Two month reflection

We have officially been here for 2 months (well, tomorrow it will be 2 months). It's hard to describe what it feels like to be at this stage, after most of the details of moving have been sorted out, the kids have been in school for over 6 weeks, we've been attending a church for almost a month . . . I'm not sure that, even with all those things in place, it has completely sunk in that this is our home now. I am trying to process how I feel about everything, and my best analysis is that we are on the right track to settling in, but not there yet. I feel like each of us has a good start to making this our home. Brian feels like he is starting to contribute at work which is making him happier at his job (never fun to start a new job!), Lynsey is settling in to Grade 1 and already has a "best friend" (and it would seem the feeling is mutual according to some of the artwork we are seeing, so that's always nice:)), Adam loves preschool and his weekly progress reports continue to show improvement in some areas, and I have been attending a MOPS group at church (Mother with preschoolers group) that has helped me meet people and feel like real friendships are forming.

Of course, it's not like there aren't some struggles mixed in with the positive things. Most of the details have been sorted out, but we still have some tax things to sort out etc. - I had to go into downtown Seattle this morning to go to the Canadian Consulate to get certified copies of mine and the kids' passports (this is so we can get tax payer identification numbers so Brian can claim us as dependents on his tax return in the Spring). The hoops you have to jump through! It was an interesting adventure, once again really thankful for the GPS, although I wish I could ask the GPS to lead me to the closest, cheapest parking garage as well. Everything is a learning experience! I am also finding that building new friendships is a long game and that it doesn't happen overnight, no matter how friendly and welcoming people are. It's a process that has awkward moments tied in, but I'm getting through it. The key I think is to just keep making an effort and be vulnerable, even when you're unsure of yourself. Sometimes when I have these moments of self doubt where I start thinking, "These people already have friends and lives - why do they need us!", I try and turn that thinking around and give myself the pep talk of, "Of course they want to know us! We are fun and genuine and will add something good to their lives! Who doesn't have room for that:)". I can tell you that with the busyness of our lives, it would be very easy to be here for months even years and never get beyond surface friendships with people. I am determined not to let that happen!

We had our first parent/teacher conference with Lynsey's teacher on Tuesday. I was really nervous about it, and deep down I had this fear that she would tell us that Lynsey should go back into Kindergarten. Last week, we got a letter that Lynsey is being put into a special reading group, and I just had this feeling that the teacher was going to come down on us for putting her in Grade 1 when we should have followed the state guidelines and put her in Kindergarten. The conference was nothing like that! She focused on some goals that Lynsey can work towards over the coming months and explained some of the things they are learning and how we can help Lynsey at home. We met with her reading group teacher, who gave us a great overview of the purpose of the group, and that it is merely a different environment for Lynsey to get more practice in some of the areas she is struggling with. I really liked both the teachers, and feel like Lynsey is in a great school where they are giving her every opportunity to learn in the right environment for her. We started having her read to us every night, which we hadn't been doing before, and we have already seen a huge improvement even just in the last week! She is also showing more interest in writing stories and it is just remarkable to me how just a little bit of extra practice at home has increased her confidence and writing skills. It's a bit scary to me what a big responsibility we have to her as her parents! Scary, but pretty awesome as well:).

Potty training update for Adam - he seems to have turned a corner in the #2 department! He's gone from being about 50/50 (and that was mostly because we were catching him in the act and rushing him to the toilet to finish) to being more like 80/20! He now often goes while he's peeing - he seems to finally understand that he's supposed to poop in the toilet! Hurray! I think we'll be at 100% soon, he just needs to learn to pull down his own pants. Most of his accidents are now happening in the bathroom because he is trying to get there, but doesn't have the communication to alert us to come help him. So close! I never thought I would see this day . . . and here I am, I've rinsed like one pair of shorts in the last 10 days:). Another encouraging Adam report is that he has gone to Sunday School three Sundays in a row, and he now just walks in without a backward glance. They haven't had to call us once! The first week he had apparently bit a volunteer that was trying to calm him down at the end (very out of character for him!) and they said they would call us if anything like that happened again. Thank goodness it has not happened again! Apparently he has accepted Sunday School as a part of life! Hurray! Now to have him join in with the other kids . . . one step at a time:).

When I said that they didn't have to call us for Adam, you might think that we've actually been sitting through church the last few weeks. Not the case. Our little Nathan has been quite a sad boy in the nursery! We get called several times a service, but I'm not giving up - we keep trying to leave him, and I'm hoping that eventually her will figure out that it's only temporary that that he'll be okay. It's been a while since we've dealt with "typical" separation anxiety so I don't even know how long it will last, but I'm hoping it won't be long!