Spicy Dragons & Dinosaurs

Our second round of snow has begun. And everyone seems to be rushing to close everything. 8-20. 12-20. 6-18. All predictions for inches. I blew our "little" pre-storm this morning from walks and the driveway, re-fueled the blower, and put the shovel near the door. We are ready for the big one.

Of course, I have appointments and meetings set for the next three days, and if anything is cancelled it needs to be moved to next week. Should be an interesting few days.

I also continue to be sick. And now, it is worse again. Damn! The cough is a killer and I am drained too much of the time. My doc said another two weeks and she may be right. Damn!

Yesterday, I went to Julia's IEP meeting. Everyone expects that Julia will finish the kindergarten curriculum in most areas this year. She may be a bit behind in math but her reading is great. Julia did not test especially well, but her day to day work is much better. I have no need of tests, and rely much more on what her teachers see every day. We have also been able to erase the "safety" goal from her IEP. Safety referred to her safety and that of others, i.e., Julia behavior and its consequences. It seems that her behavior has been so good this year that there is no need to be concerned about safety. Yahoo! The reports coming home all year indicated this, but it was nice to officially cross that goal off our list. Julia still needs reminding and re-direction, but she is doing a good job with regulation and obeying her teachers.

All of her teachers felt that Julia wanted to please them, and her speech therapist at school commented on how attentive Julia is to her two classroom teachers. I hear from Julia all the time how much she loves them. So love and listening are going hand in hand.

We have had some listening issues at home, and frankly, I have been incredibly frustrated by Julia's behavior over the past week or so. I began using consequences -- taking away a coloring book, some clay, a dino or two, when Julia does not behave well. So, if she takes out a row of my books, I take a dino and make her put the books away. If she doesn't listen when I tell her to do something the first time, I take crayons. And then she has to wind back her possessions with good behavior. She doesn't like giving up her things and she gets angry at me, but so far no hitting or tantruming at all. This feels like pretty normal kid stuff. Let's hope now.

And on a rather sad note, another family has been approved to adopt the girl that I had requested to apply for.

I am smarting some. Disappointed to say the least. This child seems like such a perfect match for our family -- I could see that she was compassionate, that she cared for other children, and that she loved to dance. This very second, I think there is not another little girl like that in all of China, but of course, how silly is that. I was not shopping with change in my pocket (as my grandmother used to say. And it means, looking with the intent to buy) when I "found" this child. I didn't mean to be looking at all.

Just before we found Julia, there had been another girl. A 13 year old who really attracted us -- David and I, that is. We had her file, back in the day when agencies had lists and decided on the process of showing files to families. We were on the cusp on the decision of whether to adopt at all, and the day that the decision was made, I emailed a yes, to the facilitator. But someone had emailed before me. But the decision that we made led us to Julia.

So, you just never know. Meant to be, meant to be. Amen.

And the snow has started. And the wind. Wow, the wind. I am very happy not to be living in a log cabin 125 years ago tonight. Heat, light, and a gas stove are wonderful!