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Rose in BC

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Everything posted by Rose in BC

  1. https://smittenkitchen.com/2014/01/chicken-pho/ This is our favourite. I've been making it for years. Yum!
  2. Both areas are part of downtown Vancouver and have great restaurants. (And you can walk between those neighbourhoods. Downtown Vancouver is quite walkable. I am there often on business and generally walk everywhere. ) The skytrain is a convenient way to travel throughout city if you want to go outside of downtown. In fact, you can take train from Vancouver Airport (YVR) to downtown quite easily. Vancouver is a great city. You'll enjoy visiting. Rose
  3. I am sixth youngest of seven kids. My next sibling is 8+ years older and I have three siblings 10+ years older than me. My oldest brother 15+. I have no memory of him living at home as he left at 18. But i do have a relationship with him now that we're all adults. In fact, I have a close relationship with all my siblings. I will say I sometimes felt like i had more than one set of parents. :) I have a very close relationship with my sister 13+ years older and my brother 10+ years older has been one of my closest siblings through the years. So age isn't the only factor in sibling relationships. :)
  4. I have not read all the responses. Honestly its very difficult to read because I am the parent of two FASD children who will struggle their whole lives because of exposure to alcohol in utero. It is not for the faint-hearted parenting an FASD child. . . my husband and I suffer from PTSD and serious health issues because of the stress and trauma we have experienced. But that pales in comparison to what my boys will experience their whole lives. I love a glass of wine with my meal. No way would I risk it in pregnancy. It is not worth the risk.
  5. Yup. Every night I pretend I'm on Chopped Canada where contestants get a few key ingredients and have to make something with those ingredients. I have a well stocked pantry so I always have good ingredients to compliment the main ingredients.
  6. Thank you all for your kind comments. My daughter is doing very well although we recently talked about the trauma and stress she endured living with FASD kids. But she is a wise girl and told me that despite the stress there were many positives learning to live with people who need extra support. We have suffered a lot but I'm glad my husband and I decided to embark on this parenting journey rather than insulate ourselves from the pain that comes with parenting special needs kids. I mean, we were naive when we adopted our kids but maybe that's okay too. We appreciate all the prayer we've received over the years and know our journey is far from over.
  7. "let him go" is not exactly how it all went down. He decided to go and was an age where we couldn't stop him. We also received professional council that advised us not to fight him. We did not buy him a plane ticket to go so we didn't make it easy for him. Reactive Attachment Disorder means regular parenting techniques don't apply. I can tell you as a parent you can spend a lot of time "would have, could have, should have"ing but the reality is we did the best we could, with the information we had for the circumstances we were presented.
  8. Good morning everyone. I do have a bit of an update. My last update had my son living with my niece and family. Interesting one of my final posts on this topic talked about my niece implying we were the problem for my son. On Boxing day that year we got a phone call from my niece screaming that my son had gotten into an altercation with her husband (hmm, hmm) and broke her husband's glasses. Well by then six months had passed and honestly we didn't really know what to do. So, i called social services, who's advice we had been taking all along and told them they had to find emergency shelter for my boy (remember he was 1800 km away from us). That turned into months of crazy. We were looking for mental health services for our son social services were trying to wash their hands of situation. (FYI, My niece eventually apologized to me saying she had no idea the seriousness of my son's mental health and that indeed she had thought it was just a parenting conflict.) The problem we had was we knew too much had happened in the six months boy was away from us that made him coming home unsafe for our other children. Anyway, fast forward he's been in a group home for past years, diagnosed with schizophrenia (on top of his former reactive attachment disorder and oppositional defiance disorder). We heard from him occasionally in first year but calls were very traumatic . . . spewing all kinds of vile things at us. The only two "kind" things he every said was "well one thing you were a good cook" and "I shouldn't have gone to meet (birthmother)". That first year after his relationship with my niece ended was horrible. Like a death only we knew he wasn't dead. We kind of knew where he was but he had told social worker not to tell us anything and in our Province kids over the age of 12 have the right to impose those kind of restrictions. Fast forward. . . .9 months ago we left the town i was born in and raised our children. We needed a new start. (Remember aside from the son i'm talking about here, we also have another boy with FASD and a whole host of specialness (but he is well attached). Honestly I can't believe my husband and i are still married through all our stress. Anyway we moved to a community we knew (at least reasonably knew) was less than 2 hours away from where we last knew our son lived. Late November 2016 (two weeks after he turned 19) I received a text "Hi, this is (son's name". I was shocked. Like a big shock to my body. And scared. Like why now was he contacting us after years of no contact. So i responded cautiously. A few texts back and forth followed by a text the next day asking for $10. I almost died. Was he only after money. It was killing me because i wanted to continue the dialogue but my husband and I didn't know anything about him and did not want to set ourselves up as a bank for him. So after a few hours I replied "no to money but next time dad and I are in (his town) we'd be happy to take you out for a meal". So two weeks later we connected with him and invited him out to lunch. We were terrified . . . our families were terrified too but probably for different reasons. But we saw him for the first time in years. My mother's heart wanted to grab and hug him but that didn't happen. We had a pleasant meal. He is quite medicated for his mental health issues (which he readily talked about). He tried to shock us with stories of drug use and other things but we've experienced so many things with our other special child that nothing can shock us . . which actually diffused the situation very quickly. He looks kind of the same. A bit heavier. I noticed things like his nails were dirty but overall he looked pretty good. As we left town, I texted him saying "dad and I were so happy to see you today and would love to take you out again some time." He responded with "cool. okay." And that was the last we've heard from him. I've texted a couple times with no response but he knows how to connect with us so I'll continue to text occasionally but the whole things seems like a dream. . . did it really happen. As bittersweet as the whole thing has been (meeting him) it was SO good to see him and a much better ending than when he got on the plane to connect with his birthmother. So that's my high level update. (FYI the first year after he left was filled with all kinds of drama . . . if my boy only knew how much we advocated for him to make sure he was not homeless and/or hungry. . . )
  9. A low carb high fat diet has eliminated the afternoon slump for me.
  10. There are some fabulous grain-free (almond flour or coconut flour), sugarfree, easy pancake or waffle recipes. We actually like some of them better than the regular wheat flour renditions.
  11. A low carb, high fat diet has given me stellar cholesterol numbers and eliminated high blood pressure (for which i was taking bp pills to treat).
  12. Yes I have one and love it. It makes great whipped cream and keeps it fresh for days. Its been a great kitchen tool for my low carb, high fat diet too.
  13. Low carb, approximately 50 grams daily. i've struggled my whole life with weight issues. I've been doing this more than 2 years. It really has become a lifestyle. Low carb, high fat food tastes good, no cravings, no hunger. I highly recommend it.
  14. I'm Rose Elisabeth . .Elisabeth with an "s". :)
  15. We aren't fans per se either. So i guess you're in good company . . . we're bad Canadians too. :)
  16. Yes we watched part of it. It was quite emotional.
  17. Of course I don't know the details of your situation, but I am experienced with adopting kids out of foster care at an older age as a result afflicted with reactive attachment disorder (amongst other things). Be very cautious about making any commitments. The road is not easy and to be honest, it never will be. They come with baggage they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. Feel free to message me if you ever want to talk.
  18. We have an offer. Hopefully inspection goes well. They have until May 24th to remove conditions. June 10th possession. Thanks for everyone's prayers and thoughts. (My husband, given our track record, worries about inspection but they already had electrical and a construction person with them on third viewing so I can't imagine them uncovering something really bad.)
  19. Second showing apparently went well. Realtor anticipates an offer but its a wait and see.
  20. So second viewing is booked for tomorrow morning 11:30. I hope we can get our special boy (FASD with no sense of time and gets belligerent when I get uptight :). Praying hard for an offer tomorrow.
  21. I feel your pain. We haven't sold house and I'm leaving for new job (1500 km away) Monday. We have three dogs and one income so rentals will be hard to find. Praying you can find a new home soon.
  22. So I am leaving on Monday for my new job. My dh will stay behind until house sells. We had a great house showing last night. realtor said people want to see it again Sunday or Monday. I'd appreciate prayers that house sells. Its an adventure. . . moving to a new city with a new job and couch surfing . . . as an old lady. :) Actually I have a place to stay for first while but i'd rather be searching for a place so my husband could join me.
  23. Thanks everyone. This forum has been such a source of encouragement over the years. We had a promising showing yesterday. No offer yet. . . but maybe it'll still happen.
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