well. They really enjoyed Halloween. Kamryn was Superman for her school Halloween party and Spiderman for trick or treating. I was so proud of my little superhero for her independent spirit. I saw a lot of princesses this Halloween but not one other little girl dressed as a superhero. She wouldn’t even have considered being a princess. My first instinct when she declared her costume preference was to push her towards something a little more girlie but I’m glad my inner voice intervened and told me to let her be whatever she wanted. She’s not a tomboy; she’s just Kamryn and I really admire that. She’s a lot like I was as a kid which I find a little bizarre but makes me smile nonetheless.

Sam was a chicken (using Kamryn’s old costume) for Halloween and he had so much fun. I got crappy photos because I couldn’t get Sam to stay still long enough to actually get a picture. He was just too excited.

Here are a few belated and out of season pics.

Kamryn and Sam at her school Christmas Party with Kamryn's teacher. Yes, they are wearing pyjamas. They think there the coolest pyjamas on the planet and would wear them 24-7 given the chance. Kamryn had a mask but not for the photo.



After Pumpkin carving. The table is covered in newspaper to protect it from Pumpkin guts that in the end there weren't much of.


And just before they left the house to beg for candy that I would later have to throw away. lol

>

Kamryn seems to be doing well in school. She speaks highly of her friends and she is beginning to talk increasingly about her day, which I appreciate. She seems to be learning well and fits well in her class. The other kids seem receptive to her. Her teacher tells us that she is friendly and respectful and listens well (a shock to her parents lol). I visited her class one morning for her day at “show-and-tell.” Lordy, her teacher has patience. Kamryn did very well and I was so proud of her. The kids had to describe their favorite room in their house. Kamryn described her bedroom. I sent her with a couple of pictures to show (I took a bunch of photos for her and had her pick the ones she wanted me to print) and one of her favorite stuffed animals. The kid who followed her – wow — her mother must have been up late working on her presentation (I was disgusted not impressed). She had a big poster board with flower appliqués all over it and photos with fancy little drawn frames around them. Uh hunh, its show-and-tell for jr. Kindergarten people! How did this kid benefit from this? Where was her input into it all? Anyway – tangent, back to the topic at hand.

Oh first some pics of Kamryn giving her presentation. The first picture is a 1000 word essay on why I could never teach kindgergarten. See how they are all paying careful attention to what is going on? :)





Okay they aren't great pics but I was trying to listen AND be inconspicuous.

I’m looking forward to parent teacher interviews which should be next month for a true picture of how Kamryn is doing but I really have no concerns. (Edited to add: We got her report card tonight and she did swimmingly! I was so impressed by her language skills (remember she is going to school in her second language) where she has met and/or exceeded ALL the goals for this year. Her only "needs improvement" is fine motor skills. THis is something I have seen on my own. No real worries my first report card said the same of me. Santa will bring some helping tools I think.)

Sam is Sam. He’s getting somewhat easier to deal with. He can be reasonable when he’s not being “two.” And it’s a pleasant surprise how often that is now. He still has his meltdowns but it’s all within the normal range. His language is continuing to just blossom and his sentences are getting more and more complex although he’s still very difficult for me to understand. I’m not sure if it’s because he IS difficult to understand or if its because he mostly speaks in French and well two-year old French is hard for an Anglophone to understand. Dunno, not worried.

His grandmother, FINALLY (after almost a year) made it down for a visit. Although, she disappointed me a little. She came down with her new boyfriend. They arrived around 3:00 pm and visited with us until around 5:00 pm, then they had a dinner commitment with friends. We joined them for breakfast the next morning and then they wanted to go shopping (It was pretty clear NOT with us). So ya she’s seen him once in a year and didn’t really seem to want to spend a lot of time with us. He remembered her though which was a big relief to me because I didn’t want to deal with her emotions if he didn’t remember her (we show him pictures of his birthfamily almost nightly). She says she will visit again in the Spring but after the past year I’m not holding my breath.

Took both kids to see Santa last week. It was the worst year ever. We have never had a problem getting Kamryn to sit on Santa's knee. She isn't a shy kid and never has a problem with others. This year for some reason she was terrified. Wouldn't approach the stage, wouldn't even LOOK at him. Sam went and that didn't move her one inch. I REALLY wanted a photo. We have had a photo with her and this particular Santa every year of her life.

So there I sat on the side of the stage behind most of the set just trying to get her to look at the man because I figured if she looked she would see that there was nothing to be scared of. Wasn't going well - Daniel walked away from me really annoyed (okay I was being a bad mother he had cause but I just wanted her to look and then decide she didn't want to do it). Then Santa came over - with pictures of him and Rudolphe as well as his dog and his cat. Kamryn, the animal lover, was hooked. Santa asked if she wanted to see some more photos and she went a long with him quite happily. I was stunned (also a little wary at how easy she was to turn). We got our picture though and then had a long talk about strangers and about Maman or Papa always having to be there. Lol

I didn't have high hopes for a good picture or even a picture at all of Sam. Last year he wanted nothing whatsoever to do with the big scary guy (and I don't blame him lol). I started bribing him right up front telling him how he would get a gift from Santa (a colouring book). We got there and he marched right up. He was obviously out of his comfort zone (no smile!) but he sat for his picture and chatted with Santa all right. After Sam's trip, Santa offered him a colouring book for his "little" sister.

As we are leaving the stage, Sam is repeating something in Sam-speak over and over again. I couldn't figure out what he was saying. Then I realized he was telling me we forgot to get his Christmas present from Santa. He expected Santa to have his Christmas gift all ready for him. No waiting for my little guy. Although we tried to explain, he is still totally confused as to why he didn't get it.

Here are some Santa Pics.






Ummm… okay I think I’ve droned on endless about our lives enough here. Still awake? I know there are probably relevant things that I want to/need to write about but I’m tired of writing and you’re likely tired of reading. This entry will have to sit on my computer one more day while I collect some pictures to plug into it. Here after I will try to post once a week. Posting is a habit that I obviously fell out of and need to fall back into. I like writing – it clears the mind and leaves a record that I did indeed pass this way. I miss it. I’ll be seeing you.