Adoption and Family
Parenting by adoption is bigger, louder, and often harder to start with. From the assessment and waiting process to the adoption probation period, it can seem endless and like it will never happen. Then you get the call and your life changes forever in a miraculous way. But what next? Sure there is often a honeymoon and parenting is a blessing no matter how you get there. It is a new adventure every single day. AND also adoption comes with numerous other ups and downs.
Find Your Supports Early and Stick With Them
Very often there's minimal support for adoptive parents and families after they leave the courthouse finalizing their adoptions. Consider this your supportive honest space where we share what's worked, what doesn't work, and all the challenges in between. Share your stories, learn and grow together.-
One finger salute to H1N1 and Pneumonia and the Car Dude
You could probably say it’s been a really sucky week at the Schuck house. In fact, I’ll go one step further I think we’ve redefined the sucky week here at my house. You know your week is sucky if you are finally getting over the H1N1 and feeling better slowly and then doofus driver guy pulls a U-turn from the righthand side of your vehicle, swerving directly in front of your van so that you jam brakes on and slam into doofus. You know your week is sucky if you spent a whole day getting lovely insurance crap worked out and rental vehicle in place. And you know it’s even suckier if you had to…
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Payback, Press Conferences and Special Needs Parenting
Many days special needs parenting is a challenging proposition. It’s weighing do I go to work out of town for the day and Some of you may know I went to Toronto for a speaking thing yesterday at a press conference. Sometimes I do this when someone calls me to advocate for an issue I care about then I do go out of my way to attend press conferences. That meant my husband took my kids to and from school and took the day off work. I went to the event – not my first rodeo. Press conferences and speaking is a regular thing a couple times a year. But,…
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H1N1 and courage
The most horrific thing imaginable to most parents is the death of a child. Perhaps that’s why so many of us were deeply saddened and worried by the death of Evan Frustaglio, a 13-year-old hockey player who fell ill and died of H1N1 shortly after visiting London last weekend for a hockey tournament. The handsome looking young Toronto boy, scarcely old enough to have been called a teenager fell sick so fast and deteriorated quickly, then he began to come around again – only to die in his father’s arms during a bath at his home. Today was the funeral for the young man named Evan. Such a sad spectacle, impossible not to feel…
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National Adoption Month – Food by Wendy’s, Underwear by Jockey and a Speech or Two
I did a quick search on twitter this afternoon for something called the NaNoWriMo because there was so much chatter on the topic and I found out that this is a rally call for National Novel Writing Month. This is, for various reasons, not something I will partake in. I have a bit of trouble with the let’s write as fast as we can just to spit a novel out school of writing. Call me uncool. Don’t care. There is also a NABOPOMO in reaction to this which is national blog posting month. Closer to my heart is what I am now dubbing NaNoAdMo. See November also is National Adoption Month.…
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Tales From the PTA – involvement vs. engagement
I sat through an interesting parent conference the other day intended for those who are in their school parent teacher associations or home and school associations or parents seeking to become more involved in education. The topic at first seemed cut and dry but the speaker from Saskatoon got me thinking about the role of parents within their child’s school and how best to spend my time within the various committees, boards and non profits with which I am involved. Dr. Debbie Pushor, of Saskatoon, told a cafeteria full of parents attending the Thames Valley Parent Involvement Committee’s yearly gathering there is a key distinction between parent involvement and engagement. It…
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London roundup this weekend
This is a super quick Friday roundup of events in and around London, Ontario this weekend. I don’t usually do this but as I tallied up all the things happening here this weekend I began to get really excited and wondered what I will have to forego as a result of a jam packed social schedule. So here it is: a very big craft show starts today at Western Fair and runs all weekend. Also there at the same time in the special events building is the annual London public library Friends of the Library book sale. I have never been but apparently you can buy a bag for $3…
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Halloween roundup and another giveaway
I was never really a huge fan of Halloween until I first became a homeowner and then became a mother. Now, I know what all the fuss is about and I truly enjoy the decorating, the leadup, the choosing little costumes, sometimes even sewing them myself. And what’s not to like about candy. The best part of the night for me is handing the candy out. I adore seeing the neighbour’s children all dressed up and find there’s something fun and magical about the whole affair. So from the start when my tots were young I looked for ways to have fun with Halloween, even some that weren’t so traditional. The…
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War on Children – CAS funding cuts
So it seems in the wake of a massive Ehealth screwup in which it has been established that billions of provincial dollars were wasted, we have the Ontario government declaring war on children. Huh? That’s right you read that correctly. War on children. In today’s London Free Press article Children Safety At Risk Over Funding Cuts, Patrick Maloney reported that Ontario’s many Children’s Aid agencies are facing massive funding cuts. London-Middlesex Children’s Aid Society will see $1.2 million less this year from the province. Elgin County will receive an estimated $307,000 less. And the list goes on throughout the province. It has been noted by all agencies involved and well documented in…
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Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs – 3D review
I’d been promising my daughters a trip to the movies again, so we chose Cloudy With a Chance Of Meatballs after seeing the preview for it several months ago. The movie, based loosely on the 1978 book by Judi and Ron Barrett was an odd choice for adaptation but a charming unoffensive little flick. We’ve read this story several times in my house and I can tell you I was puzzled at first in the same way I was when I heard that there would be a movie version of The Cat in The Hat, wondering how on earth someone could create a script out of the book. There was…
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Tales from the PTA – Pizza Day
So yesterday was pizza day at my darling daughter’s school. First pizza day of the new school year and naturally to show my worth as a valuable member of daughter’s school I volunteered to help hand pizza out. As an added little side bonus while I am volunteering there I get to keep tabs on her (Hah, take that!) I drove up to the school slightly before noon and spied about six cars parked out front, which made me think they had enough volunteers. But I decided to check anyways and sure enough the pizzas had just arrived, so all hell was breaking loose in the front hall near the…