Notes on Christmas Gifts

I finally started reading Player One, the latest novel by Douglas Coupland, delivered as the Massey Lecture series last year (woah, feels strange to call 2010 "last year"). I am sucked in and want to skip work or make C take care of himself or something similar so that I can finish it. Thank you to my sister-in-law for gifting it to me at Christmas!!

G and I were discussing his Christmas gifts while I was prepping dinner yesterday. He told me he'd gotten one book:

me: From whom?
G: N__________
me: Who's that?
G: She lives across the street. She's a doctor. She was the first doctor to do wiener surgery.
me: Oh? (not really sure what to say to that one, although I doubt his facts)
G: Yeah. I'm glad it wasn't on me.
me: I'm sure you are.
G: I would cry for nine days if I ever had to have wiener surgery.
me: Nine days, hey?

I gave my nephew this super-cool art paper that already has frames printed around the edges, so you draw/paint/whatever in the middle, and then, voila, preframed art by child geniuses. Tonight, I got this email from his mom:

Beth, Just wanted to let you know Jake really loves his picture frames...today he did pictures of Tinkerbell in Lava (with her insides showing), Tinkerbell in a volcano with lava..and Maggie, with Tinkerbell's lava footprints around her :)

Maggie is their dog. I LAUGHED. OUT. LOUD.
Christmas success!

Comments

MLW said…

LOL almast ROTFL! The joys of 3 year olds!

11:53 PM

MLW said…

oops, almost ROTFL!

11:54 PM

Fostering FAQ: How Can You Say Goodbye?

It seems I finally have something(s) to say... Here's the first in a short (or maybe long?) series on Fostering FAQs. If you've got a question to add, feel free to comment/email/text/message me and maybe the next post will be in response.

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8:30 am on Day 4 of parenting. I woke up in a panic two hours ago because I remembered that there is a baby and I am responsible for her (at least at 6:30am, when the man beside me will snore through anything). Now, I have put on clothes and eaten breakfast. The dogs are walked, there is a loaf of banana bread in the oven. My tea is steeping. Most importantly, Dream Baby is already down for her first nap.

Despite my morning efficiency, I'm already beginning to see that even with the happiest, most easygoing, and smiliest baby, like we somehow managed to be given, parenting is a grind. On Friday night, I couldn't join friends for $5 pints at a local joint. Instead, I blearily washed the same 8 bottles again, and then made another ba…

Fostering FAQ: How Long Will She Stay/Will You Adopt Her?

Our first foster baby came with about 18 hours notice; it was respite care, which means we had him for a few days while his regular foster family had a break/dealt with a family emergency. He stayed 3 nights, long enough to come to church and have a dozen people cooing over his little sleeping cheeks. With each new visitor to our quiet corner, I explained again that he would be going back to his foster family the next day.

Barely a week later, we got a 9am phone call with a fostering request and by the same afternoon, we were snuggling her. This time, we had her for 4 days before church came around. Again, our community was keen to see the little one we had in tow. Again, the question, "How long will she stay?" And this time, "Are you going to adopt her?"

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Here in Toronto, when a child is placed in foster care, it is always for an indefinite length of time. It depends on the parents' situation, and whether they are able to make a safe home environment for th…

Fostering FAQ: What's Her (Mom's) Story?

This is probably the second most common question I hear about the baby currently in our care, right after, "Will you keep her?"

It comes in many forms:

"So, what's her story?"
"Is her mom in the picture?"
"How did she end up in your home?
"Is her mom a drug addict?"
"How could a mom not love such a cute baby!"

I get it. It's natural curiousity, and I know I've asked similar questions of my friends who are adoptive parents.

But here's what I'm learning: a child's story is their own. And equally as important, the parent's story is their own.

Imagine how it might feel to hear that for the foreseeable future, you are not allowed to care for your child. On top of whatever difficult circumstances you are already in - perhaps poverty, social isolation, lack of adequate housing, domestic violence, intergenerational trauma, drug or alcohol dependency, low cognitive functioning, or a myriad of other complex strug…

* not with ink

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