So how was your summer?????

Our summer has been great. Loads of fun and jollification. Some fairs, a trip to Vegas, a stop at the Hot Air Balloon Festival....stuff like that.

This week we celebrated three years since we first met Clarissa!!! Not "Gotcha Day"....I can't stand that term....we didn't "get" her.....sounds too much like an aquisition to me....anyhow...I am sure that I have ranted about that before so I will leave it alone. Stick to the positives Rob....so ya...3 whole years since we met this incredible little girl. Time sure does fly.

We also recently celebrated our 9th anniversary! Clarissa had her first limo ride and just loved it.

She was quite at home inside it.

One of her new favourite dinners is.........

Yep, plank grilled salmon!

Tomorrow is Clarissa's first day of school and she is so excited about it. She has already met her teacher and likes her very much. Man time flies!!!! I will get some shots of her first day in her uniform and post soon.....won't be 3 months again.

This rock star thing, summer is here, the carnival!!!!

Hey!!! How are ya???? I'm pretty good thanks. Whaaaa???? You don't care about me??? You want to see Clarissa??? Oh.....ok.....here she is....

So back to me....I mentioned the whole rock star thing. Well back in...hmmmm when was it...March??? Maybe it was the end of February...something like that...anyhow I joined this thing called "League of Rock". It is a thing where individual musicians sign up for a 10 week session that starts with us all being somewhat randomly put into bands of 4 to 6 people, we decide on a name and set list of 3 songs that we work on in the rehearsal studio preparing for some live performances and a professional recording session. All very cool stuff. I was fortunate to have been put together with some awesome people and we had a blast during the whole process. So much fun that we have decided to stay together and continue playing. Our next gig is June 2nd at the Blackburn Hamlet Funfair.

Here are the boys in the band!!!! Love these guys.

Enough about me. Last weekend Clarissa went to her first carnival, and went on her first ferris wheel ride. Mommy was a bit scared, but Clarissa loooooooooooved it. She wasn't scared in the least.

She had a pile of fun on the merry-go-round

It was a great time. She wanted....errrrr....insisted...on going on some rides by herself too. Like Dumbo...

Then it was back home to play in the water.



Well, that's it for now.

Ahhh the life of a rock star is a busy one......

Alright...before we get to me how about this.....

Or this.........

Things have been super busy around here....a pile of stuff going on. Clarissa's Grandpa and I made our trek to Myrtle Beach to play some golf...

and while it may have been in question at some points we both came home with all of our limbs....

Arrrgghhhh gotta run...didn't even get to the rock star thing...oh well more to come.

Where was I???? Oh I don't even know anymore....

Look at me!!!!!!

I can't believe how the time flies around here. So much going on. Not the least of which we have been doing a great job of sharing illness. The three of us have been passing around this stupid cold...flu...virus...whatever the heck it is!! I just want it to get out of here. We are trucking on though.

Oh...since I never got to it here....Merry Christmas!!!! Happy New Year!!!! Happy Chinese New Year!!!! Happy Valentine's Day!!!! Did I miss anything???

In my defense, one of the reasons that I haven't posted lately is that I don't have access to my laptop very often these days....

Our Basement saga is still ongoing, but the end is getting closer...3/4 of the drywall is up now....

Now we only have the last 1/4 that is going to be a big pain in the butt to do working around the furnace, hot water tank (which is so close to the wall that a sheet of drywall won't fit behind it!!!), the sink, the electrical panel.....fun, fun, fun.

Clarissa is starting to get excited about going to school in the fall.

What??? I need to have a reason to post a picture of my beautiful girls????? I don't think so!!!

Well I am less than two weeks away from returning to work after 7 months of being home with my little sweety. This brings mixed feelings. Believe it or not I miss my work. I like my work. It has been somewhat odd for me not to go to work for such a long time. I never really take more than a week of holidays at a time. However, I could never even begin to express how special the time at home with Clarissa has been. There just aren't adequate words. I mean just look at this....

My Sous-chef and I have had a great time making (and ummm....tasting...) all kinds of good stuff.

Most recent was a special Valentine's Day cake for Mommy with a heart and sprinkles on it....

The FOI Chinese New Year party was fun, it was great to see all of the families from Ottawa who we travelled to China with....and there was a dragon!!!!

Clarissa had lots of fun at the annual Red Team Chinese New Year party at Will's....she met a....friend...

My biggest question about going back to work is how in the world will I survive without my afternoon nap???????????

I know, I know.....

Yep......I know.....it has been a loooonnnnnnggggggg time. I have lots to say and share.....and I will....for now take this.....you don't really care about my ramblings anyhow do you??? It is about the pictures isn't it?????

Lenny and Benji

Lucky or Loss

Lately I have found myself thinking a fair bit about the "Lucky or Loss" debate as it relates to International Adoption. Let me start with my conclusion....well technically it isn't my conclusion because it is what I have believed all along....although in the end it all comes back to it as far as I am concerned.

Anyhow, I don't think that it is a matter of "Lucky or Loss". I think that it is a matter of "Lucky and Loss". 

While obviously I think that the situation is unique and holds its own complexities for each child, I also believe that there are elements of both of the Ls in every story. Some are more obvious than others, and the list of factors is endless.

The childs age at the time of adoption for example. I was talking to someone recently about a lucky little boy who has just become a member of an awesome family. A boy who I have absolutely no doubt will receive an incredible amount of love and care. Yes I think that he is a very lucky little boy. At the same time he is a little boy who has to be going through an incredible amount of loss right now. He is no longer in the country where he spent the first years of his life. He is no longer with the parents and family that he spent the first years of his life with. To say that his world has done a 180 is a massive understatement. How could there not be loss? However, while completely acknowledging this in the conversation...in fact I raised it.....I firmly maintained my opinion that he is a very lucky little boy. From everything that I know I believe that this little boy will grow up with enough of the love, care, and support to help him through his loss, and give him every opportunity.

The conversation then continued "but Clarissa was only 9 months old when you met her (ok, it was actually "got her"...but I am not going there...see two posts ago), at this point she probably doesn't remember anything but being with you, she can't have any sense of loss.". Well it is true that she has been with us for 27 months which is 3 times more than she spent in China, and she was still very young when she came to Canada. Does she have conscious memories of being in China? I don't know. Can she still have a sense of loss? Yes she certainly can, and while it may very well be on a sub-conscious level, I believe she does. To most I am sure that it doesn't seem like it. She is actually for the most part a very well adjusted, happy, smart, beautiful (ok "beautiful" is irrelevant to what I am talking about, but I thought that I would throw it in anyhow) little girl. However, Carolyn and I see subtle signs on a regular basis that are not evident to others.......things that only we would notice or be aware of. It can be a fine line between is that a "she's 3" thing or is that an "attachment" thing? We can only be conscious of attachment issue signs, watch for them as best we can, and take any steps that we feel necessary to look after our little girl.....and that is exactly what we will do.

I can speak from experience to say that a loss even at a young age can have long lasting impacts even if they are on a sub-conscious level. My Father died when I was 2 years old. I have no recollection of him whatsoever. Even looking at pictures...nothing. Growing up I remember being asked many times if I missed having a Father. My answer was always that I didn't because I had no idea what it was like to have one. How can you miss something that you can't even imagine having? Right? I mean I had seen all of my friends Dads....all kinds of Dads....loving, caring, mean, abusive, drunks, absent, rich, poor, supportive, friendly....and all kinds of combinations of these qualities....I saw them interact with my friends, their siblings, their spouse, neighbours, their friends.....you get the picture....but it still never gave me any kind of sense of what it was like to have my own Father. To be honest I never really even wondered what it was like. My life was what it was. It was normal. For me. My Mother saw to that. Even being left on her own at 46 years old with a 2 year old and a 14 year old, she always saw to it that I had everything I needed...and wanted. I always felt like I was the most important person in her world. She took very good care of me. She was awesome. I loved her very much. Anyhow, it was not until later in my life that I realized that I did experience loss. That as hard as she tried, there were some things that my Mother couldn't replace. I didn't know it, but there was loss.....but make no mistake about it....I was very, very lucky.

Well that was more than I had planned to say....but there you go. I don't think that I will even read it all because I will probably start editing and erasing.....there must be some reason that I typed it all right?

Let me get to the important stuff......

Ho ho ho

No time to add anything else right now, but figured that I would share this.....