07 March 2008

Splashes in the pool

Another post without pictures, but not my fault, not my fault. I brought the camera to a swim party that Julia went to yesterday and the battery died. This was totally unfair as it was a great photo op.

Good news! I have three job related experiences coming up -- an interview, an exam, and an initial screening -- for three different government jobs. No counting chickens unless it is part of the exam, but I am on my way to dreaming of my new kitchen.

We have our first meeting for Julia's Individual Education Plan (IEP) next week. With the reading and talking that I have done, I feel pretty confident that I will know what is going on and what I want for Julia. The school has been fantastic so far so I don't expect this to be hard, still, well prepared can't hurt.

Last Sunday, we went to dinner at new Wisconsin friends! We met through a cyber-now-face friend that has adopted from China at the FCC CNY party a few weeks ago. This family has 3 kids, the one who is Julia's age is also diagnosed with being on the autism spectrum.

It was a pretty hectic time -- Julia and V, and V's little brother who is 3. The kids made lots of noise, needs supervision lots of the time, and ate very little, although Julia said the pizza was very good in her school journal. Julia brought some of her own toys and was pretty good at sharing. She loved all the other kids' toys, and although there were some sharing difficulties, she did pretty well. She especially liked seeing V's bedroom and bed. I have no idea what it looks like. I have to ask V's mom what was so special. LOL.

We had some good talking with V's parents, some pretty honest discussion about the special needs our kids were known to have and what they came home with. V's parents said that there were pretty clear signs that something other than her vision sn was wrong when they met V, but they were so happy to have her that they ignored it. We did the same thing. We talked some of what if we knew than what we know now. This week there has been lots of talk of adoption disruption on the yahoo chat boards because of a little boy was not adopted by the family who came to get him. I have to say that disruption was never on my mind. I don't know what Julia would have had to present with before I gave it a thought. It is hard to imagine what we would have done because it is now impossible to remember not having this child so deep in my heart.

Still, it was good talking, good being honest with someone who has travelled down a similar path.

Last afternoon, one of Julia's favorite classmates has his 6th birthday party at a hotel that has a small indoor water park. It was great! Julia loved it -- and I was concerned that she might not want to go in the water without me as one of us has always been in the water with her. Okay, silly concern. Watching Julia manage the water and slides and sprays and the other kids made my heart glad.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

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Elaine said...

Oh, I hope the job possibilities work out. It sounds like you are making good connections for Julia. I've wondered too about disruptions and the unexpected things that come with our children. Our first adoption was so easy. The second, not so easy. But who could begin to imagine life without her? I'd rather not live.