Trials and tribulations of the country bumpkin

Can you believe we're almost half way through August?? Where did summer go? Here's what we've been up to!

Everything Silas

Opening presents at the family birthday party



A book? Yay!

 

The feeding clinic said "I'm" doing a great job with Silas' eating. Here I thought it was Silas that was doing so good and it was me all along! haha Unless he stops progressing they don't think they'll need to see him again.

Cardiology said his heart looks exactly the same as last year. Still a little bit narrow on one valve but they don't want to see us again for three years! Whoot!

He's walking so fast now! I have to hustle to keep up with him sometimes. It's so neat to see him walking around with toys in his hands. He no longer has to have his arms out to balance. He also seems to be understanding more of what we tell him so that's been encouraging. The speech therapist is working on a Picture Exchange Communication system for him. He caught on to that pretty quickly at our last appointment.


All things Corinna



The whole family 

I think I've finally recovered from the plague. It was terrible and I don't recommend it at all. I'm finally getting my energy back bit by bit.

I've had some interesting trials the last couple weeks.  There's a saying in the adoption world, "You know you're adopting when......". It seems like a lot of families are hit with unusual expenses when they start an adoption. I didn't really see that with Silas' adoption but I have been this time.

When I took Silas to his cardiology appointment in the city we were running a bit late so I decided to park on the street. I looked at the signs carefully so I wouldn't be breaking the rules. I didn't want to get a ticket! I paid for my parking and it seemed like I did it all right.....but when I came out of the appointment the van was gone! Vanished into thin air!

I was sure it must have been stolen because I'd been so careful about parking. After a run around with different people on the phone and making a new friend named Suren (Hi Suren if you've found my blog!) and some tears (Oh I fought those tears hard! But some of them leaked out) I was able to find out that I had been towed! What???!! Turns out I hadn't looked at alllll the signs and I'd parked too close to a bus stop. Opps.

So I put my big girl panties on and hailed a taxi for the first time in Canada and took Silas through the city with no car seat or seat belt to where the van was. Did you know even taxi drivers want a tip now? This whole tipping thing has gotten way out of hand. Another rant for another day.

So, $86 for the tow, $35 for the parking ticket and $10 for the taxi (yes I did tip him. lol). Lesson learned by this country bumpkin!

And then exactly one week later my washing machine decided it would be a great time to malfunction and flood the entire basement. I walked around through the water with my hands on my head just stunned. I ended up having to call a flood restoration crew and some friends and family to help clean it up. I don't know what I would have done without them. I have some pretty awesome friends and family!  All my yard sale stuff is in storage now along with all my daycare toys and everything else from the basement. I'll know more about what work needs to be done to get the basement back in order later this week. About the only thing I lost was the rug and dad was able to fix the washing machine.

So these things have been a bit discouraging but I fought back and I didn't stay down for long.

Matching Grant and Fundraising

The yard sale will still happen at some point. I'm temporarily stopping taking donations of things to sell until I know more about what needs done in the basement.



Visiting an old school house at the museum

I made a purple thermometer for our matching grant! Did you see it? I've had $22 donated towards it so far. One of my sweet little daycare girls brought a toonie ($2) the other day.  <3 <3 <3  I also have heard of one cheque coming my way of an undisclosed amount so once I get that the thermometer will get bumped up again. I hope to finish it off by the end of the month.

Adoption Progress

Things are chugging slowly along. I should get provincial approval this week and then my dossier will be off to Bulgaria to be translated. And then I wait (hopefully not too long) to find out who my son is! So I'm almost at the end of the first trimester of this paper pregnancy. ;o)

My next blog post will be about fundraising with teddy bears and baby clothes! Stay tuned!