violamama
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Posts posted by violamama
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Tackled:
Student recital. Relatively small (~20 kids), mostly went very well. My favorite was the boy playing "call me maybe" who would stop after each guitar strum to beam at his teacher, and the other boy who started to walk off the stage as he played the last few notes of Etude on his violin.
Sushi after- party
Hit the Ed's House of Gems after that to reward the boys for behaving so well at all 3 recitals this week. They picked $1 selenite wands. WOO!
Hit my pillow for 45 minutes
Made dinner, now watching Dirty Jobs and chilling out with the fam. I love weekends.
To Tackle
Practicing (Looks like it will have to be a practice mute night, because we have to be up early for church rehearsal. I'm hoping the laundry running will help provide some white noise.)
Print camp info for teacher meeting after church
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I've heard good things about the Costco techs from my mom.
I had to have mine checked for an adoption health screen. The doctor thought it was hilarious, but I was really glad to learn it's perfect. I get distracted, too.
Sometimes on a cell conversation, I get a little anxious about hearing what the person is saying and then, as if by magic, I can't seem to hear them.
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To Do:
Math with boys (little one during big one's swim class)
Get all teachers paid
Take coach presents to swim class
Call new location & set up in-person meeting
Call WW & fix account
Practice Brahms, Mendelssohn, Strauss
Cook enchiladas
Went to a park after dinner- it was lovely and I don't regret skipping out on the last hour of practice.
Overall a decent day. Should have practiced more, still have to get the payments ready.
Coming in at just a scootch after midnight, I got all the teachers paid. G'night!
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To Do:
Math with boys (little one during big one's swim class)
Get all teachers paid
Take coach presents to swim class
Call new location & set up in-person meeting
Call WW & fix account
Practice Brahms, Mendelssohn, Strauss
Cook something with chicken & rice... enchiladas? Burritos?
Susan- I'm practicing the Brahms c minor piano quartet for a chamber music concert on the oregon coast in about a week. It's awesome. I love "having" to practice Brahms.
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My kids are too little (or too immature) to do independent work yet. If they are up before me (we all roll out of bed between 8-8:30 most days) then they play legos and grab a piece of fruit if they're hungry.
What keeps me motivated is a binder with a schedule in it where I jot down what we do. I tend to do stuff in a similar order, so as we're eating breakfast I put the pile of books in a stack and we start working through them. If I get started late, we usually don't get to everything and I know I need to step up my game.
Looking forward to using that independent work/games idea when they get a little older!
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Our music academy does in-home sometimes, and we charge/pay more.
Not all teachers are into it. Some love it, especially if you are willing to have them before 2:30 in the afternoon (the golden after-school lesson hours for kids in traditional schools).
If she's saying she's not excited about it, I would look for another teacher. Actually, I would emphasize to her what you love about her lessons and ask her to recommend somebody willing to travel at a time that works for you.
ETA: It seems like a no-brainer that teachers charge more for coming to your house, for lots of reasons. Convenience, travel expense, having to pack up & schlep stuff, travel time, etc.
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Sorry you guys are under the weather, Jean & co!
Slept almost 10 hours last night! (In bed before 10:30pm, it must be the apocalypse or something.)
Did:
Met voice teacher for camp/fall
Webinar for cc work
LA with boys
To Do:
Math with boys (little one during big one's swim class)
Get all teachers paid
Take coach presents to swim class
Call new location & set up in-person meeting
Call WW & fix account
Practice Brahms, Mendelssohn, Strauss
Cook something with chicken & rice... enchiladas? Burritos?
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Ditto.
There is a thread (or two) I know I posted, and another I responded to that have disappeared, also.
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Congratulations! This is for a SN adoption, right? Has your agency given you an estimated time until you're matched? When we were waiting for our youngest (both our daughters are from China, youngest is SN), our agency told us about 12-18 months to be matched and we were surprised to be matched in only six months! Hopefully your match comes even sooner!
That's awesome- neat to hear about your kiddos.
Yep, it's the China Child of Promise program, though it's quite mild in terms of SN. We've been told something like 2-3 weeks for USCIS i800 approval, then dossier to China and maybe a couple of months before we're offered a match, then 6-10 months to travel. So, it could be as long as 10 months to a year before we're actually on an airplane. It's really hard to wait and wait, but we're at least almost done with all our tasks and are on to pure unadulterated waiting.
I secretly hope it comes sooner, too! It's especially hard for my boys to wait...
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Stayed up till about 4am copying forms, applying post-it notes and getting adoption stuff into envelopes. Zzzzzzzz.
This morning we managed a nice breakfast (protein is hard for my 7yo, all he wants are carby breakfasts).
Heading out to buy money orders & FedEx the adoption stuff to 3 consulates and USCIS.
After that I need to:
Do math & LA school for boys (~90 minutes today)
Print recital programs, pack up signs, plates, treats for student recital tonight
process 4 camp payments
get teacher payments ready
Buy practice marathon prizes
Buy teacher presents for swim coaches
Practice Brahms
And if there's time after the recital and I'm not cranky/exhausted:
Set up camp schedule & email to hired teachers
contact potential new school again
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Congrats! We are on the same adventure and pretty close to the same part of the process (just waiting on immigration approval right now so we can get everything certified/authenticated). Can't wait to finally send this paperwork off to China!
Neat! You can email me at hotmail if you ever want to share papercuts or joyful news. Wouldn't it be wild if we traveled at the same time? It's miriamenglish .
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Thanks! This is our third run at adoption so it's over 6 years of paperwork... nothing weird really has happened and we're eligible and all that, it is just the way things went. So I have to say, through 6 years of prayer now, that I agree: Our daughter is in China. I am starting to actually get excited again.
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Just had to shout it out. It's the equivalent of an ultrasound pic, right?!
We've been filling out papers, getting checked out and sending things off to various government offices for months and months. The clearances are all back, the papers are notarized AND certified (didn't even know there was a difference!). The social worker met us, met our kids, spent part of a day at our house, and wrote up a big long report (the "home study") which just needs a few more stamps to be done done.
So... yay! Phase one of waiting forever and a day is complete. Next part: waiting for a match. Next next part: waiting to travel.
Prayers, good vibes, well wishes would be very gratefully accepted as the whole shebang gets looked over and passed along to the next steps on the ladder. Thanks! And happy Wednesday to everybody!
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I think it's wonderful to build relationships not only between you and your children, but between the kids themselves. It's FANTASTIC to show a child they have the ability to be helpful. You are doing just great!
How was your MIL's performance as a mom in terms of building a good relationship between her own kids? My own MIL sounds like she has a very mild case of whatever yours has- and her grown kids (my husband and his sister) have never had a strong bond because of it.
Anyway, carry on and let it roll right off you. Your instincts to let 4 yo help are spot on. As he gets older, he will want more!
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That stinks, sorry!
Our diesel jeep has been a bear this year and I'm certain it's because the dealership mechanics have no idea what to do with it. We just spent over $1000 fixing it and yesterday it had the exact same symptoms again. They want to charge us another couple hundred bucks. I feel like it will never really be fixed and also that they are messing it up. They have (twice) forgotten to re-connect things like the A/C, the cruise control, and the underdash panel! If they forget the easy stuff, I figure they're really doing a number on the car's guts.
Try not to let the scare tactics work- glad you're getting a second opinion!
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Weird. Hope she's a better listener when it counts in his sessions.
I think some people think it's only a last-ditch option...?
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Wild Waves is near Seattle but there is also a new waterpark in Oregon. Not sure if you all have heard of it yet so here is a link just in case. Washington is a bit too far to go with my littles this year but we plan to check this one out. It's also an aviation museum so it can incorporate some school as well :laugh:
www.evergreenmuseum.org/waterpark/
We ADORE the museum there and they have really excellent homeschool days. We did one on rocketry about a month ago and both my boys loved it. Highly recommend!
The water park part seems very expensive for what it is, and I've read reviews that say it's not worth it on crowded days. But still, a water slide coming out of a 747? How can it not be awesome?
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Would it be fun for both a 5 and 7 yo or is 5 a little young? How crowded does it get?
Thanks for posting!
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Motherhood makes us tough in the best ways!
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There have been such massive advancements in the treatment of HIV. I think there's hope for it to be rendered benign within our lifetime. We might have considered that, but honestly our extended family (older generation doctors and nurses who really want to be involved in some of the analysis of the child's initial medical reports) would probably lose their minds. We decided to avoid the drama but it might have been on our list otherwise. We were planning on cleft lip/palate, but my husband's new job has crummy dental insurance so we had to nix that.
It's amazing what simple fixes our medical system can provide for things that would make a life miserable or short in another country.
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That's so exciting!
I hope I didn't sound too negative, it's just been a very long journey for us. There is so much negative press right now about adoption, when I feel any anger should be focused on the corruption in certain pockets or areas and not on limiting adoption itself... I can't imagine the current trends toward limiting adoption will do anything but harm the children in need right now. You can find other threads on the board where people hash out their thoughts and post some very good articles.
Do you have a connection to the DRC? We had never really considered China (actually as a Christian I do think we've been waiting this long because that's simply where our daughter is, KWIM?) but after lots of chance conversations and flat out recommendations from friends we took another look at it. It's much less expensive than some countries because they have a fantastic mild special needs program. I've learned more about the countries we've considered (Ukraine, Ethiopia, Uganda) in the last few years than in my entire education.
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DRC is suppose to be pretty fierce in terms of paperwork/wait times/ potential for corruption. I would triple-check the agency before going there.
For fun, have you seen Stuck? It's fascinating and a little depressing. Here's a related article: http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/news/36000/new_documentary_shines_spotlight_on_flawed_international_adoption_system/
We're using Holt right now- just got back our home study today and we're alllllmost ready to send off our dossier. We've moved from foster/adopt to domestic to now international special needs for a variety of reasons. These changes and other factors have meant that we have been working at this for a little over 6 years. At this point my advice would include being really really clear about how long everything takes. It's not a race (for reference, we are not infertile and have two wonderful boys) but you need to really research what you're getting with the agency you choose.
With international adoption there is a thick layer of trust you have to put over everything. You cannot always know anything about the birth family. You may not have complete knowledge about the orphanage or foster home and its administrators. So choosing who you pay is incredibly important.
PM me if you have any other questions. Easy journeys to you!
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Somewhere Between is a good documentary. I recommend the adoptive parent training courses at Adoption Learning Partners. They have one called "Conspicuous Families" that I really liked.
Outside Looking In is supposed to be a good film.
Our social worker brought us a video of this: http://www.photosynthesisproductions.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=10&Itemid=27
... and it was very thought-provoking.
I would highly recommend finding an adoptive family group in your area and chatting with the people there. A google search or call to a local agency should help you find some in-person resources. It's in my nature to research the crap out of things, but the in-person conversations and connections can't be beat.
5 yr old with incessant questions
in The Chat Board
Posted
My 5 yo son is like this, and my 7 yo to a slightly lesser degree. I usually love it, but sometimes my husband and I joke about our ears bleeding...
Sometimes if I'm tapped out, I tell him it's time for him to just tell me a story with no questions in it (if I can handle that). Or I say, "What's the answer?" when he is asking something again. Or I put some headphones on HIM and play him a story or some music (this works best if he does a crafty activity like coloring or cutting/pasting at the same time). I get the sense that my kids just need aural interaction sometimes, and I can't always provide it without losing my mind.
It's good to stretch their ability to wait, but it must be hard to know how much to do that in a sensitive situation like yours.
Very quiet hugs to you both!