Apologies

Deepest Apologies

I had not posted in so very long, in truth I had actually forgotten about this blog.  Life goes so fast and I became so focused on other things that are happening in our lives that it slipped my mind.  Thank goodness my cousin happened to venture over here and told me about how this account was hacked and the many many posts that were spamming the blog.
I have deleted the spam and now that I am here, I hope to get back into posting again.

It has been quite some time and there is much to update.  We are now happily living in Quebec, I honestly never thought I would say that, but yes, we are happy here.  The city we currently live in is bilingual, so most of the people we come across speak both english and french.

The neighborhood is just amazing.  It is a relatively new build and though we are renting in an apartment, much of the neighboring homes are single homes, and some quite large.  In addition, much of the apartment buildings are actually condos and are owned.  For some reason, I have noticed that this really does make a difference in the kind of people you have as neighbors.  Most of them really care about the appearance and quality of neighborhood this is, making it a really friendly and quiet area to live.

The hard part had been that until last summer, there was no local parks for us to take Jonah to to play.  However, there is now two within walking distance and we enjoy our times there. Another problem is that as I still do not have my drivers license, I have a harder time going out and visiting friends and family whenever I want, making it so that I can only go when Stephane is available or if someone is able to give us a ride.  It has become a goal I intend to fulfill before my 40th birthday.

Jonah has grown so much and actually has started school this year.  I can't believe that he is already 5, actually he is is 5 years and 8 months.  He is handling the transition to school fairly well.  The first week, I cried as soon as he was in, but he never shed a tear.  The first day was the roughest, poor guy looked like a deer in the headlights, kind of shell-shocked all day.  Luckily for us, he is doing a gradual transition so for the first 3 weeks, he is half days and then we will add an hour to his day.  Then after another three weeks add another, and so forth.  We are close to adding his first extra hour, but I am sure he will do well.

One complication for Jonah that happened when we moved to Quebec is that our wait for extra help for him was not only put on hold but put in reverse in some ways.  We had already gotten the approval from First Words but because we are no longer in Ontario, they informed us that they could not help us.  So we went back to our doctor and got a new referral. 

He has finally, after three years, seen a speech therapist for four months but it also ended when school began.  She has helped to get the gears in motion with an assessment for possible autism.  Jonah has global delays, hand flaps and tends to hit himself in the crotch area when he is excited.  Sometimes running on the spot as well. 

Jonah did not start walking until he was 2.5 years, and it was a wonderful day for us all.   He has shown some fears, fears of falling and a possible fear of heights.  He is unsure on stairs and climbing is a rarity for him.  The new park has two climbers, one for younger children more toddlers age 2-3 years (I guess that is preschool not toddler, lol) and the other is school age, for children more 4-7 year olds.  He shows interest in those but as soon as he tries, he changes his mind.  He has begun to use the preschool climber more, but nothing extravagant.  We also tried to get him to play on a bouncy castle and he really wanted to, but as soon as he felt the movement there was no way he would go on it. 

We just had our first assessment for Jonah and they are hoping to do some tests, but in the meantime, he has been approved for aide in the school and we were able to drop off that letter.  I am so happy that he got the approval and so happy with the school for the help they are giving him.  He had no aide the past few weeks but they saw right away that he needed it, and were able to have him stay with another child who does have aide and he was able to get the extra help that way. 

Personally, another change has been in my struggle for weight loss.  I have always had a hard time to lose weight and after Jonah was born, I have not been able to shed the extra weight.  I have tried different things but to no avail.  I felt so frustrated and found myself ashamed to show my face outside.  I tend to want to hide and definitely do not want to run into anyone I know, especially someone from my past because I do not want anyone to see how much I have changed.  My doctor approved and referred me to a bariatric clinic and they have been working with me the past two years now to change some habits and start making positive changes.  My last appointment I was beyond ecstatic to find that I had lost ten pounds and also was approved for gastric bypass surgery.

I had no date but it was nice to know that i was approved.  I got the call this week and was given November 5 as a surgery date and I honestly began to panic.  It just got real, I mean really REAL.  I wish I didn't need something so severe to help me, but I cannot continue living this way.  I want to be able to run and play with Jonah, I want to be able to have energy to do more things with him.  I am going to look at this as a positive change, that life is going to get so much better afterwards. 

2015 is going to be an awesome year for me, a new leash on life.  New beginnings.  I have to trust in God that he has my life in his hands and that no matter what may come, everything is going to be ok.