Two posts in one month!

Well I am proud of myself! This is the first time I've posted twice in the same month in, well, months! I have the intention to keep posting as often as I can for two reasons, one I would like to continue writing about our lives with Van and two because I want our second child to have a record of our wait for him/her.

The second time around is definitely different. When we were waiting for a referral and then waiting for Van I was obsessed with blogging, obsessed with time lines and spent much of my time checking emails and staring at the phone hoping for news. I often read back over the blog BV (before Van) and remember those feelings of helplessness, excitement, frustration and anticipation. Things are so much different the second time around. Mainly because I am working and, of course, I have my sweet little man Van to keep me occupied. I am so thankful to have him as my son! Even with all of our struggles. We are so lucky! I have been reading the blogs of a few waiting parents lately and I so remember those feelings, those fears. But now the fear is that they will never become parents. I definitely recognize how absolutely lucky we are to have Van and how additionally lucky we are to be mere months away from our second. Especially at a time when international adoption, and adoption in general, is on a severe decline and many prospective parents face a possibility of a life without children. This saddens me considering there are still so many children in Canada and around the world who need a family and so many families who so desperately want to be parents.

So back to the wait. It is so different this time around. I definitely think about the second child everyday and glance at the phone periodically but it is not with anywhere close to the amount of obsession as the first time around. I am not compulsively checking emails or checking my phone...ok well maybe a couple of times a day lol. But every so often it hits me!! We have a little person waiting to join our family. He/she has likely been born already. We could get that call tomorrow, next month or eight months from now. In some ways there is more uncertainty and in other ways it is all much more certain. Still no control though but I am okay with that this time around.

Here are some pics of the sole performer. Someday soon he will have to share the limelight!

Playground at the experimental farm. Wet but he was happy:




We finally made the time to go and visit Auntie Manon in Hawkesbury. Being able to watch Curious George on the drive made it an enjoyable trip all around!

The Canada geese are back! Spring is in the air (actually it was one of the summer like days with temps at +25. Strange to have summer weather with snow on the ground):


Marching after mommy:


Not sure what we are looking at here but apparently it is pretty interesting:





By the way the hat he is wearing in the previous few pics is traditionally Korean (from Korea anyway, not sure how "traditional" it is). We went to a xmas party in December put on by the Korean adoption community association. The Korean community in Ottawa is very involved with the adoption community which is great (this is very different from our experience with the Vietnamese community). At the end of the party they were giving families these hats as well as beautiful calenders with pictures from Korea. I think Van looks super cute in his hat :)