Baby L

Our little Canadian Citizen!

2011-11-09T20:10:00.003-05:00

Well... there was something special in the mail today, a letter to Miss. T from Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship welcoming her to the Canadian Family, along with her Canadian Citizenship card. Tres cool!

Miss T. was very excited upon hearing the news! :-)

Back home!

2011-10-02T17:08:00.004-04:00

As we are still going through jet lag, I thought that I would just post some pictures for now and reflect later. I, however, will say this... Talia is an amazing little girl, she is a bit of a bruit, and easily the biggest babies of the nine that came from her orphanage. Talia is a, go with the flow kinda gal, which is perfect for us as we are also a go with the flow kind of family.
China in itself was..... different..... don't get me wrong, I LOVE China for it's history and strong culture and "roots" and everywhere we went, it showed strong and proud, in the people that we met along the way. Someday we will go back with Talia so that hopefully she can get a sense of what we felt ourselves on this trip.
So without further ado... some random pics of our trip.

No more days!

2011-09-16T07:17:00.002-04:00

This is it, we are leaving on a jet plane, don't know when we'll be back again........... I am hopeful to blog while we are gone, if not I will post pics as soon as we come back!

Talia, here we come baby girl, Mommy and Daddy are so excited! I understand you may not be as excited to see us, but we hope with time, you will think that we are A O.k. people :-)

12 more days...

2011-09-04T20:12:00.004-04:00

and only 14 until Talia is in our arms! I guess time has flown and the countdown has begun!! We are sooooo ready... kind of.... well not really... will we ever be really ready? I have just four work days left, and trying to get through all I have to do before leave will be challenging but I am sure it will all get done.

I am a little anxious about getting our passports back... we relinquished them to our agency back in July and do not have them back yet. We are supposed to receive them this Tuesday along with the last bits of information for the trip. Wowza!! I have found the last two weeks have sort of dragged on, but I have a feeling the next two will go super fast!

My niece is going to be staying with us as she goes to University. It is interesting because she is basically leaving all that she knows and is moving 8 hours away from home. She is an amazing young lady, and I am so happy for her as she is embarking on her dream of becoming a speech pathologist. She has a super kind heart, the patience of a saint and super smart. She is going to make a fabulous speech path!

I will try to post just before we leave, and if I can, will be posting while in China... As always, I can't have a post with at least one picture...

We are coming for you soon my love! We can not wait to hold you in our arms!

I love my agency!

2011-07-20T18:33:00.006-04:00

So I was told that my facilitator requested up to date information on my girl, and today I received three new photos of our Talia Li Shun. We were also able to send a care package with our facilitator as she has left for China today and will send them to the SWI when she gets there.

Yes folks, she will no longer be known as BabyL she is now Talia Li Shun Laforest. Gotta nice ring to it don't ya think?

We have also booked flights and have a rough itinerary. We leave Sept 16th fly to Beijing arrive at 3 in the afternoon on the 17th Beijing time and we opted for an extra day so we will be on our own on the 18th and fly to her province on the 19th where we will meet up with our beautiful daughter.

One of the ladies at work noted yesterday when we were chatting that it was exactly 8 weeks yesterday that we will be holding our girl in our arms... When she put it like that, that doesn't seem like a whole lotta time and we have a whole lotta things to do :-) Somehow I know it is all going to get done.

Last weekend I sorted out the 6 rubbermaid containers of clothes that my sister has given us into sizes to see what we had. I think we will be o.k. for a while :-)

Other than that, things seems to be moving at warp speed and I leave you with a picture of my beauty!

Here she is!!!!!

2011-07-05T20:52:00.002-04:00

Miss Yue Li Shun born January 28, 2011 (that makes her 5 months and one week if I do my math right) and she is from Jiangxi. We are over the moon!

Tuesday Tuesday???????????????????????????

2011-07-04T21:40:00.004-04:00

What a roller coaster!!!!!! I was patient enough and didn't call my agency until 4:00.... (for me this is quite the feat) they still hadn't received the package..... I went home and called again at 5:45 and Bob said he was headed to the DHL depot to see if anything was there, so I still held on to some hope. It is now 9:43 p.m. with no call so I am guessing that nothing was there and I don't want to keep bugging them.

These up's and downs are really starting to wear me out and I know I am totally to blame for getting myself all worked up and excited "knowing" today is the day then really really really disappointed when it isn't.

I really need to get off the roller coaster right now can someone please push the breaks and stop it for me.... please.

So we will see what tomorrow brings!

Monday Monday

2011-07-01T11:06:00.003-04:00

Well..... I had a very long day yesterday filled with hope and excitement that today may be the day that we get to see our daughters face. I couldn't take it anymore so around 6p.m. I called our awesome agency and he let me know that Monday will be the day... dang long weekend, why do we need to celebrate Canada day anyways! so today I started the day out great, I got to sleep in (after I got up at 5am to let the beast out) I am thinking that we are going to go on a picnic and then come back and do some housework. I really want this weekend to fly by!!!!!!!!! So that's it on the news front.. Monday Monday Monday!!!!! Yippie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

UUMMMMM almost here?

2011-06-11T12:20:00.004-04:00

Yep... after almost 6 (long) years it looks like that yes indeed it may be our month to receive a referral! Which means that we will have information on our baby in about 2-3 weeks!!!!! To say that I am excited is an understatement. My sleep is almost non existent, but that is o.k. because I am working off of sheer happiness or ubber excitement. One would think that we would be ready by now.... you know... prepared.... Alas our baby's room is a holding tank for various non baby items. I hope this will be rectified this weekend and prep for some serious painting! The excitement sure is building up in the L home!

In other news, life at the L ranch is great! We (I) am working hard with the newest addition to our family on his agility. We should be ready for trials hopefully in October... We shall see how much gets put on the back burner when baby arrives. My plan is NOT to put his agility on the back burner because he really enjoys doing it and I enjoy working with him! By the way, if you are wondering, "him" is Rocky and he was our last foster that we decided to make him a L. He is a little nutty but we love him anyways.

This was taken a couple days after we got him. Cutie!

The newest member of the L family.. Don't let the innocent look fool you.

J and I have been having a bit of fun since we last updated. We have taken a couple of trips, the last one being Las Vegas/Grand Canyon and Zion. Wonky weather as it was snowing in the dessert, but a lot of fun!

O.k. back to the baby room! I keep saying baby because after all this time we still need to pick a name! I think that will happen once we see her/his face! Yyyyaaaaa.

Be back soon with more updates!

Catch up part deux

2009-02-21T21:27:00.006-05:00

Like I said, probably won't be a daily update blog but I will keep it going.

Just thought that I would share what J and I did for Valentines day.... I was humming and hawing about what we were going to do. I have been wanting to go for a long weekend trip to either Washington DC or Boston for a while now... (these are cities where we can get a direct flight from where we live) So when I checked out the flight status, it was a lot on the expensive side. So what to do now... I let J know that it was his turn to plan the day this time (I planned our anniversary night, and we went to taco bell and Cirque de Soleil). I get an email at work from J and in the subject line it says "Happy Valentines day" and then I open it up and it is an itinerary for Chateau Montabello, which is a fairmont resort about an hour away from us. I saw what days he booked us in for, we were arriving Friday and leaving Sat. O.k. so next thing to do is book half a day off work on Friday so we can make the most of it. When I called J with squeals of delight that we were going, I asked him if he got half a day off as well. There was a slight pause on the phone. Ohhhh I thought V day was on Sunday.. I chuckled and thought... only J... So off we went we arrived, got checked in, we went and toured the place a bit as this was our first time there. The place is huge! Went to the activity centre to plan what we were going to do while we were there. The activities they have there are incredible. You know we are in Canada when they have a curling rink. They had two outdoor skating rinks, you could cross country ski, you could rent a snowmobile, the list was endless. We then grabbed our bathing suits and went down to the pool. We had our dinner pool side and just basically relaxed! It was really nice. We then went to our room and crashed and I won't even tell you the time because it is embarrassing how early it was. The next morning we woke up had a beautiful buffet breakfast, back to our room, grabbed some hats and mitts and went out to the dog sled area. I actually went dogsledding!!!!!!!!! The person who took us was very french (Chateau Montabello is actually in Quebec) but he had explained to us the different Huskies and that the Alaskan huskies eat three time more than the Siberian huskies. He also let us know that normally they have 8-12 dogs pulling the sled but that day was really "fast" so we only had 6 dogs. Holy cow, if this was 6 dogs pulling our sled I couldn't imagine 8 or even 12 dogs pulling. It was tres fast and bumpy too. Then we went for a walk on the grounds and headed back to our room and packed to go home and retrieve our dogs from our friends who watched them for us. Thanks again S & B.
Other than that not much else is happening... My SIL, hubby and baby are moving in with us for a month. They sold their place and the closing of the new place is a month apart. It will be fun having the baby around. It will start preparing us for when we have our own.
As always I will leave you with a couple of pictures.

This is a church that is on the property at Chateau Montabello

This is pretty self explanatory, these are the pups that pulled my sled. Poor pups

Catch Up

2009-02-07T23:15:00.005-05:00

What truly surprises me is that I am still getting hits on my blog and I haven't posted for well over a year. Seeing that made me ponder and think and think. I have decided to start blogging again! It may not be every day, but as I am hoping that we are getting closer to our little girl (probably another year and a half, unless something drastic happens) I thought that it would be good to start back up. Whoever, and whatever may come and peek into our mundane life if they so choose. Saying that I am going to play catch up on what we have been up to. I will do it in bullet style just for giggles.

- I have finally gotten a Mon-Fri full time position at a real estate firm. Anyone need a good real estate lawyer, I can hook you up.

- J and I have started fostering Australian Shepherd puppies/dogs. We needed something to do during the wait. It also gives Maple some company. Anyone need or want a really cute puppy, I can hook you up.

- We have moved into the city. Much closer to work and don't have to deal with the 40 minute drive back and forth. Now it is a 7 minute car ride and during the summer J drives his bike to work. If you need a great mover, I can hook you up.

- We went to St. Marrten for a holiday in December. Man that was an adventure, we had an amazing time. The weather was wonderful, the drinks were great! Getting there was fun... We took off on time, about an half hour into the flight the captain gets on the intercom, and says "folks we got to turn around and go back to where we started. The only problem with that is that we were heading for the States and had to go back to Canada. We sat on the plane for 2 hours while they figured out what to do with us! Supposedly it was a customs thing. We think they were really trying to fix the plane so they wouldn't have to re-route everyone. So instead of staying over in Philly we had to stay over in Toronto and fly to Philly the next morning. Surprisingly enough we got to St. Marrten only 2 hours after we were scheduled to arrive. The rest of the trip went off without a hitch. If you want a great place to go for a trip, I can hook you up.

- My Sister in Law (J's sister) and her hubby had a baby in August! Sorry can't hook you up with the baby!

So that's a start! I leave you with some pictures of our foster fur babies.

Keirra (we are fostering her right now, she is soooo sweet)

Jipsy, now known as Apollo (He was our first)

This is Amstel, she is known as Autumn now (she is so sweet and is growing like a weed.)

Girls night out!

2007-10-14T21:21:00.001-04:00

Last Tuesday I had the awesome pleasure of meeting hooligans Janet T. and Juliette. Aside from nearly axing Janet and going the wrong way down a one way street, I thought she was going to call me the hooligan! Let me tell ya, I was off to a really great first impression!!!!!

We went downtown and met up with Juliette at a Zak's. It is kind of a retro 60's kinda burger joint restaurant. We shot the shit, and generally convinced Janet that Ontario is not evil!! I am truly amazed at the awesome people we have met though our adoption journey it is incredible! I feel really blessed by this. I was really down about the wait times and how they are increasing, but then I go out to dinner with these two incredible people and realize that I am not alone. O.k. sappy time over.

The nights are getting chillier, and the leaves are changing. I love this time of year! I just love all the fall colours and soon we will be raking the leaves from the front yard. Yesterday we had our first fire of the season. There is nothin like cuddling in front of the fire place watching ahem, uummm, football?????

Family friend Maureen is down from out east! We got to visit yesterday and I made a nice dinner of roast chicken and all the trimmins. I also got my behind kicked in crib and then later on, euchre. I guess my lady luck is running out.

Now that I have my camera back, as promised here is a picture of the onsie that Juliette got us back in Aug. Sorry no picture of the wine as we already drank it. Along with the onsie, at our recent meeting, I was spoiled and Baby L's referral picture will look great in this princess frame, and the love bug onesie will not get dirty with the ladybug and butterfly bib she will be sporting. Joël and I can jazz up our dinner table with this cool Chinese outfit wine cover. Too cool for words, thank you very much Juliette. You do spoil Baby L.

I should get ready for bed, this week will seem long as last week was a short week due to Canadian Thanksgiving.

Here is a picture of the onesie, click on the image and you can see it better, it is a picture of a ladybug and it says love bug. I also love the colour of the outfit.

This is the frame, and the ladybug bib and wine bottle cover. Tres cool!

Last but not least, here is a nice picture of Juliette and Janet.

Here We Go Again

2007-10-07T12:35:00.000-04:00

In bullet points again, just cause there is a lot to catch up on.

- I actually have 3 days off work in a row. This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and was scheduled to work Monday, but a kind co-worker asked if I wanted her to take my shift. She does get a day off in lue of working Monday, but heck I have done my share of long weekends this summer. So happy Thanksgiving my Canadian friends.

- It is 12:30 on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and I am still in my P.J's. After this post I will go get dressed and take Mapes out on this beautiful fall day! I just wanted to have a day of doin nothin! Although tonight we are going to my parents for dinner.

- Tomorrow is going to be a bake feast. I am making some pies, preparing meals for the freezer for the week and I am also going to clean house! How very terribly exciting.

- Last weekend my Mother put on her own 60th birthday party for herself. She also turned it into a fund raiser for Breast Cancer awareness! When she was diagnosed almost 2 years ago, she was given a 10% chance to make it as it had spread to her lymph nodes. The woman went though Chemo and radiation without hardly a complaint! Knock on wood she is in remission and all the tests have came back clear. The doctors are amazed, we are amazed. She truly is my hero! As my husband says, your Mom is not going to die from Cancer, she is going to die from a heart attack that she will give herself for putting on events like these. He was referring to her getting down on the floor with all the kids and having a jump frog race with them. Oh Boy! Since it is October, which is Breast Cancer month, all you ladies out there don't forget to take care of the girls!

- Hubby and I just celebrated our 2 wedding anniversary. It was really nice, I got flowers delivered to my work. He picked me up the night of our anniversary. The next day we went to our favorite Italian restaurant that we go to on our anniversary. We reflected upon the year and how far we have come. Our relationship grows more and more as every day passes.

- Ick, I don't even want to post this but I think I should. CCAA (China Center for Adoption affairs) has done it again!!! They referred a whopping 5 days of LID's this month (cue the dripping sarcasm music here). So the cut off day is November 30th. Buh Bye November!! Don't let me kick you in the a** on your way out! It took CCAA 6 months to get through November 2005. I can not wait to get at least into the year 2006. I am not sure how long December 2005 is going to take but pleasssseeeee CCAA don't let it be another 6 months! I don't know how long my heart can take it!

- Last but not least, bloggy buddy Janet is in "Evil" Ontario. I am hoping that after this trip she won't think of Ontario as evil anymore. Another bloggy buddy Juliette, Alex & Maëlle, Janet and crew with Joël and I will be going out on Tuesday evening. Stay tuned for some pictures soon!

O.k. I leave you now with some pictures of the party from last weekend. My sister made the cake and the cookies, each cookie had a different word. For a bonus I will throw one cute picture of my cousins baby.

This is Mom on the ground with the kids doing the leap frog game!

This is a sample of the cookies my sister made. They were yummy too!

This is the birthday cake. Don't know if Mom wants everyone to know her age, but there ya have it!!

My Brother in laws and me!

Mom with my niece. Sorry it is crooked, don't know how to fix, can anyone help me figure it out?

This is my cousins little girl, she is too cute!

One milestone passed!!!

2007-09-15T10:14:00.001-04:00

This actually was posted about a week ago but I have only gotten to post it now. It is extremely exciting to see that we are out of review. Now we just have to wait some more still. I am getting good at waiting, (not really but I am trying)

Tonight we are having Woman over and she is bringing her beau! This will be the first time we have met him since they started seeing each other. Joël kept bugging Woman that there is no man, that he is a figment of her imagination. Tonight we get the proof in flesh and blood. It should be a fun night.

Things at the law office are going well. The first day there I felt completely out of my comfort zone, and felt like I didn't know what I was doing. Two weeks later I feel a heck of a lot more confident, it is great!

I still haven't gotten the camera back yet, so no pics today. Must make arrangements to do that soon!

Catching Up

2007-09-09T09:56:00.000-04:00

What has been happening in the L household lately???? I am going to bullet point since it is going to be easier that way.

- I got another job, this time it is working in a law firm, it is a one lawyer firm, and her practice is in Family Law. It is a lot of hard work, and there needs to be a lot of organizing done. I will have that office whipped into shape in no time! Since it is only a part time job (for now) I am still with RE/M*X. But I have weekends off now Wooohoo!!!!

- Recently I went flying in a little 4 seater plane. Our good friend B is working on getting his pilots license. I got to listen to B calling to the tower requesting permission to take off and land. Thank goodness he didn't do any tricks while we were up there. I guess part of his training is engine stalling, and other fun stuff, I am just really, really, really glad his instructor who went up with us didn't make him do anything to outrageous.

- CCAA news - not really good news. They only got through 4 LID days this month. So the cut off now is November 25, 2005. We are almost through Nov/05 which was a HUGE month of LID's to get through. To put it into perspective, It took CCAA 6 months possibly 7 to get through November 05. Yep, pretty bad! The only other huge month that stands in our way is March 06. Doesn't look quite as big as Nov, but still will take some time to get through. I am just hoping that they will get 05 done before the New year. We will see.

- Other friends of ours just had a baby girl a couple of days ago. This would be Joël's best friend and his wife. This is their second girl. Congrats to them!

- Now the really exciting part! Janet and crew are coming to wonderful Ontario. Janet's sister is getting married so the whole dang crew is coming for a visit! Little does Janet know what she is getting herself into! SSHHHHHH no one tell her. (Insert evil laugh here) I just can't wait to meet them. Should be a lot of fun!

I am going to leave you with a couple pics of my flying adventure.

Oh the guilt of it all!!!

2007-08-27T21:48:00.000-04:00

This is going to be a quick post as it is way over due. Life has taken over and I have not had a second to sit down and blog.
Aug 17th weekend we went camping. We met up with Bloggy buds Juliette, Alex and Maëlle. What fun, we had campfire burgers, and introduced Juliette to smores. Now she can really say she is Canadian. We had a nice time at the campfire. The next day we went for a canoe ride which was fun. The people who rented a canoe before us actually tipped the boat and they waded back to shore. Unfortunately Juliette forgot her camera in the canoe when we left :-( Maëlle is such a cutie and has an infectious giggle.
Here is my guilty part of the title. Juliette brought a wonderful present for Baby L and us. She got Baby L a BEAUTIFUL red long sleeve onsie, that has "love bug" on it with a lady bug! It is toooo adorable. For the grown ups there was a bottle of French wine from "Saint Emillion" which so happens to be the restaurant that we ate at in Paris. How cool is that. Thank you Juliette/Alex/Maëlle for the awesome present.
Oh ya haven't gotten to the guilty part yet. I really wanted to take pictures and post them but someone (no names, but his name may start with a J) had forgotten our camera at his buddy S's house the week before, who lives 7 hours away, and we probably won't get it back for a while. Once we do, I will be sure to post pics.

This weekend we went to my Outlaws/In laws for Ma's 65th birthday. They live in northern Quebec. Let's just say I added to my repertoire of French words this weekend. Ma Tante demander quand moi apprends francais. (I know that phrase is probably not grammatically correct but I hope it is close.) I keep saying "Je ne c'est pas". Honestly though I do know though that the more I am around them the more I learn. My in laws are so patient with me. O.k. enough about that. When coming back I stopped in at my sisters house and I picked up two blonde cuties that are staying with me tonight and we have big plans to go to cosmic adventures tomorrow. They don't start school till next week and their other brother has an appointment tomorrow so I took the two older ones.
O.k I am off to bed. Once again Merci mes ami Juliette, Alex et Maëlle pour le beau cadeaux.

Bonne fete avec moi (is that proper french??)

2007-08-15T10:44:00.000-04:00

Yep, today is my birthday. What am I going to do to celebrate this momentous occasion? I am going grocery shopping, and maybe taking the dog out for her walk before I head to work. We celebrated last weekend when friends of ours came over for a bbq and they brought a dairy queen ice cream cake. Yummmmy! Hubby did make me breakfast, and Maple did demand to have cuddles and a belly rub this morning while I slept in a bit :-)
We are preparing to go camping this weekend where we are meeting up with blogger pal Juliette and Alex and Maëlle. It is going to be a blast! I just hope the weather holds out. If it is anything like it has been for the last couple days it is going to be spectacular.
This post is going to be short and sweet as I am still in my PJ'S and it is 11pm.
Till next time.
OOHHH one last thing, we know we are in the review room, Bob (one of the people who work at our agency) called and let us know that we have been questioned. I guess the nurse while taking down my height put me down as 5'7. The case worker in China looked at Joël and my picture and said noticed something was amiss. Also on Joël's medical our doc put down that he has "Gilbert's" but his liver enzymes are normal. So we had to get our Social worker to write up a paragraph about the height issue (I am actually 4'9) and our doctor to write something up about Gilberts. The doctor gave me a lot of grief. Let's just say once we are through with the adoption we will be looking for a new family doctor. When I called her she informed me that "I caught her on her last afternoon before a month vacation" and she wouldn't have time to do it before then. I was devastated as that would most likely bump us back even further. Anyways I guess I got through to her because her secretary called the next morning and the doctor had dropped the letter off to us.
Our wonderful social worker had it to us within an hour of asking for it.
Sorry no pics today.

The Outlaws are coming

2007-08-08T10:35:00.000-04:00

The outlaws are coming to visit. Why is it when every time that they come to visit I go in panic mode? The house has to be immaculate, everything has to be just perfect. I love my inlaws, they are amazing people and I love spending time with them, but something happens to me when I get the phone call to say that they are coming to visit. My palms get all sweaty, my heart starts racing. O.k i am exaggerating just a little bit, it is really not that bad! At least I hope it isn't.
It is my sister in laws birthday today and they are coming down to surprise visit her. No she doesn't read this blog so I am safe to say that.
Anyway that is my news of the day. I am working 7 days straight this week, so have pity on me. I actually just had an interview at an actual law office, it went well, I should hear something by Friday or Monday. Keeping my fingers crossed.

On another note, we are reaping the benifits of Joël's hard work in the garden. The tomatoes are ready, the carrots are ready, we have been eating the peas and lettuce, the potatoes have been dug up. The corn is almost ready. Yummy Yummy Yummy.

Here is a pic of my Ma and Pa. Yes he has his eyes closed but I just like this picture.

Pass On The Peace Do

2007-08-04T16:32:00.000-04:00

Blogger Rosie is trying to start a cyber peace movement. She is asking all of her bloggy friends to post the dove and encourage their friends to pass it on ...

Please pass the Dove of Peace on and put it on your blog..then ask those who view your blog to put it on their blog and see how far the PEACE will go.Worth a try. Just maybe, just maybe people might listen and the world may think about peace for at least one moment .

"It started small and grew so tall and spread its wings to capture all"

Send Peace .Love the world.

Whoa Nelly!

2007-07-27T10:05:00.000-04:00

The first sentence is pretty important to us. This means that the CCAA is looking at our dossier as we speak. The hours of our homestudy, the finger prints, the pictures, the medical exams, basically our lives are being looked at right now with a critical eye. Now lets hope we get through this hurdle and move on to the next part of the waiting which will be that we will be in the matching room.
Finally some excitement!

How many Pips are you behind?

2007-07-26T11:33:00.000-04:00

When we go camping we have an all out backgammon war. It is not often that I do not win at backgammon. On this particular day, I was really really really winning, so much that I was on fire baby!
The other game that we play is two man euchre, this is J's game and he usually wins at this. If I start loosing too much at euchre I most times suggest to go for a hike or the other option which is playing backgammon.
So without further ado, I give you this video of my hubby concentrating really hard, while the lucky lady is giggling away!

Please let me know if you are able to see the video or not. Thanks

One Year!!! Woohoo!!! we made it this far baby

2007-07-11T11:23:00.001-04:00

I know I am late with this, but officially we have been logged in with the CCAA for a whole year! How to commemorate this momentous occasion? Here is a list of things that have happened over the past year.

- Celebrated our one year anniversary (soon to be two)
- celebrated two of my cousins weddings (one last summer and one this summer)
- the birth of my niece Sadie
- all of my nieces and nephews, sisters, brother inlaws birthdays
- my mother underwent chemo and radiation for breast cancer treatment.(So far A o.k.)
- Halloween
- Thanksgiving
- Christmas
- Easter
- Canada Day
- Any other holiday that I am missing
- Joël's birthday
- My Birthday
- My graduation from College receiving my law clerk diploma
- Our trip to Paris
- The Senators ALMOST winning the Stanley cup
- The many trees have been chopped and stacked in our garage
- Countless camping trips
- A million doggie walks (or Maple wishes)
- "The case"
- The 2 day LID month
- Getting a part time job and trying to find full time
- Waiting and waiting and waiting for CCAA to speed up
- All the happiness and stress can bring in one year

I am sure that I have missed a lot of things but this is a start. Happy one year LID to us. I also want to thank our friends, and family for being such a rock of support. Yes it is a longer wait than we anticipated, but we will get there. Now come on CCAA giddie up.
This picture is of us in Paris our last night there. I was having a little fun with the camera

Our favorite past time.

2007-07-02T08:20:00.000-04:00

For a while now I have been saying that I will post about our favorite thing that we love to do together. What could that be? Could it be taking moonlit walks on the beach, or could it be possible that our favorite thing is impromptu trips to Paris or even maybe it could be a nice evening out to a nice restaurant over a nice bottle of wine. Nope our favorite thing to do is getting eaten alive by the mosquitoes and other such friendly bugs and sleeping on the hard ground in a tent.
For me it is not about the bugs or the hard floor, but about the campfire, cooking over the fire making our hamburgers or smores, sitting there as the sun goes down and just spending quality time with hubby. yes I am such a sap. As I am just thinking about this now, when we were getting our reference letters for our home study for the the adoption, every single person who wrote a letter mentioned our love of camping.
As for our darling Maple, you just have to say the word and she is at the door looking at us and saying, come on already lets go! You said we were going camping like two seconds ago, whats the hold up?
From top to bottom, Joël dawning his lovely gun boots and heading out to enjoy the river. Throwing Mapes her stick which for some reason keeps coming back. The third pic is of my Dad and Joël. I just like the way it turned out. (As always you can click on the picture to make it bigger.)

A Meme!

2007-06-28T10:54:00.000-04:00

I've been tagged by Janet, I think I should start these Meme's so peeps who peek in can find out a little bit more about me. I also needed something to blog about.

My roommate and I once: Ummm never had a roommate unless you count rooming with my sisters when we were growing up, and then I would have to say that we fought over clothes.

Never in my life have I: Actually completed a crossword puzzle. I have also never done drugs.

High school was : The best years of my life. I loved high school.

When I'm nervous : I can hardly speak, my voice cracks and I do not breath properly.

My hair : Blondish brown, needs a serious cut.

When I was 5 : I remember the hour long ride to Sick Kids with my father to get tubes put in my ears. I remember this because it was the only time that I was allowed up in the front seat in the car (this is 30 years ago peeps, we didn't have the regulations that we have now with car seats :-).

When I turn my head left : I can see my office closet and a table.

I should be : Applying for a job instead of blogging, but blogging is so much more fun.

By this time next year : We will hopefully a lot closer to being on our way to China!

My favorite aunt is : Aunty ........., I will leave it up to my Aunts to fill in the blank.

I have a hard time understanding : Sarcasim.

You know I like you if : I invite you over for a s'getti dinner.

My ideal breakfast is : Pancakes and sausage!

If you visit my home town : You will notice there is no night life.

If you spend the night at my house : You get to sleep with the dog. We would stay up though and chat while the dog warms up your bed teehee.

My favorite blonde is : My sister, niece and nephews!

My favorite brunette is : My husband, my nephews and nieces, and soonish to be baby.

The animal I would like to see flying besides birds : A horse, don't ask me why, I think it may go back to the days when I watched Hercules in cartoon on Sat. mornings.

I shouldn't have been : so grumpy (story not inserted here for good reason).

Last night I: Made an awesome dinner for my deserving hubby after me working 6 days in a row and not being able to be home for supper and he had to fend for himself.

A better name for me would be : Forgetful, I am constantly forgetting my purse or my keys at other peoples houses.

I've been told I look like : My Mother (which I agree I do).

If I could have any car, it would be: I want my old 89 Toyota Tercel back! I loved that thing.

Well there you have it folks, my first Meme, I tag anyone who comes across this blog and wants to do it.

We're Back

2007-06-18T10:39:00.001-04:00

What an amazing trip we had We crammed in everything that we could possibly want to see and then some. My feet need to recover from all the walking we did. It was truly a dream trip and I even learned some more french. For some reason I can understand the Parisian French more than the Quebec french. There was a bakery right near our hotel so it was croissants and pastries for breakfasts which were out of this world. I will do a big post about our trip when I get a moment. I just wanted to get a couple pictures up for you all to see.

Us at the famous Eiffel tower. At the Louvre. This is the site of Nepoleans tomb.

See Ya when we get back

2007-06-12T13:22:00.000-04:00

well this is it. We are outta here. Now all I have to throw my english out the plane window and start speaking french. The thing is, my husband who's first language is french won't even speak it while we are in Paris.
Our bags are packed and we're ready to go. I am sure I will have lots of pictures when I get back. I can just smell the fresh baguette and croissants now for breakfast tomorrow morning already.

11 Months and Paris

2007-06-06T10:25:00.000-04:00

I am posting after the fact, but at least I am posting. I can not get over that it has been 11 months already that we have been logged in. Today it seems like it has flown by.
Well it looks like Joël and I are off to an amazing, once in a life time trip to Paris France. I had some time off work, originally Joël asked if I wanted to go to Florida. Our friends S&J's parents have a time share there. Unfortunately (or maybe not so much now) the plans fell through. Since we were gung ho on going on a trip, we did some investigating. Looks like a flight to Paris is almost the same as Floria. So off we are going. We leave next week! OMG am I ever freaking excited! So much to do, so little time. aaaahhhhhhhhh.
A huge congrats to everyone who received there referral this month. CCAA made it up to November 7, 2005. It doesn't seem like a lot of days, but it is a lot of referrals, more so than it has been. I believe, I believe....
So I leave you with a picture of the Eiffel tower. I will be standing underneath it next week! I better brush up on mon francaise.
Oui, Oui mes amie we are off to Pariiiiiiiii.

YYEEEEHAAAWWWW

2007-06-02T23:08:00.001-04:00

Yaaa the Sens won tonight. It was a shaky start but they won and after Anaheim won the last two games, we won tonight!!!!! Final score 5-3. ya baby the sens rule! My funny funny husband after each goal ran up the stairs, opened the patio door and screamed yeeehaawww (hence the title)

Sorry I have not been around, well I have but I have been busy, we just got back from a 3 day camping trip. It was great except we were in the middle of a severe thunder storm both nights we were there. Our tent held up and we didn't get wet, and no tree branches struck us down. It was beautiful during the days, and the bugs were not too bad.

I have another post in the making, it shall be posted soon. I have to upload some pictures. I also promise to have some pictures of our favorite past time.

2007-05-18T23:08:00.001-04:00

Hubby has shocked the living poop out of me lately! In a good way too! L ast week, I was in my office, and Joel comes up and we were talking a bit, then all of a sudden out of the blue, he comes out with "so where are we in the adoption process now?"
Lets backtrack for a bit, Joel is the type of guy that what ever comes will come. Me, I want things done now not a second from now but now. It is not that he is not interested in the adoption because he really is, but it is hard for him to get excited about something that could be a year away. O.k. fast forward again to yesterday.
Joel got up earlier than I did yesterday, so when I woke up and went downstairs, he looked at me and said, "what do you think about going baby clothes shopping today?" I was blown away and stammered a bit. Knowing that my sister is passing on some clothes to us, and I know some others may be passing some clothes to us, so told him that we probably really don't need to clothe shop until we find out what we really need. A couple hours later, it finally dawned on me, Dude your husband wants to go baby clothes shopping, who are you to deny him of that and be a party pooper.
So off we went to the mall together. I give you our first baby outfits! I am in love with the monkey "lil dumpling" tank, J picked out the hippie outfit. Hope you enjoy.

2007-05-16T00:08:00.000-04:00

How much I love my Nieces and Nephews?
Today my sister who lives 8 hours away just emailed me some recent pictures of my Niece and Nephew, and it kind of left a lump in my throat. It struck me big time that they are growing up so fast! It is my Nephew's birthday today, Happy Birthday S!!! I leave you with pictures of the cake my sister made for his birthday, he really wanted an xbox cake. I have also included a couple pictures of my Niece S. She grew her hair long so she could donate it to the "locks of love" they make wigs for children who are undergoing chemo or who have lost their hair. This is the second time she has done this. I am darn proud of her! I am darn proud of all my nieces and nephews. O.k. I am thinking it is time for a road trip, right dear? They are coming down for my cousins wedding in June, so I will see them then, I can't wait!!

2007-05-14T12:26:00.000-04:00

Ramblings of our weekend.
Being the camping nuts that we are, and that the forecast showed sunny days and a nice enough days, albeit a little chilly at nights so we decided to brave the chilly nights and bring extra blankets and off we went.
We have been to this camp ground once before but it was busy and a lot of people, being a provincial camp ground we were not allowed to let Maple off lead so it wasn't a huge success the first time. What a difference this weekend was compared to the first time we went. There were only a hand full of people in the whole park, the warden/sheriff in town didn't hound us to put Mapes on lead, and because we didn't have any neighbors it was very peaceful. Our site was on the river so at night we could hear the water (and want to go pee every hour on the hour) and very relaxing. It was awesome! It was too bad that I forgot my camera, there was some definite kodak moments. The river where we were was very shallow it only went up to our ankles/mid calves so Joël got on his gun boots, grabbed a chair, went out into the middle of the river onto the flat rocks and parked himself. Maple was in heaven because she found a stick and kept giving it to Daddy to throw, it was funny because when the water splashed in her face she would wince, sneeze and shake it off.
Yes it was very cold during the night, my nose was cold. I don't know how many people can sleep with their nose being cold, but I can't. So I put my sleeping bag over my face and voila problem solved.
Sunday my parents came up for a fire cooked meal for Mother's day! Yummy!! Chicken over the fire with baked potato's over the fire, it was great! Earlier during the day J and I went for a hike, the trail starts with a beautiful water fall, it is only a 2klm hike, so J calls it a "Patti hike". I whooped some behind in backgammon, I think we played like 10 games and I won 9 of them. J made up for it when we played two person Euchre.

Sens are really on a hot streak! They won the last two games against Buffalo, only two more wins to go. Then they play either Detroit or Anaheim for the Stanley Cup. This is all very exciting!!!!!!

There is a rumor out there for the cut off date this month, I don't want to jinx it so I won't say anything yet. Just know that it makes me a very happy person right now if this comes true.

2007-05-09T10:32:00.000-04:00

Wow, It has been a week since I have updated. Here are my ramblings for the week in no particular order!

Janet had "interview" questions on her blog and asked if anyone would like to be interviewed. I said sure why not. So here it goes!

If you want to participate:
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me”, or words to that effect.
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions, but I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You have to include this explanation, and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

so if you want to be interviewed, let me know and I would be happy to send you 5 fabulous questions!

1) If you could be a cold or hot drink, what would you be? I would say a tequilla sunrise. I am a morning person mostly, ergo the sunrise, and I am sweet like the orange juice. My favorite drink though is Pepsi by far!

2) Where is the BEST place you've ever been? I would have to say Australia. The best place that I have been with hubby would have to be Niagra Falls. We went to Niagara about two months after we first met. My sister and his family live in the same city, so I suggested that we take a road trip for Easter. J took it one step farther and suggested we take off a couple days ahead and stop in the middle, which was around Niagara Falls. It was the best two days! Needless to say "I got caught" it is a long story and if you really want to hear it please leave me a message in the comments.

3) What is your fondest wish for your future child? My fondest wish for my future child would have to be that she grows up happy, knows that her Mom and Dad love her, and that she be true to herself and fight for what she believes in.

4) How many pairs of shoes would you say you have? I bet you all think I have a gazillion, but nope, I have about 8 pairs, and that is including my winter boots. I am working on it though. A girl can never have enough shoes :-)

5) What is your favorite animal? I would have to say that the horse is my favorite by far. I love to go horseback riding. I feel so free when I am on that horse and galloping with it, the wind in my hair. There is no other feeling like it. Bet you thought I was going to say Maple. She is my favorite pet, but I swear she is human though, she is also such a great cuddle bum.

Ok. those are my answers, I hope you enjoyed!

- My Senators just won the last two games against New Jersey so the Sens are in round three up against Buffalo. I am thinking that the Sens are on fire, how could they not be when you have a yummy goal tender like Emery. Emery is a very good reason to "watch" the game.

- CCAA got up to November 1 this month! Better than what we thought it would be but still a far cry from what I would like it to be.

- Happy 10 month LID to us. This month went by really really really fast!

- The video you see above is of my sweet darling nephews at my end of school "surprise" party. They are demonstrating their knowledge of sign. Hope you enjoy their creative side! They are hams, and loved playing this up. One time soon I will have to get footage of my other sister and her beautiful children. It is hard to do because they live 8 hours from us.

I think that is about all the news I have for now.

2007-05-01T09:22:00.000-04:00

GO SENS GO

So last night was game 2, and again I was working. When I got home I quickly ran downstairs to catch the last period. Well..... lets just say my husband told me to go back to work because since I have come home they have already have messed up twice (he was only kidding people). So I opted not to go back to work but go upstairs and listen to the game from there. Seriously, as soon as I was on the last step all of a sudden they scored. There was lots of hooting and hollering going on. They scored again a few minutes later, this all happened in the third period and only AFTER I got home. So I must bring some kind of luck, albeit from afar. Final score.... Sens 2 New Jersey 0. Next game is Wednesday so stay tuned for the play by play action.

2007-04-27T11:09:00.000-04:00

Pity party is over! WOOHOO
Exams are done with a capital D! Don't be thinkin that I got d's for grades either :-) I worked hard for my A's and B's.
The Sens won last night against New Jersey! This was the first game of the second round. I am thinkin that the Sens will win all four games right off the bat just like they did with the last round. Go Sens go!!!!!!! Of course I was at work when the game started, but as soon as I could, I high tailed it out of there to meet up with Joël at a friends house to finish watching the game. For those who don't know what I am talking about.... it's the good ol Canadian hockey game ... and it is playoff time.
Work is slowly getting better and I am starting to enjoy it. Now that I have figured out that even though I know there is another way of doing things which so happens to be a lot easier way, I still have to do it their way. Which is painful for me because I know there is an easier way, but I am a newbie and what do I know? I will just stick with the way they do things for now and then start making "suggestions".
I have this weekend where I don't have to worry about work or assignments. What is a girl to do with a whole weekend to herself and nothing to do and it is raining outside. I think that curling up with a really good book is in order. A good book and curling up with my awesome hubby could also be a really great way to pass time. Of course I could never forget our much loved four legged furry daughter. She will be demanding some cuddle time too. Which of course I will oblige her just because she is so darn cute and lovable!
The rumors are starting to fly that CCAA again will probably not get more than a couple of days of referrals out there again this month. Crazy as it seems, this time I am not going to get on that roller coaster, once or twice is enough thank you very much. What is also being said is that these days are really really huge days to get through, and after they complete the end of October and we get through November of 05, then things are much lighter and we will be seeing more days referred. I don't want to jinx it and say that there is going to be a speed up, because when your dealing with the ccaa you never know what could happen.
O.k time to go yank hubby from his computer and his obsession with the game diablo. I should take a picture of him playing. The intensity of his concentration is incredible and comical.
I promise to update more regularly, or at least that is my intention for now.
The obligatory picture of today is of cutie pie Miss. Blake when they were down visiting. I think she was trying to get out of the way of the lethal weapon aka Rubens tail.

****For all you bloggy peeps visiting, I would like to start a blogroll, so if you could please leave me a note in the comments letting me know if I can add a link to your blog. That would be fabulous! Thanks!!!

2007-04-19T10:41:00.000-04:00

I held on to this post because I knew I would want to re-visit it before I actually posted it so I can make ammendments. The thing is, there is not a lot that has changed. I have moved on with life, that is for sure. My exams start tomorrow so I am studying for those and I will officially be finished school on April 23 at 6:30pm (my last exam is from 4:30 to 6:30. This is something to celebrate. Kinda scary too because now I can't hide behind school for all my excuses, I actually need to get out there and find me a full time job! WOOOHOO!!!!!!!!!
The feelings have not changed, but they are more tolerable. I guess you can compare it to a paper cut, hurts like hell when you get one and it keeps on being annoying until it heals.
Rumors are already flying that CCAA will not do much better this month. Roooolllllllllling with the punches is my motto now :-)
I am including this picture of a ladybug that was munching on my salad. Kinda gross now that I think about it.

This was written on April 5, 2007

O.k. so I was going to post about our 9 month LID anniversary, but now I am thinking what's the use. I think I need to backup just a little....... why the bad mood on my part when I am often a cheerful nothing can get me down person. I will tell you why! Rumor has it that CCAA (china ceter of Adoption Affairs) has only gotten through 2 days of LID's this month. Last month they were finished up to October 24, 2005, now it is looking like this month of referrals they are only going to be finished referrals for up to Ocober 26 2005!!!!!!!!! that is only 2 days!!!!!!!! thats it!! It took CCAA 32 days (that is how long it has been since last batch of referrals) of "matching" to get through 2 days worth of LID's. We may be lucky to be going to China in 2010 at this rate! I wouldn't be so upset if CCAA would come out with a statement saying why it is taking so long, but the fact is, they are really closed liped about the whole thing and not telling agencies anything. As it their right... Doesn't mean I have to like it.
Days like this I can't be posative about our adoption, I can NOT see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel! Maybe it would have been freaking faster going the domestic route after all. We were told that the domestic route would be a 3 to 5 year wait, well my friends that is what we are looking at now anyways! I have to remind myself that we didn't choose China for the time frame, but for the predictability. I am not going to say "why me" because I have been through that already like 20 years ago when I first found out about my infertility.
It hurts really bad that Joel's best friend is expecting their 2nd child in September, they were not pregnant with their first when we started this adoption process!!! (I honestly really am happy for them, Blake is a cutie pie and I love her to bits and I can't wait to meet the new little one.) I am speaking out of frustration.
I don't want to hear "be patient, it is going to happen, and this wait will seem like nothing when you get your referral picture"! because right now I probably will tell that person to f$% off. Let me vent, let me be angry, I can't pretend anymore to be happy!!!!!
I don't think I will post this until Monday when I know the facts for sure. I apologize for the use of the language, but shit, damn, I am pissed!
Thanks for letting me vent.
P

It is a true fact that yes indeed CCAA only got through 2 days of referrals this month. What to do next remains to be seen.

2007-03-26T16:11:00.000-04:00

I got the job!!!! Last Friday I had an interview with a Real Estate agency for a part time position as a support/admin position. This is the type of thing that will get my foot in the door for a perm full time position. So I go in on Wed. to sign paperwork and such.

It has been a very long two weeks. Joël went to S&J's for a week, then they drove him home and they stayed here for a bit. We also had a friend of ours from NY come and stay with us this weekend. Phew, lots of company, and not a lot of school work getting done. YIKES The house is now quiet and I am getting some work done.

On Sat. we had more people over, since S&J were down along with E, and it is close to Joël's b-day, I made up a huge pan of lasagna, and E made some fantastic "Korean BBQ" as E calls it. It was amazingly good and believe it or not the lasagna went really well with it. For desert, I made a lemon merigune pie.After the meal we sat down to play games. I went to bed early due to feeling icky with a cold, (I tried not to cough all over the food when making it :-)) Everyone was still partying when I went to bed, great host I am eh.

Ladybug siteing - I was eating my salad on Sat. night and all of a sudden I saw this thing moving on my cruton, aahhhh, it was a lady bug! As soon as I realized what it was, I was so excited. For those of you who don't know, in the adoption community, when a lady bug is sited it is said that referrals are on the way. Being that it is almsot the end of the month, I can believe it. I picked up the ladybug, cruton and all (s/he had to eat) and put it outside.

I think that is all that has been happening at the Laforest's, there probably is a lot more but will save it for another day.

2007-03-17T14:39:00.000-04:00

I hope this works (the video).... Last Thursday Maple had a date with Roz. She was so excited when he came to the door. He was bearing gifts and everything!! Roz asked Maple if she wanted to go for a walk. He was a perfect gentleman on the walk and Maple was smitten with him. We all came back to the house and while the adults made supper, they played with the rope. After much mooching during supper it was time for desert and Rozies treat that he brought. Not sure what Maple thought of Roz, but I do know that she has asked him back again, even though he farted and snored during dinner (I guess he takes after her Daddy). A fun time was had by all.

This video is of Maple and Roz with their gourmet cookies that smells like Peanut butter.

2007-03-16T21:11:00.000-04:00

I thought this was pretty neat when I saw it on Janet's blog. Check it out, it is kinda cool!!! I would also like to say, that although it is a picture of a "coke" drink, it really should be a Pepsi! Are the people at visual DNA trying to say that coke is better than Pepsi?? I think not!!
Thats it for today... The cat is away so the mouse can play :-)

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

2007-03-12T16:39:00.000-04:00

There were three in the bed and the little one said Rolllll over....

This is Joël taking a nap, or at least trying too. Maple is joined with her b-f Ru. Ruben is the monster of a dog who is owned (or he owns???) M and G. I just love this picture.

2007-03-05T20:30:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post to say Happy 8th LID anniversary for us. The CCAA has mailed out referrals for people who have a LID from the 13th of October to the 23rd of October. I was guessing the 26th of Oct. for this months batch, but I guess them being off for Chinese New Year may have been a factor. This pregnancy is taking WAY to long! Get us into labor already would ya :-) It is still going to be a while.

2007-03-03T10:50:00.000-05:00

O.k. so I haven't posted for a while, but the L's have been busy. I am on reading week this week., not that much reading is getting done. I had a fabulous time at my sisters place, the kids are great and I am glad I got to spend some time with them. I don't often get to see them as much as I would like with them living a couple hours away from us. Like I said, it was a lot of fun, but to be honest, I was exhausted when I left there.
What else has the L's been up too? Well Joël has been skiing a lot, I even got out to the slopes last weekend as well.
I do have a funny story... One of my classes this semester is "intro to Criminal Law" and one of the assignments that I had was that I had to go down to the court house and view some criminal proceedings. My classmates and I opted to go to the "plea court" so that we knew we would see everything from the begining to end in a pretty quick amount of time. Before you go into the court room, they have a list outside the door with information like who is hearing the cases, and who is actually coming up before the judge. The first person on the list that I saw was a very, very familiar name. It was an old fling that I had in high school. Apperently things went downhill for him once we went out separate ways he had five arrests. I never got to find out what he was arrested for, because the crown attorney and his attorney had not had a chance to go over the case so they post poned it. I found it pretty funny, my classmates that I went to the court with found it pretty funny as well.
Adoption news: We are coming up to our 8th month LID anniversary, and we continue to wait. That is pretty much it right now.
I should get back to the school grind. I think we are going skiing tonight so I want to get some work done before we do. Enjoy the pics of my nephews and niece.

2007-02-15T13:08:00.000-05:00

Now that I am linked to the July LID FOI bloggy peeps, I am going to have to get more creative with my blog! OHHH man the pressure is on! I have decided to expand our readership because quite frankly I have been checking out other blogs and have been living vicariously through them when they travel to China. I think it is time for us to do the same so other people can hopefully enjoy reading what the Laforest's are up to.
Beware though, I may be asking some people who have cool blogs for some help to update mine ;-)
I will post pics when I have downloaded them onto our computer.
The pooch is pouting as I am posting, so I must go take her out for a "W" even though she doesn't care that with the wind chill it is -34 here bbrrrrrrr
If you could please post comments as I really love to read them! Thanks
Till next time

2007-02-07T09:46:00.000-05:00

This post is brought to you by the number 7. Yep, it's our 7 month LID anniversary. It really feels like only yesterday that I was posting about our 6 months.
Not much new on the home front. My Mother and I took two of my nephews to a hockey skills game. A hoot and a hollar was had by all. After that game, we went over to our friends to watch the football game on the big screen. I was only there for the commercials.
Other than that, school work, school work and school work. I can't believe I will be done in 3 months. Then it will be time to find a job.
Speaking of school, I best get back to the grind.

2007-01-28T13:34:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am supposed to be catching up on my school work after not being there for two weeks because of work experience. But I thought it would be more fun to post instead. I will give an update on how things went at the office. From the moment I stepped into the office, to the last day, it was amazing. This has definitely confirmed my choice in career change. It really helped, I think, that my principle lawyer had taught me Family Law in the summer. She knew what I was capable of and knew that I was pretty good. (not to toot my own horn or anything) It worked out that she had a brand new client the very day that I started there. I got a taste of what it is like to go through an emergency motion, to preparing a lot of the documents that need to go with it. I got to feel the stress of the deadlines, and going to the court house to file those documents. They entrusted me to complete bank deposits, I was able to deal with persistent clients in a professional manner. I did make a couple mistakes, but not huge mistakes that couldn't be rectified so that was good. I really felt like I meshed right in and have been there forever, after two weeks, it really felt weird to leave. All in all it was a great experience. I got a glowing letter to the coordinator of our program on top of that. I consider myself fortunate for picking this placement, after speaking with a friend of mine from class, she was at a large firm and her job was to (as she puts it) photocopy, stamp and file documents all day.
Now it is time to get back into the groove of school.

Adoption news: Referrals will be coming out this week, prediction is that the CCAA will get to October 14th 2005 or so. So that is where we are at, waiting and waiting and waiting but we will get there.

This is a picture of my nephew when the whole family got together over Christmas. I forget who he charmed to haul him back up the hill.

2007-01-06T14:22:00.000-05:00

Happy 6 month LID anniversary to us! I can hardly believe that we have been logged in for six whole months already. Normally this would be a reason to party and celebrate as it would be around now that we would be recieveing pictures and a referral. Of course that is not the case and we will be waiting for a while still. That's o.k. it will give Joël time to get over his diablo addiction that he has right now :-) hee hee.
Till next time

2006-12-31T16:53:00.000-05:00

Thanks Legers!!! This is a wood pile ornament that M made for us. I think it is sooooo cool that I just had to post it here. I am very impressed how awesome it is!
Since we now have a digital camera (poor Mapes must be seeing stars with all the flashes) I have been taking some pictures and more than likely they will be showing up here :-)
Ta Ta and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!

2006-12-26T14:31:00.000-05:00

The Laforests want to wish you all a Merry Ho Ho and a Happy 2007. Here is a pic of Mapes not looking too happy about wearing the ears, but she will do anything for a treat. Thanks Anis for taking this picture.

2006-12-06T22:08:00.000-05:00

This just in.......
O.k. O.k. o.k., so I have been slacking on the blog thing.
The assignments are all complete. Looks like my profs liked my work. Now this Friday I start exams. Wish me luck! I shouldn't need it as I am pretty confident I will do well. (Did I just jinx myself?)
It has been a pretty busy month. Joel went to visit his folks, then we went to visit S&J in Chatham. I was able to go see my sister Sue and have dinner with the family which was really nice. I am glad I went. It was a great trip. I think I needed that mental health break :-) Crafting was fun with M&J. The babies were great. The dogs were happy. I did get introduced to a new drink that S made me try. It was super delicious and went down really good. I foresee me drinking some more of them in the near future.
We got back from Chatham and it was back to reality. I came home to me panicking to finish off a couple major assignments and a presentation or two. All went well and I am pretty happy with the results.
This must be comedy month as I had a chance to go see (what's his name) Brent Butt. The guy from corner gas. B was nice enough to be in Australia so S needed a date. I think (I know) she had second thoughts after she asked me to go. Only because my first question to her was... who is Brent Butt. It turned out to be a great night. Brent came out after the show and did some autographs and got to talk to him. I told him my father was born in Ruleau and that when he watches the show he sometimes recognizes things. Brent made a funny come back by saying "ya he recognizes the tumbleweeds". So thank you to B&S for the ticket, I had a blast!
I am sure I have missed some stories, but it is getting late and I am going to hit the sack.

ADOPTION NEWS: well the news is that there is no news really. It was hoped that the CCAA was going to refer all of Sept 05, which is where they currently are right now, but they only did half a month again. (If you don't know what I am talking about just let me know and I will try to clarify) The talk about a speed up is just rumor right now. So it looks like we are still in it for the long haul. We will get there eventually. I just have to keep reminding myself that. The good news is that CCAA(china center for adoption affairs) is looking at April 06 dossiers right now for approval. So it should only be a couple months before we get official approval from the China Gov't, and then we wait (and wait) to get our referral.
Goodnight all.

2006-11-10T22:29:00.000-05:00

Now that I have time for a breather....
It is time to talk about last weekend. As I said before, G&M, Joël and I went to go see Just for Laughs on Saturday night. Well the laugh was on us, because as we just finished parking downtown, Joël gets a call on his cell from G. It turns out that someone (I won't name or blame, but, be it known that it was not me :-) had got the day mixed up, the comedy was supposed to be for Sunday and we were there a day early. We could have stayed and attended the Governor General awards ceremony. I thought that I would be worthy of an award this year. So we went for drinks downtown instead. It was a good night. The comedy on Sunday was really a lot of laughs. The comedians were excellent! When we were going back to the truck we noticed there was something being filmed at the Arc Hotel, so we stood around watching what was going on for a little bit. There were these people, that I assume were extras in the movie, would go nuts and clap and hoot and holler when these cars pulled up and a "celebrity" got out. M thought one of the people was Fantasia from American Idol. It looked like her. The next people that followed, we were not sure who they were. One poor "celebrity" got nailed in the noggen with the huge furry microphone that they use for sound.
That was last weekend, this weekend won't be exciting as I have tons and tons of homework to do. J has gone up North to visit my in-laws so the house is going to be extra quiet especially because he took Mapes up with him. I am looking forward to my December break. I am also really looking forward to going to hick town Chatham to visit S&J for yankee thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!! Killer bunnies marathon here we come. Thats my exciting news for the week. Stay tuned as I will post more exciting news next week.

2006-11-06T21:05:00.000-05:00

It's a Girl !!!!!! (it's about time they had a girl ;-)
My sister Cathy and my brother in law Mark had their fourth child yesterday. Sadie Anne was born at 6:47pm (somewhere around then) she was 9 pounds 11oz at time of birth. I went and saw her tonight and she is absolutly beautiful. Mom and Baby are doing well.
I just wanted to get this post in tonight. I will write more about our adventuresome weekend sometime this week.

2006-11-02T20:25:00.000-05:00

Michelle commented that I should post about Joël and his deep down passion (obsession) for wood. Well you asked for it and here it is. I give you the wood!!! Chantal and Anis, you took your couch out of the garage and look what has taken it's place!!! Hope you all have a great weekend! We are off to see "Just for Laughs" on Sat night at the NAC with G&M. Should be a blast!!!!!!!! Until next time

2006-10-31T15:09:00.000-05:00

Well, here it is...... my first blog post. This blog is going to be used to update family and friends on our adoption. It may and will also be used to post any unusual or funny things of the day or week. I guess I will start with the first update. November 5th will be our 4 month LID. For those of you who don't know what the heck a LID is, it is our "log in date" that China gives you. This log in date gives you an idea roughly of when we will be matched with our daughter. Right now it is roughly a 14 month wait, so we are 4 down, 10 to go. We are hoping that the wait will start decreasing and we won't have to wait that long.
School is going well, last week I received the official "Congrats, you are on the Dean's list" certificate/letter. I am glad the three mid-terms are finished that I had last week. Now it is time to concentrate on the assignments.
Since today is Halloween, I will let you in on my spooky Halloween story. This morning I felt Joël get out of bed, I checked the time and it was 5:55, heard him go into the bathroom. I didn't think anything of it, and must have drifted back off to sleep for 5 minutes. My alarm goes off, I do my usual roll over and slap the snooze button. BUT this time, I had someone grab my arm and scream BOO and then proceeded to laugh his head off and scream "Happy Halloween"! I literally (well maybe not so literally) jumped 5 feet high and said a chosen few words. Joël had quietly, after going to the bathroom, laid down on the floor beside me and waited until my alarm went off. What a way to start the morning I had a smile on my face the whole day.
I am hoping we get a lot of kids at our door this year. That way I don't have to eat all the chocolate that is left over.
I will update as I go, Joël might do the same. I am not sure how often we post, but keep checkin.