Expectant Mother – Adoption Journey Series… ATTACHMENT IN ADOPTION Conclusion: the parts that resonated most with me. (Read Part 1 here, or Part 2 here or Part 3 here) Online course offered by AFABC Presented by Andrea Chatwin, MA, CCC … Continue reading
When should I start putting my kids’ future first? Quick note from Ali: Calling all Dads too! I don’t want to discourage those of you who are Dads out there from responding to this call! As you know, I do … Continue reading
Expectant Mother – Adoption Journey Series… ATTACHMENT IN ADOPTION THREE-PART SERIES – Part 3 (Read Part 1 here, or Part 2 here) Online course offered by AFABC Presented by Andrea Chatwin, MA, CCC Hosted by Erin Melvin, AFABC Rider: My … Continue reading
Time to De-Clutter… I attended a 3 hour yoga workshop for the root chakra on Sunday (I’ve signed up to a weekly class delving into one chakra at a time) and to begin we started with a “check in”. Our … Continue reading
Online course offered by AFABC
Presented by Andrea Chatwin, MA, CCC
Hosted by Erin Melvin, AFABC
Rider: My notes here are written as the sessions flowed for me and are about the subjects that caught my attention. These sessions and discussions were often driven by the course participants and their questions. If you are considering this course, I would recommend doing all three sessions so as not to miss out on information that might be raised by another participant and an “a-ha” moment for your situation.
One of the things that Andrea opened with was the acknowledgement that there has been a lot of changes in the knowledge and research in the last few years by psychologists. Letting us know that while the information that we have today is the forefront of understanding it is constantly changing and we should keep up with new developments.
I was glad she mentioned this, as I often struggle with the idea of a “conclusive finding” when everything in this world is constantly changing, growing, evolving, and becoming more.
I attended this online three part series on Attachment, and will share my notes and thoughts with you over four posts: sessions one, two, three, and a conclusion based on what I learned most from the sessions. I hope you enjoy.
Online course offered by AFABC
Presented by Andrea Chatwin, MA, CCC
Hosted by Erin Melvin, AFABC
Rider: My notes here are written as the sessions flowed for me and are about the subjects that caught my attention. These sessions and discussions were often driven by the course participants and their questions. Because of this, if you are considering this course and are uncertain whether to complete the full series or a portion, I would recommend doing all three sessions so as not to miss out on information that might be raised by another participant and an “a-ha” moment for your situation.
The first session was interesting and a lot of what was discussed seemed like common sense to me.
When I mentioned this very thing to a good friend of mine he pointed out to me that for many people while the information IS common sense, sometimes you have to hear it to remember it. He went on to say, that often people who know this information and even live it on a daily basis, also don’t “connect” these principles and ideas in their day-to-day lives without being reminded that they are on the right track. Very wise my friend; very true, and thank you for the reminder. 🙂
Let me start this post by saying, this year did not feel like Christmas to me. (sorry for the negative start!)
Now there may have been something in the water because many people in my town voiced this same sentiment without any prompt or comment from me first.
Several things come to mind about why this might be.
As an expectant mother now, knowing that I’m months away from approval as an adoptive parent, knowing that “this time” next year I could be a mom, made this Christmas seem like a bit of a letdown.
Sure, I’ve been on my own for a few years now so being alone at Christmas was not the issue, I actually adore time on my own and Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year. I love all the glitz and sparkles and lights and trimmings. I always still put up a tree, wrap gifts for friends underneath the tree, watch terrible Christmas movies, sing Christmas songs (love Christmas music!), make a small turkey dinner with all the extras, eat Christmas cake and too many chocolates while sipping hot eggnog and rum. I adore Christmas.
And I still did all of that this year too but felt a little “ho-hum” about it.
One thing I did do that surprised me and made me feel a little excited for what is to come, was I bought my future kids a Christmas gift… Continue reading
Off the grid…! From Tuesday 3 December until Thursday 12 December I will be off the technological communication grid! There will be no tweets, no likes, no posts, no blasts, no emails, no texts, no phone calls. It’s my birthday … Continue reading
It’s been a whirlwind week and I apologize for the lack of posts on the usual topic of impending adoption and parenthood.
However, if you will humour me – I have spent an inordinate amount of time this week thinking about the topic of my heading.
Gaining Citizenship last week was an incredible feat for me. It is the first thing in my entire life that I’ve really wanted to achieve and followed through on the achieving of it – even though it took a long time.
It’s the first time I have ever set out with the hope of achieving something, kept my faith that I would achieve it, allowed people and situations to come into my life to help me achieve it, leapt forward with blind faith (sometimes pure arrogance) toward the goal even when the end was not in sight, filled in every form, took passport photo after passport photo as per the requirements, and showed extreme patience waiting for the end result.
And it paid off.
Here is a bit of a timeline on my Citizenship journey for interest: Continue reading
Expectant Mother – Adoption Journey Series… The Second Home Study Full-disclosure. Rape, Alcohol, Pot, Sexual History, Relationships… The second home study came a few weeks after the first, and I felt a little less nerve-wracked than the first time… but … Continue reading