I'm back!!

I'm back from France, back from a non blogging period and I'm (hopefully) back to a semi-normal life.

I have a zillion things to tell! I guess the beginning is the best place to start. :D

In my last post I said I was leaving for France. I loved it there! The family we were staying with is lovely. They have three kids 10 yo girl, 7 yo boy and 1yo boy. Chelsea and their daughter had a great time together speaking bad French and bad English. We loved Paris and enjoyed seeing the sites. I would have liked to speak more French but sometimes my French wasn't up to it or the people I was talking to would speak in English. Still, we all improved our French dramatically. Even Cassidy can say a number of words like "chat" (cat) and "bonbon" (candy). The plan was to spend time in France and then head off to Normandy and see stuff on the way. But plans don't always work quite right. Before we headed off there was a flurry of phone calls and e-mails from the Canadian government.


I learnt that my dear friends Michelle and Rob had been killed driving home from a church meeting. Someone was speeding down the wrong side of the road a crashed into them. It was their will that I adopt their five children (12, 10, 7, 6 and 2). Oh, the tears! Michelle and Rob have always been so kind to me. They inspired me to homeschool and have always been there to offer a helping hand on our journey. Now they're gone. May the Lord watch over them in Heaven.


It's next to impossible to get flights for a family of five even when it's an emergency. So I left dh and the kids in France and went home by a very odd routing (Paris to London, London to New York, New York to Toronto, Toronto to Vancouver and Vancouver to Victoria).



I began with the legal procedures but was greatly in need of dh so for the most part I cried and tried to be the best parent to Mariah, David, Laura, Douglas and James that I could.



Due to the chaos we'd just had there wasn't time for dh and the kids to go to Normandy so they spent some more time in Paris before returning home.



Then we really got into the adoption process as well as arranging a funeral and figure out where Rob and Michelle's stuff was going. It was exhaustive and stressful and to make matters worse my best friend wasn't there to offer her advice.



I would have thought that once that was over life would calm down a bit. But, now that I was able to think more clearly I realized what a cramped space we were living in. We live in a duplex and it is very comfortable for a family of five but double that and you're squished.

Our house is on the market and we have one person that has come round three times but no offers have been put in. I'm hoping we can get a house in farming outskirts of the city. I'd love to move to the country but we'd be leaving too much behind here.



We'll have our first week of school together on Monday and I'm trying to get prepared. I have a lot of new curricula to use and I have to try to find the books we need because our library has been locked out. It is so expensive with food and books that we've got to watch our money a lot more than previously.

There is still lots to write but like I said I'm still getting acquainted with some of the curricula we're using and need to track down books.

And please welcome Mariah age 12, David age 10, Laura age 7, Douglas 6 and James 2 to our very blessed family.