Monday, June 30, 2008

Somebody Needs Their Sleep

Max definitely didn’t get enough sleep last night. Even his caregivers were quick to warn us that he was overtired and not in the best of spirits this morning for our visit. Yes, he is a real child and we were wondering when we would finally see this side of his personality. Actually all in all it wasn’t too bad, as far as cranky toddler goes. Not that we are challenging him to show us his finest, at least not yet.

It probably didn’t help that his mother and father are a little short on sleep right now as well. As we’ve already noted, the bed and pillows here are not “sleep number” perfect for us and no matter what we do it doesn’t get any better. We’ve actually considered sleeping right on the floor because at least there wouldn’t be any springs poking us in the ribs.

We’re also in the middle of a magical missing document puzzle. Don’t panic, it’s nothing too serious, more annoying and confusing right now than anything. Without getting into too many boring details, we have one last piece of paperwork that we will need in the next couple of weeks so we will be ready to file for Max’s entry visa into Canada as soon as his passport and birth certificate arrive. The document missing is a simple statement regarding his medical information. What’s confusing about the whole thing is that this same letter for the other couple somehow just appeared and no one knows exactly how it got here, so we don’t know how to get ours. Person A says that Person B needs to request it and Person B says Person A should be getting it, and Rod and I are neither A nor B. We’d thought we could maybe make the formal request, since it is a letter for us, but it seemed that no one really knew exactly where these sorts of letters come from!?! It’s hard to make contacts when you feel like your sitting on the outside of the circle and the people in the circle just keep pointing back and forth to each other and throwing up their hands.

As it turns out, there seems to be a really good explanation for all of this confusion. Normally, this letter is automatically forwarded from the doctor reviewing the results of the exam and no request for it needs to be made, which explains why no one knows who to request it from. However, we still don’t know what exactly happened or didn’t happen, but we look to be on the upside of the challenge, so hopefully we have a better chance of getting some sleep tonight. If after reading this your head is spinning and you don’t understand a word we just said, join the club!

We’ve been treated to a couple days of intermittent rains and some wind storms. Being a city set in the foothills of the mountains, weather changes rather quickly and unpredictably. Twice now we have all had to do the mad dash for the baby house with our children and leaving our spouses to pick up the toys and blankets because a sudden dust storm has blown in. Rains happen quickly and for a short time, broken up by bursts of sun before the next rain cloud peeks over the mountains to douse us again. Kind of reminds us of home where, if you don’t like the weather, you just have to wait 10 minutes for it to change!

We are again at the point where we are experiencing both joys and sorrows. As we get nearer to our “gotcha day” we can hardly contain our smiles, but at the same time, we have to say goodbye to even more people whom have touched our lives in so many ways. First are the caregivers from Max’s room. There are approximately 12 of them who rotate through the schedule, so sometimes we only see them once a week. This means that there are some we won’t see again before Thursday, so we have already had to have our goodbyes. Second is Superdriver, Boolat. He has been such an incredible and kind man. He has tolerated our ignorance, helped us search for pretty much everything we have wanted or needed (including, but not limited to: silk trees, plastic cloth, cinnamon, internet cards, bank machines, diapers, etc.) and patiently listened to Rod (Go Riders!) and Dale (Go Bombers!) discuss CFL football, all with a smile and a “No problem, it’s good.” We know that we have been very fortunate to have his company and we know the next family he works with will be blessed to work with him. We know we have.

To each of these people, we know we can never thank you enough. We hope we have somehow found a place in your heart as you have in ours.

1 comment:

Julian and Sara said...

We are excited for you as you count down the days! Had to chuckle at the missing document story. We had a few similar puzzles, including the letter from the doctor. Ours was tracked to Turkey at one point! Just part of the adventure....

Sara