Road Trip!

No, not the exciting road trip that involves girl friends, shopping and eating out. Today was a whirlwind tour to Kamloops and back for a meeting with MCFD to review the new deliverables in our contract to provide adoption support in the interior region. Sound like fun?

Well, despite having to depart at 6:00 am (I felt like I was on The Amazing Race without a partner nagging at me), the trip was enjoyable even though it involved work. It wasn't until I hit Merritt that I found a Starbucks that was open, and since I had allowed additional travel time in case of snow/hail/or other bad weather, I had plenty of time to sit and enjoy my coffee. Oh, and did I mention I got to listen to my music and/or CBC without comments from any passengers? I still had plenty of time to make my meeting in Kamloops.

I was early for my meeting so I had a chance to catch up with Anne Kishiyama who is the head honcho (not her official title) for the region, and she let me go shopping in her "freebie" room where they keep all the MCFD fun stuff (as fun as MCFD can be). I still have a stash of lunch bags and backpacks, as well as tons of frisbees, photo frames and pencils so I didn't need any supplies from there. However, Anne has always been incredibly generous with books....all types of books. Two boxes of books to be exact.

No, they're not all for me (although I thrilled to be able to read the new Bruce Perry book before I give it to a family)...these books are resources that I share with families who have recently had placements throughout the region. There's several copies of Deborah Grey's latest "Nurturing Adoptions", Brenda McCrieght's "Parenting Your Older Adopted Child" and also her "Help I've Been Adopted!" written for pre-tweens and tweens. And I can't even begin to list the many children's books she gave me.

You may have read previous posts I've written on the importance of celebrating when kids join families at any age, and how for many families they need to plan this themselves as many friends and extended family members are not sure how to celebrate new arrivals, or if they should celebrate them at all. I started putting together fun stuff for families with new placements many years ago, and with the support of MCFD we are able to continue this.

I believe the books are the best part of the packages the families receive, and the other stuff is a bonus. Plus it gives me an excuse to connect with new and repeating adoptive families during and exciting and busy time.

So we did accomplish more than just me picking up books there - we have lots of new ideas for workshops, parent panels, family camps, transracial family camps, and much much more! Stay tuned and I'll update you as we finalize details.

I've been home for approx. 65 minutes, and now I must round up the soccer player, feed the dog, take the left over dinner from last night out of the fridge, start my car pool run, buy a week's worth of groceries, pick up the car pool after a freezing cold night of soccer, deliver the other kids home, unload the groceries and hopefully have help putting them away. I hope to be home in time for the end of the hockey game though....wish me luck!