Time flies....

So once again, I've been too caught up in the art (heh) of parenting to take time to document how things unfolded with the transition of N. into our family. I've been back at work since May and we're dealing with the daily grind of early morning daycare and kindergarten drop-offs and the 5 pm rush back home to pick everyone up in time for supper, baths and bedtime routines (and then the one hour of time off before it all starts over again)..

I have to say that we are now well into being a family. But the process this time was a tough one, and that also contributed to me not writing how things unfolded. To be honest, there were moments where I wondered if we had made the right decision and I was confronted directly with the difficulties and heartache of integrating a child from youth protection services. I didn't feel like the best parent and it was hard to be in a light-hearted mood to write about our experiences.

Over a year later, a lot has shifted. Patience, love and hell of a lot of work has gotten us to the point where N. is fully integrated and is a bright and open 3 year old, ready to give and share love in a family. We've also recently become his legal guardians and in 3 months will be in front of a judge for the final adoption decision to be rendered.

So I am ready to look back and share some experiences and insights gained along the way. I've also noticed on the blog that despite not having written, people are still viewing it. It's gotten hits from Berlin and Barcelona, so maybe it's worth not letting this fade away.

My thought was to not do a journal but some articles touching on aspects that gay parents deal with in adoption. The biggest piece will be on attachment and working with kids from the youth protection sector, then there will be one on social workers and how to deal with them. This time around we had the joy of being "represented" by 5 different workers in the span of a year. We're also beginning to field questions from our 5 year old about how our family is different... him being in school now is bringing up his sense of how our family is unique.

Hopefully sharing some of this will help other families going through the adoption process and to make things a bit more transparent as to how we managed it. People see the smiling boys we have now and we are told how lucky they are to have us. The truth is we feel lucky, because of them, we are a family.