First Canadian Halloween and Thanksgiving

It's hard to believe that another month has passed us by. The time seems to just fly now that we're so busy with Alex. He's doing wonderfully well and learning lots of new, fun, entertaining things and he's trying to communicate so much with us and you can see he gets so frustrated at times. Overall, he's doing very well with how many words he can say and how much he understands, so we're trying to work with him so he doesn't get frustrated too often.

I've put up a new photo album, but the pictures aren't in order. I put the Halloween pictures from last night at the beginning of the album, then went back to our Thanksgiving pictures and some of our outings with Alex this month.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We all ended up in Kingston as it was my Dad's 75th Birthday that weekend. He didn't know we were planning a bigger surprise party for him later this month, so it was fun to celebrate his birthday with him and the whole family.

Alex beat out almost everyone else for the amount of food he consumed that weekend. He loved the turkey, the sweet potatoes, the corn, the broccoli, stuffing, etc. He also got to have some birthday cake, and he had a great time eating that, even if he seemed to get more on him than in him.

That weekend was also exciting for us as we left Alex with Kathy and Grandma for an hour while Chris and I went out for a quick lunch, and then the next day, we actually got to go see a movie (Serenity - highly recommended if you like sci-fi/adventure!) while Alex was watched by his Aunt Mary.

A week or so later, we took Alex out to a local place called the "Yee-Haw Adventure Farm" so we could all get some fresh air and exercise. The day was actually colder than we anticipated, and the wind was really fierce at times, so we didn't stay too long, but Alex had fun walking around and checking out the animals and then playing a bit in the toddler section of the barn.

Our next weekend was really busy as we went out for dinner with Chris' sister, her boyfriend, Lew and our nieces Sarah and Amanda. Alex had a great time and it was wonderful to get a chance to see them and have some laughs.

The next day was busy as it was our monthly Seoul-Mates gathering where a bunch of adoptive families with children from Korea get together at different places. This month, we went to another outdoor farm called Kim-Glo and it was an amazing time for everyone. The weather was cold, but still very nice and Alex had a great time wandering around, going on his first pony ride and checking out the animals in the barn. It was so nice to see so many of the other families and their beautiful children and we cherish those relationships as we learn so much from the other families.

We celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary that night with a fun dinner for the three of us. Our actual anniversary was the next day, but we had Bob's surprise party on that day, so we celebrated a day early. For the party, we went off to Toronto to celebrate with family, including my Uncles and Aunt from Winnipeg and family from the KW area. It was a great party and Steve's cooking blew everyone away.

I'm still taking Alex to playgroup, and have now been able to leave him in the room twice! This is a HUGE step for all of us as we were waiting for him to be comfortable with the caregivers. He cries for a few minutes when I leave (I don't actually leave the building - I just go into a room with other parents/caregivers) but then he's happy to play with the toys and have fun until I come back about an hour later.

As I write this, it still surprises me how much our life has changed in one short year. Last Halloween was so tough on both Chris and me. Our file had been in Korea for 4 months at that time, and we'd heard nothing from Korea even though our agency had sent off faxes, e-mails and had called to find out what had happened to our application. I was convinced we'd been turned down, even though Chris was still hopeful. It was such a hard night for us as we dearly hoped no one would ask us about the adoption (I would have burst into tears on the spot), and although we had fun with the kids, there was still so much pain inside us from not knowing what was going on with our file.

It was the very next day (November 1st) when we go the call from our adoption agency telling us that they'd received an e-mail from Korea (finally!) that said they'd lost our file and had located it and would match us up to a child as soon as they could! I remember calling Chris over and over again (he was away in Sarnia/Windsor on business) to give him the amazing news and then telling close family and friends.

It was only a week later that we actually got the call about Alex (November 8) and got to see his pictures, so both November 1 and November 8 are big days in our household!

This Halloween was obviously very different for us. We took Alex into Toronto and had a quick dinner with Kathy, Jenny, Steve and our nieces, and then took Alex out to a few houses for trick or treating. He looked adorable in a little puppy outfit his Aunt Jenny had bought him, and we all had a great time.