Fall and new beginnings...

The month of September starts tomorrow...the nights are getting colder, and it's starting to get dark earlier and earlier already. Yep, summer is coming to an end very soon...and the fall is starting! The fall always brings a mixture of emotions for me...I love the back to school period and the idea of new beginnings, with all the possibilities for the new school year still lying ahead. A new year begins, and that's a good time to make a fresh, clean start! I always love the crisp, clean air and the beautiful colors of the leaves on the trees. At the the same time, I'm always sad to see the warm, relaxed days of summer come to an end. It means going back to school...back to work...and back to the daily routine, the grind of everyday life!! Of course, this year the change of seasons also means we're one step closer to our referral...one step closer to going to the Philippines and bringing home our baby!! Although Raph is much more practical and rational about the adoption than I am, I know that he's very eager to have a little one running around the house...at this point, we're both very eager to have something more concrete, like a picture and a name!! It's difficult when people ask us: so, how's the adoption going? Any news? You see, we always give the same answer, and I feel like I am repeating myself over and over again!! I sound like a broken record. We most likely won't hear anything before we're sixteen months in...so, before June of next year, we won't have any news!! I know people mean well and want to show interest...I just wish I had another answer to give them!! It's all so abstract and surreal for now. If I were pregnant, I would be able to feel the baby move, and people could see the progression as my belly grows. With adoption, it's years of waiting and hoping and preparing before you finally have something to show for it!!

My little niece K started the first grade today. She's been so excited to go back to school! She's been talking about it for weeks. It was really cute to see how happy she was to go to school!! She proudly showed me her school bag, and is really looking forward to having homework for the first time. I hope she continues to feel this way about school!! I can't wait to experience these firsts with our child...first day of school, watching our child learn to read and write...I know our turn will come, we just have to be patient.


In the meantime, we are pretty much settled into our new house. We like the neighbourhood a lot. The location is really wonderful! The renovations on our house are moving ahead and progressing well. We're taking it one project at a time. The carpet on the stairs will be changed next week. We would have liked to put in hard wood for the stairs, but it's just too expensive. We decided to put in a new, clean carpet that's a more neutral color. After that, we would like to change the counter of our upstairs bathroom (get rid of the blue!) and the tiles in our hallway...and that`s pretty much it! Then we`ll be done. I think it will look great! We`ll have updated our house with some little cosmetic renovations that won`t have cost us a fortune. We likely won`t be here for much more than three years, so we don`t want to invest too much money in the house!!


I`m still waiting job wise to hear back from a few different places. I`ve sent off my CV, and in September things should fall into place. Raph has another week of vacation left, which is nice. He goes back to work after labour day weekend. Once he goes back to work, I know that things will roll and he'll have his hands full with his new job. There are still a lot of new things for him to learn! He'll be travelling to Montreal for meetings frequently as well. I know he loves his job, and his team seems to really appreciate him as a boss. So, he'll be occupied and time will fly by for him. I just have to make sure that I find something to occupy my time as well!! I`m keeping my fingers crossed this happens soon, so that I can start planning my schedule and get into a routine of sorts for the fall. I can always fall back on the part-time job at the Y, but I`m hoping something better, something more in my field of study comes along! As we all know, keeping busy helps to pass the time...