The Legacy of an Adopted Child - Part 3

December 1986.... a few weeks before Christmas, my husband and brother -in-law travelled to the Philippines to pick up the baby. Our friends and relatives commented that two guys will have to handle the baby and finalize the adoption process. I was 5 months pregnant and the doctor did not approve of me travelling at this stage. I stayed home and prepared the nursery and all the stuff we needed and all the things to be done as it was also very close to Christmas.
Both guys were so busy with the closing of the adoption process that a relative of my brother-in-law was hired to take care of the baby. I was told over the phone that it was a very active 18 month old baby. Two days before Christmas they got back with the baby. It was a joyous day and since we live in a small city, it seems everyone knew.

And yes, he was a very active baby. At one point, I did not know how to handle him. My father was most excited and he would come and visit and help. He would play with him and teach him how to say words in English. He used to watch Sesame Street and being in Canada there is French part in the show. He was interested in French that when it was time to go to Kindergarten, he would end up going to the French Immersion side of the Catholic school. At a very young age we noticed how he can pick up new things easily. He can assemble toys we would buy him but we noticed too that he got quite upset if he can't do it right the first time. At the age of six we enrolled him in karate to learn discipline and he was really good at it that when we left  North, he was getting close to getting his black belt.

Once we moved to Alberta, in a quiet suburb close to Edmonton he was enrolled in French immersion in a French school. We noticed too about his problem controlling his anger. But he did very well in school. 

Pondering about Retirement

When I turned 50, I used to think about being close to retirement or wondering if I would retire early. But as I got closer to 60, I wondered if I should retire early and now that I am very close to retirement age, I am scared to retire because I think and feel that I will be bored.

At work they had asked me if I will retire and I had told them that I believe I will continue to work. If my health will dictate that I need to stop working then I will retire.

I know people who retired and now they are back in the workforce. Most of them say they got bored. And some are so busy after they retired, they are harder to catch than a pokemon. 

I thought of things I can do but it does not interest me. Yes I can volunteer, travel or just take it easy. With what is happening in the world now, it is a bit scary to travel but I still have a list of places I want to visit. For now, I feel that I still like to go to work even though at times I feel like...oh it would be nice to be retired. But that only lasts for a few days.

Downtown Living

When we moved to Alberta from the North, we lived in a city which is just next to Edmonton. I used to drive to Edmonton for work and at first I did not mind it. In the winter time it was hard especially when we get a lot of snow. Then we moved to Edmonton and it was closer to work and most of jobs I had, I worked in the same building which is very convenient. I had a job I took and I could move downtown, which I did not really like at first. I thought about the noise, the homeless and all sorts of things. But it grew on me and I must admit I like the convenience of it. I can walk to the grocery store, pharmacy, theaters, my dentist, eye doctor and to work. There are restaurants, pubs, coffee shops and diners of all kinds of cuisines. Now I don't think I can go back to the suburbs.

Just last week when I was out for my walk I took again pictures of the different things I see.

That is the Provincial Legislature on the top, one of the fountains on the grounds and another big planter close to the government centre.

I remember this water feature on the Legislative grounds, a while back we would walk at lunch time in our flip flops and we will wade here and enjoy the cool water especially on a hot day.

The Legacy of an Adopted Child - Part 2

The year was 1984...my husband (now ex) and I travelled to the Philippines to attend my grandmother's funeral. While there, we met a few of my college friends and at one of these meetings, the topic of adoption was brought up. At that time I had been married for 11 years and never got pregnant. At another meeting, a close college friend talk to the nuns at the college I attended and suggested to us to visit this one particular orphanage. We did and had a very informative conversation with one of the nuns. After coming back from the trip, we decided to call Social Services in our city and got more information about international adoption.

After a few months of talking and getting more information, we finally decided to apply for international adoption. So we started filling out forms and getting documents and having home study done, applying for security and police clearance. A year later, our application was approved, now it is choosing the child we would raise. I believe we were offered a cute baby boy but with heavy heart we had to decline for medical reason. Then another baby boy was suggested and I remember very well that one of the nuns had mentioned that he looks a bit like me so it is a good match. After reading all the information they sent us, we decided to go for this baby. In August of 1986, we finally signed all the documents. At one point in time, the nuns asked what will I do if I get pregnant while the process is going on and I replied we would still go through the adoption. In September of that year, I was doing exercises with a friend of mine and I complained about soreness in my breast and she said...You are pregnant! I said I could not be. To make long story short, I went to see my doctor and he confirmed that indeed I was pregnant. A few months later, while I was on my regular check up, he wanted to do another ultra sound as he told me that he is concerned that I could be carrying twins. When I told my husband this, his comment was...oh we have to get two cribs. I screamed at him, and said gosh you are worried about two cribs, I am scared of how we would take care of 3 babies. It felt like I was carrying triplets.

Netflix and Bollywood

About 3 years ago, my son subscribed to Netflix. He enjoyed watching the shows, tv series, documentaries and indie movies. Last year I decided to try and watch Netflix. I was interested in the documentaries about travel and cooking and military documentaries. I also enjoyed watching indie and international movies. One night while going through all the international movies, I decided to watch a movie from Bollywood. I have watched a French movie before and it was very interesting. The only thing is I had to get used to subtitles which I am very good at now after watching all kinds of movies. The movie I watched was Jab Tak Hai Jaan. It's a romantic movie and the story was quite interesting. After watching that and a few more, I had been watching Bollywood movies. I have my favorite star and I just choose the movies I think would be good. A former office mate of mine was kind of making fun of me. But I just told her, it's my entertainment like yours is going to the casino and losing money. I listen to some of the songs too, before I would kind of laugh at the movies because there is an interesting scene and all of a sudden they are in an exotic place singing and dancing. The nice thing is they shoot in different parts of the world so you see what the country looks like.

Here is a video of one of the songs and it was shot in Iceland. Enjoy.

Update....Pokemon Go

I am now Level 14, it was a lot slower than the first week as I have been encountering the No GPS signal found which makes it hard to catch or load balls. I just walk and sometimes I do not even try to catch any pokemon where there is no GPS. I have done every tip on internet and it does not help. 
On my walks to different areas of downtown I decided to take a few pictures of planters outside different buildings. After September 10, I will walk by the new Rogers Place which is our new arena in downtown and take pictures.

Here are some of the few pictures of planters. Now, I can post pictures. Just this weekend I was trying to upload videos and it won't play on my blog so I will try and find out why. I also have posts done waiting for videos to upload and work.

Flowers

Every summer since I started with this company, I get fresh flowers for my desk from our Operations Manager. He loves to garden and has collection of dahlias. He brings them on Mondays and would last the week or bring them on Thursday and I take it home to enjoy for the weekend. Lately he has brought some gladiolas as well.

Here are two arrangements I did with the flowers he brought last week. They lasted for about a week.