"Spoiled Is For Fruit"

We have begun to tackle our binder full or articles.  We cuddled up together earlier in the week and I read them out loud.  At first I felt a bit like an elementary school teacher but by the end was quite happy with our system.  Reading out load forced me to concentrate more on what I was reading, and we would discuss each article at the end, which further implanted the information.  It is not like we are going to be tested on this material but it is important and we enjoyed discussing it together. 

The articles cover a broad spectrum of topics.  Some of the titles are: The Development of Romanian Orphanage Children Adopted to Canada, Attachment - What it is and Why it is Important, The Adoption Revolution, and Real Children - Shattered Dreams.  The article on attachment hit home for us in allot of ways.  The author wrote about how even children adopted at birth can have issues attaching to adoptive parents.  She had important points to remember when parenting.  Some of them seem simple (make eye contact, be predictable) while others could be difficult (be emotionally available, routines and more routines, follow your child's lead).  One of my favourites was about spoiling your child.  One sentence made so much sense. "Meeting your child's needs within a relationship does not lead to spoiling!"  They of course are talking about spoiling your child with love and attention, which Nic and I whole heartedly believe in.  Even if we were contemplating the "cry it out" or "self sooth" method of parenting, we would be putting it aside in favour of "attachment parenting" for our adopted child.  Potential babysitters be warned :).

Aside from doing lots of reading we are also working on a number of other things.  Nic got started on his questionnaire and I got started on our financial work up.  I also made a list of all the items we need to pick up for our home inspection.  Although we are not required to meet all of our safety requirements right now, we do plan on doing most of them.  It just seems easier to have it done and not worry about it.  There may still be a few we will wait on (eg. gating the corn stove), but others like covering electrical sockets, getting a new fire extinguisher and securing floor mats, can easily be done now.  I feel like it is better to have as much done as possible.  That way we don't have it on our minds during the busy work season, which is quickly approaching.

We will be in Toronto on Tuesday for an equipment auction.  While there we are going to pick up another binder of reading material from the lady who is instructing our PRIDE training.  She e-mailed this week to say that because the sessions were so short (I wouldn't consider 27 hours short, but okay) we would need to do some reading before hand.  She said she would ship the binder if we wanted but we figured it would be easier to just pick it up.  So we have motivation to finish our current binder with the new one on its way.

We also both have our physicals scheduled.  Nic's is on March 11th and mine is on the 15th.  Fingers crossed that shortly after they are done Josefina will have some time to get to us.  It is great that she is finalizing two adoptions but I am selfishly still hoping she will be able to do the home visit by mid March.  Fingers Crossed!