Owen's Halloween

Here are pics of my nephew Owen dressed up for Halloween... so cute.
I miss them all so much. I so wish I could go visit them soon.

Happy Halloween

Another Halloween another Birthday another great day.

Chris and I had a wonderful birthday evening last night. I woke to a great breakfast, carved some pumpkins and am now relaxing before the kids come out.

I hope you all have a wonderful day.

Here are my carving skills for this year.

OFFICIAL OFFICIAL

Although I posted a few posts back that we were officially waiting again....I was wrong. We were waiting as our dossier had left Canada on it's way to our US agency. But today we go the OFFICIAL word that we are now on the list and that our dossier can be shown any day. It mentioned in our email that "although it could take from 9-18mths please be aware it could happen much faster and that we should be ready to get the call any day" YAHOOO.....how exciting and scary all at the same time.

So my counter has been updated to reflect the new date and here we go...our new roller coaster ride has begun and we are climbing the hill....hopefully this roller coaster only goes up...!!!

I've had a really rough, stressful month worrying about a bunch of thing a but after a few weeks to a month funk, i have kicked myself in the butt again and took one step forward and we are now back on track.

Please join and ride the ride with us again, I promise this ride will end differently then the last.

NEEDS HELP!!

Chris and I are needing your ideas. We are racking our brains trying to find ways to save extra money to help in our adoption journey. Although we would love to walk to the end of a rainbow and find our pot of gold, we have to be realistic and find other ways.

We have heard of many people who have done fundraisers to help bring their children home and we are looking for ideas as well as how we can go about doing a fundraiser. I'm scared that people out in the world will feel we are crazy if we ask for funds. So to those who have done fundraisers, how did you go about it, how did others react to it and what is the best way to get started?

Any ideas will help. We are so close to the finish line but yet feel so far away. We are simply looking for suggestions as we are begining to run out of ideas.

We thank you in advance for your input.
Nat and Chris

TRUE FRIENDS

On Thanksgiving weekend, I finally got to meet someone I have wanted to meet for almost 3 years.
When I first began my adoption journey I received an email from another adoptive mother named Tammy. The bond I felt with this soon to be mother was something different. I knew from that first email she knew exactly what I was going through, the pain I felt and the emptiness inside was something we shared. Tammy was my first "adoption friend", a TRUE friend. Someone that I could only hope to meet someday but knew even if I didn't that we would be friends forever.
Over the years we have shared moments of pain, and moments of joy, including the arrival of her daughter Josina over a year ago. I also got to meet Josina and wow what a wonderful child she is. They are amazing with her and I can only hope to be as lucky someday.
Having moved to BC had given me a greater chance of meeting Tammy someday, she was one of the first people I told we were moving, in hopes that we could meet half way someday and this past weekend we were able to make it happen.
Luckly for me, Tammy has family that lives just over an hour away, and with her kindness and generousity she volunteered to pass some baby items on to us and bring them with her to her brother's home for me to pick up. Although Thanksgiving weekend was a crazy busy weekend for both of us we both made the time to meet and I am so happy we did. As soon as I saw Tammy I felt I was hugging someone I knew for a long long time. The bond I thought we had was there, and although we didn't have much time to sit and chat we did go out for a coffee and it was like I was chatting with an old friend.
She is truly as nice, kind and generous as I thought she was and luck for me I go to me her husband Sidney and hang out with Josina.
This meeting has opened up a new stage to our friendship and I can't wait to spend more time with my TRUE FOREVER FRIEND.
Thank you so much for always being there for me throughout the last couple of years. It's always been nice to know that I wasn't alone and that you always knew and felt what I was feeling. Your friendship is cherished everyday and I look forward to being FOREVER FRIENDS and discussing the joys and pains of motherhood with you. xo

Family Visit

I am slightly behind on my blog posts this month. So instead of writing a book I'll post alot of pics with small explanations....enjoy.

Mid Sept my mom and dad left Sudbury ON and took the long trip to come see my sister and I in BC. They have been here for over a month and it has been great. I definitely don't want to see them go. While they were here we did a few family trips in the area.
Our first one was an nice drive to Clearwater to see the waterfalls. I would never have imagined such beauty within a few hours drive. Take a look at what we saw.

Mom, Renee and I with my giant leaf

all of us

Ren showing us her new firm booty

Majestic

Dad and his girls

Mom and her girls

The next weekend we went for a local scenic drive and to Kelowna (sorry Alysia we were only there for a quick ride, I promise to let you know next time I'm there)

What a beautiful town Kelowna is, since i've moved here all I hear is "I don't like Kelowna" "Kelowna sucks" but wow, I would move to Kelowna it's SO beautiful, the scenery is definitely worth it. Yes there is more traffic then Kamloops but compared to Sudbury the traffic is nothing.


Then was thanksgiving weekend. On Saturday we decided to go to the Salmon Run in Chase. It was pretty neat to see. We had never seen it before and although there were many fish that had died it was quite interesting to see how many fish were there and how the whole cycle works.

there was always a male and female fish together and they were so bright red

Chris, Me, Renee and Pat

I know, we are super cute...thanks..

On Sunday we had Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's. It was great having my parents there with us, I only wish my brother and his family could have joined us. This year we were thankful for family and friends. For having the opportunity to have started a new journey to becoming parents and for our health. Here are few pics of us celebrating together.

Danika, Samantha and Jessyka....beautiful girls

Ren and Pat

Memere and Jess

Enjoying good food and good company

We are coming near the end our my parents' visit and we are sad to see them go. However we have had a wonderful time with them and can't wait to see them again.
Have a safe trip to Arizona Mom and Dad, we hope to be able to go see you in your winter home this year. Thanks for the visit we love you.

OH...and I can't close this post without showing you all the new additions to the family. Miss Oreo and Muffin.

Miss Oreo

Muffin

We are waiting again.....Yay!!!!!

If you notice at the top of our blog you will notice that we have a new counter up there. A counter that will count the days to Quinten. YES....We are officially waiting again. Our dossier left this week and we are on the list awaiting baby Quinten. We are so excited. The next call we get should be THE call, the call that a birthmother has chosen us to take care of her child. To nuture, teach, love and support for the rest of his life. I can't even imagine how hard that decision will be for the birth family and I will always remember the gift that they have provided us. I can't wait for the day the call comes and I can end our adoption journey and begin our parenting journey.

You will also notice at the top of this blog that the counter for Ethiopia has stopped. I FINALLY sent the email to imagine this week and let Kaysen go, offically. It was much easier than I thought as my excitement for Quinten has taken over. Although our journey to E was and will always be a very large part of our lives our journey to Quinten is the new journey and we are more ready than ever to embark on it. After much sole searching I finally figured out that I was blending one adoption with the other. I kept saying "i've been adopting for years" but since i've changed that to "we tried adopting from E for years but have now began a new journey to Florida" and started looking at things completely seperate my feelings aren't so messed up. Our journey to parenthood has been years but our journey to Q has only been a few months.

I am sooooo excited and can't wait to jump every time the phone rings..!!!!!!!1

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY