The very beginning of a new adventure...

Families are formed in many different ways and are defined by love, not by shared DNA. For Paul and I this belief was confirmed when we first looked into the eyes of our little girl and fell totally and completely in love.

We have talked at length about expanding our family -- a possible sibling for Maelyn. Paul and I have decided that we are not going to pursue fertility treatments, but to proceed with a second adoption. Our adoption experience was so profoundly amazing that we just couldn't imagine not heading back to China to adopt our next little one.

So.....here we go! We are officially starting our next adoption journey to our little monkey!

We are adopting through the same agency and program that we did when we brought Maelyn home. Our little monkey will be up to two years old by the time we meet him or her and will also have a cleft clip and/or palate.

I have been asked many times if it will be easier to adopt the second time around and the answer is that no, it isn't really any faster or different from the first time we adopted. This month we have started the paper chase and our home study reapplication. Right now we are working on our getting our police checks, fingerprints, medicals and references.

Our timeline is most likely as follows:

February to May - home study reapplication paperwork and meetings
June - home study sent to the Ontario Ministry for approval
August - home study approved and work on gathering paperwork for China dossier
September - dossier sent to China
December - receive referral for our little monkey
April 2012 - travel to China

These timelines are just an approximation of how long it will take us to complete our second adoption. The timelines can vary and we have to remain very flexible and patient -- something this process has taught me. :)

We are excited to be starting out on our next adventure and our love for our little monkey is already starting to grow in our hearts.



February Pics

A little late, but here are some pics from the past month...

Singing along to the Glee soundtrack on the Wii...

Little Miss loves her 'lipstick!'

A cute, chocolate covered face!

Enjoying a Valentine's Day treat from Daddy in the morning...

A note on the following two photos...

Mama was on the phone making a speech therapy appointment for Maelyn. Maelyn was very, very quiet during this time. Mama became worried and searched for her little girl. Mama found Maelyn in Mama's shower, generously applying her cover stick as a lipstick...

I was laughing too hard to be upset with her... :)

Dressed up and ready to head to the Mandarin to celebrate Chinese New Year...

Dinner with friends we have made through Paul's work -- their niece, on the right, met up with us in China and helped us shop at the Pear Market. It was wonderful to see her again!

Play date with Grace, Lincoln, and Sidney....

Sydney playing dress-up -- too cute!

A week in review...

Well....I made it through my first work back at work! :) I have tried over and over again to come up with the words to help me describe my feelings and experiences, but the only word I can think of is this one -- weird. It was strange being away from my little miss for so many hours at a time. I found myself feeling the oddest mix of emotions throughout the entire week.

I am happy to be teaching again -- a job that I absolutely love and is so much a part of who I am. I love the feeling of independence and achievement that I get every day when I am with my students. I love the thrill of helping students learn new skills. I love interacting with my colleagues every day -- I missed it all!

What I found, however, was that I felt little pangs of guilt for enjoying my time at school, because it meant that I had to be way from Maelyn. Although I knew logically that I shouldn't be feeling guilty, the guilt still nagged at me here and there. I also felt sad that I was missing out on the cute and amazing things she would do throughout the day -- we spent so much of our time together laughing.

On the other hand, I am thrilled for Paul that he is getting the chance to spend so much time with his little girl. He is an amazing father and has proven over this past week that he is an extremely competent stay-at-home dad. I love being able to come home and hear about all of their daily adventures! (And on a side note, I totally don't miss doing the dishes, laundry, making dinners, etc. You are welcome to it, Paul!)

I find it weird to only spend a few hours at the end of the day with Maelyn. I wonder if I will ever get used to that??

I love that I seem to have more patience for Maelyn and love spending more time playing one-on-one with her in the evenings and on the weekends. What we have lost in quantity, we are making up for in quality.

It is weird to have Maelyn call me 'Daddy' by accident when she wants something, when it used to be 'Mama' for absolutely everything.

I learned that we can survive a change of pace in our family and that we are all going to be just fine....

In Daddy's shoes...

A change of pace...

Well, tomorrow is it -- I head back to work after being on leave for the past eight months with our little miss. I can hardly believe that eight months have passed so very quickly -- although, the first few months at home with Maelyn felt like they passed so very slowly. In the end, we found our groove and time simply flew by!

How do I feel about going back? I most definitely have mixed emotions, but in general, I feel excited about getting back into the working world. I absolutely love being a teacher -- it is a huge part of who I am and I have missed that part of me for the past eight months. I have spent many hours this month planning and preparing and it has felt wonderful to get back into the groove of things.

I also feel at ease about returning to teaching because over the past month or so, Maelyn has made huge progress when it comes to being okay with being separated from her Mama. We have worked really hard on 'proper goodbyes' -- telling her where I am going and that I will be back -- and she now feels very comfortable with and trusts that I will be back. Our little miss can now hug and kiss me goodbye and then trot off to play without showing any signs of distress. Sooooo much better than when she would scream and basically lose her mind if I left the house. I now know that she will feel more than comfortable with Paul all day long and that makes me feel relieved and able to move forward.

Paul will be staying home with Maelyn until the end of the school year. What a wonderful way to transition back into the working world -- I don't have to drop her off at daycare or start a new routine at home. I am excited for Paul -- he is a fantastic Daddy and he is really looking forward to the time they are going to get to spend together. They are going to have a blast! As a family, we are now going to be able to spend more time together. I get home so much earlier than Paul ever would, which means that we can do more as a family of three.

Have I convinced you yet?? I am ready to go back, right?!

I will miss seeing that laughing, smiling face all day long. I will miss being present for all of her 'firsts' and her new accomplishments.

A new chapter begins....wish me luck! :)

Playing with Mama's make-up...

My kid is brilliant...

Maelyn has blossomed over the past few months -- the changes have been amazing! Maelyn is now this funny, energetic, social little girl -- no sign of my little baby left!

Maelyn is talking up a storm lately -- and we are loving every minute of it! She has started to identify colours and loves to count anything and everything in sight. Maelyn has started to recognize letters as well -- six in total so far! Love it!!

Sorting letters...

Maelyn is an observer. She watches what others do and copies it meticulously. Unfortunately, this can sometimes work against us! Maelyn has now mastered the ability to open doors that have child-proof locks on them -- too bad they aren't Maelyn-proof locks! We found this out when she made her way downstairs to visit her Grandpa all on her own -- and then later asked her for a demonstration. Unbelievable! :)

Maelyn is also a jumper-supreme! You should see her when she gets going on her trampoline!

We are now constantly hearing typical two year old phrases such as 'I do,' 'mine' and 'no!' Although it can be frustrating when she wants to do everything for herself and we are in a rush, I love that she is exerting her independence and I absolutely love watching her learn new skills.

She is brilliant! Just blame it on mother's pride.... :)

Cuteness

I have fallen behind when it comes to blogging -- but I promise to catch up shortly! This has been a busy household over the past month, but wanted to share a few cute photos in the meantime...

I received a phone call from a former teaching partner of mine who had substituted in Cassidy's classroom. The class was working on their weekly spelling and my friend asked the class for examples to define the word 'cantakerous.' She told me that Cassidy's response made her laugh out loud in the middle of class....

"Jan's baby, Maelyn, is cantankerous when she doesn't get enough food." Haha! So very true!!

Here is her written response on her test a few days later. Check out sentence # 4....

Jan's baby is cantankerous to deal with because she is a bit tired and grumpy.

Julia gave Maelyn a picture of herself in her Valentine's Day card. I put the picture in her room, to be put away another day. The other night, as Maelyn was getting ready for bed, she found the picture and then carried it around with her for the rest of the evening. In fact, she even had Julia join her for her short movie time. Just wanted to note that she put Julia there all by herself...



A much-needed break

AM and Julia came to my rescue at exactly the right time. This Mama hasn't had a break in quite awhile and was starting to feel the effects of not taking time for herself. Thankfully, my wonderful friend knew exactly what to do -- kick me out of the house! :)


Maelyn was ecstatic that her Julia had come over to play. She wasn't upset at all when both Paul and I left the house. We spent the evening with our neighbours down the road -- relaxing, sharing a meal, and enjoying a few drinks.


I was planning to be home before Maelyn went to bed, but AM insisted she would be fine and to stay out longer. I had to face it -- I have bedtime issues! I honestly have a hard time allowing others to put Maelyn to bed. There is something about knowing that she is in cozy pyjamas, clean and happy and ready for bed. I love our bedtime routine, reading books and singing songs together. The hugs and kisses and tucking her in are nice too.


However, I know logically that she will survive having others put her to bed -- I am not the only one that can comfort our little miss. Funny -- every parent has some 'issue' that they have to deal with, but I wouldn't have predicted that this one would be it for me!


I am very happy that I followed my head and not my heart and stayed out to enjoy the evening with friends. It was soooooooo relaxing -- the martinis helped a little, too. :) It also helped me to begin to get over the hurdle of my bedtime issues -- our little miss will be fine without us once in awhile because she knows that we will always be there for her, loving her to bits!