Saturday 17 September 2022

Kudos to the Stage Production of Kim's Convenience at the Thousand Islands Playhouse

Having seen the Kim's Convenience stage production at the Thousand Islands Playhouse in Gananoque, Ontario twice in the past few weeks, I wanted to write this to let you all know how much each person we met has meant to us. I wish I could have said these things today, when we met the cast, but I felt completely unable to get the right words out, in awe of all of you in so many ways. 


Jimmy: seeing you in this role was so incredible. We knew you more in your role as Jimmy in the screen version, and seeing you as Appa was a whole other, exciting experience. You are such a seasoned professional in all areas of stage and production and you are a superstar in every sense of the word. Watching you work was a pure delight! We were in awe of seeing you in this role and getting to meet you meant we were in the presence of true theatre Greatness! Thank you for blessing us with your time. 


Kelly: you are stunningly beautiful and talented. Your "Janet" was 1000% on point, exactly how we would have imagined Janet to be, had we not seen the Television series. And Julia, being a long haired Asian teen,  is in love with your hair... But who isn't??? But really, you displayed such a broad range of emotions as Janet and we loved every single one of them. We can't wait to see what you do next!


Frank: we loved you as Jung! You were so endearing and loveable. The way you acted like a proud new dad was heart warming and we loved hearing you do the indigenous land acknowledgment in Korean. We really hope we'll get to see you in something else soon!


Cameron: Wow. Playing so many roles in a play is always challenging, but you did it beautifully! If we didn't know that you were the one playing all those parts, we could easily, especially from far away, have believed each was performed by a different actor with a different accent, different mannerisms and distinct clothing style (which is more of a kudos to costuming, perhaps). You showed such a wide range of amazing characters, and we loved you in every one of them. Your wonderfully booming voice is enthralling and would make anyone pay attention to what you're saying. You're amazing!


Jane: oh Jane... You are, well, perfect. You were exactly who we needed to see as Umma. You're sweet, kind, gentle and confident and so incredibly talented. We loved watching you do improv at Bad Dog a couple of years ago and simply adored seeing you in this stage production. We especially loved hearing you sing so beautifully and speaking in Korean. That was all so very cool. And you made us fall in love with Umma all over again. Thank you so much for gracing me with your time last week at dinner and for arranging for everyone to meet us after the 2nd show. We are so very grateful for the opportunity to meet everyone, and especially for being able to get to know you better. You are an incredible lady and I feel truly blessed for your time, and for your wonderful tips for Julia! I've passed them all along and she was very appreciative for them. You are a true gem.


Robert: I was so pleased to meet you too! And how cool that's you've spent time in PEI, and especially in beautiful Victoria by the Sea. I wish we would have had more time to chat. I also thought it was cool, that you know the College of Piping the Harbourfront Theatre in Summerside. I'm sure you've got some amazing stories, and I hope I'll get to hear some of them someday!


To the staff of the Thousand Islands Playhouse: what an incredible bunch of human beings you are! Every single one of you! You were helpful, kind, sincere and cheerful. We felt like royalty from beginning to end. Special Shoutout to the young man who drove the golf cart who not only made it easier to get from point A to point B but also was genuinely interested in our experience and in making things as easy as possible for us. Another shoutout to Fleur (I think that was her name) for her kindness, enthusiasm about our license plate and for her exceptional photographic and videographic skills! Thanks to all of you for being amazing! 



OK, See you....

Tuesday 25 July 2017

Representation Matters

I have been reflecting over the past few days events and trying to understand why connections with certain people on Twitter and IRL are so important to me.  This started as a tweet, but then I realized I couldn't do it justice in 140 characters or less.  SO I thought about making it a Facebook post, but then it got long enough that it needed subtitles.  So here it is in blog form.  For those who are unaware, I am a lawyer and mediator, so being concise is usually expected. My blog rejects the notion with great vehemence.  I'm going to say what I need to say. 

I think this can mostly be summed up by saying that representation really does matter.  Mirrors are so important for young people of color growing up in a white world.  Some of you will think I am wrong to see colour and that’s fine because maybe you don’t “get it” , but the unfortunate reality, as we’ve learned from adoptees and non-adoptees who grew up in relative whitopia, is that when you don’t see colour, you’re much more likely to not care when there is an absence of it, and that is such a detrimental attitude to have.  Colorblindness doesn't mean we're all the same.  It means you are disregarding the important differences that make each of us who we are.  For a person of colour, that includes their race and culture.  I refuse to be blind to who my child is at her very core, as that core is what makes her exactly who she is.

I am raising a child of colour. What good is it if I pretend she is not?  She sees herself in the mirror and knows she is a beautiful, smart, funny, strong, wonderful CHINESE girl.  I credit a great deal of her confidence to the fact that she has wonderful mirrors in her life, in her circle of friends, in our circle of friends, and in our professional network (accountants, hairdressers, doctors, lawyers, realtors, etc).

She also feels she is “allowed” to feel this by what she has been starting to see in social media, television, advertising, etc.  There was a time, not so long ago when the only Asian characters in TV and movies were the nerds and the martial artists.  Typically, they were a stereotyped version of Asians, with thick, wide-rimmed glasses, buck teeth and were smart but weren’t seen as particularly good looking.   Even cooking shows (think “Wok with Yan”) featured stereotypical self-deprecating humour, because that’s what the audience knew and wanted.  If they weren't nerds, they were Black belts in Karate, violent and mean. At the other end of the spectrum, (the one I was not exposed to in my youth) was the fetishized version of Asian women as being submissive and only good for sexual gratification. Most other roles in entertainment were white.  White actors, white producers, white writers, etc.   Had my daughter grown up at a time when those were the only common depictions of Asians, would she have the same confidence as she has today?  

WENGIE
I look at what we’ve been able to provide in terms of mirrors for our daughter in modern day media.  My 10-year-old daughter’s favourite YouTuber is a beautiful, unique and skilled Asian woman named Wengie.  She does makeup, hair, life hacks, etc and my daughter e a t s - i t - u p!  So my daughter feels she can be a YouTube star too, if she chooses to.  Plus, she is learning how to do makeup on Asian eyes, from an Asian person.  Because let’s face it.  It’s not the same as doing my white caved-in eye-socket eyes and big western nose!

ERIC CHONG
In the first year of Masterchef Canada, Eric Chong shone so bright in our house.  This handsome (omg, that smile could melt all the ice in Nunavut!), intelligent (has an engineering degree), skilled, wonderful chef became Canada’s first Masterchef!  He was so far removed from what Canada (still!) thought of when we’d think of a TV Chef.  He was not nerdy, not self-deprecating, not there to entertain people with humour.  He was there to demonstrate and hone his mad skills and win it all.  He did use a lot of Asian influences in his dishes, but he also showed his ability to be versatile and cook all kinds of different dishes.  And so, my daughter has someone to look up to if she chooses a professional path in cooking (not likely as she has not shown much interest in cooking anything more than microwaved scrambled eggs, but you never know what the future may hold!).  Ultimately, though what she also learned is that Chinese people do not only win math competitions and martial arts duels! 

LISA SEE
Years ago, I don’t even remember how, now, I discovered my favourite author, Lisa See. I believe the first book of hers that I read was “Shanghai Girls” (although it may have been one of the books in her earlier "Red Princesses" trilogy).  I do remember that I was immediately smitten with every aspect of the first book I read.  Lisa See is Chinese-American and writes extensively about China in well-researched novels (amongst other things) in fictional stories, based on true common Chinese culture and history. As a white mom trying to learn all I could about Chinese culture (apart from information on Imperial Culture that is more readily available), her works have been integral in allowing me to understand the underpinnings of some of the more challenging aspects of culture that I have to/choose to explain to my daughter.  Where media often offers such a negative view of my daughter’s birth country, I have the tools to make sure she understands why certain things are done the way they are, and I can explain them in a neutral or positive way, which has allowed my daughter to love her birth country, warts and all. Lisa See’s writings have been a springboard for me to do my own research (more particularly, by the fact that she quotes all of her sources in each book so that further research can be undertaken).  Furthermore, my daughter sees the joy I have in reading Lisa See’s works, and she has also become a fan.  I took her to see the “Snowflower and the Secret Fan” movie when she was 5, and I used to read her random chapters of different books once in a while.  She’ll soon be ready to start reading some of them on her own.  If my daughter were to decide to become a writer, I’m happy that there are several strong Asian-American and Asian-Canadian authors (my fave being Madeleine Thien) for her to look up to.

MAINSTREAM
Then comes mainstream media.  My daughter wants to become a Doctor or an actress after her ballet career is over (a kid can dream, can’t she?).  For years, Sandra Oh was our mirror there.  Although not a real life Doctor, for a kid, TV is often close enough to real life.  I adore Sandra Oh.  With a passion.  However, it did always bother me that this wonderful, talented Korean-Canadian actress was frequently cast in roles as being Chinese. This bothered me because I do feel it perpetuated the stereotype that all Asians are the same (I had the same reaction to Simu Liu, as a Chinese actor cast in a Korean role in Kim’s Convenience, but dear gawd, he’s such an amazingly beautiful creature that I would cast him in every role in the universe if I could!).  Eventually, I decided to mostly let that go, because I’m just so happy to see so many great East Asian faces on TV and in movies, that I am reluctant to be picky…

KIM'S CONVENIENCE
Speaking of Kim’s Convenience, let’s chat a bit about that, shall we?  What an amazing production, with such wonderful actors!  Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, is the dad of all dads in Asian-Canadian culture.  I have so many friends who identify with him as Appa and Jean Yoon as Umma as classic 1st generation Canadian parents and both Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Jean Yoon nail their performances EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.  Our daughter sees the younger versions of Janet (the fabulously credible Andrea Bang) and Jung (the incomparable Simu Liu) in her group of friends who are growing up as Chinese-Canadians in white Canada. I also love the relationship between Jung and his lazy, underachieving colleague and roommate Kimchee (played perfectly by Andrew Phung) as they try to manage their family relationships (well, at least Jung’s family relationships) and their lengthy friendship, which was likely, at some point (one would assume), created by gravitational pull that kids of colour naturally feel towards each other (as I've noticed between my daughter and her friends).  So here is a funny, entertaining look at 1st and second generation Asian-Canadians that normalizes some of the things my daughter and some of her friends experience.  Although my daughter may not live with first generation Canadian parents, she does attend Chinese school every Saturday morning, as well as 5 weeks every Summer, does Chinese dance weekly 10 months per year, eats Chinese foods (the authentic kind, not just North American kind), we travel to China every 1-2 years, practice our Mandarin together and we follow the Chinese holiday calendar in addition to the Canadian one.  Our daughter would like to become an actress and she sees the real possibility there in that there are a good number of strong Asian performers acting as mirrors for her.  She often also dreams of being an actress, and I love that she sees that as a possibility someday because of the wonderful Asian actors and actresses who fill our living room with their wonderful talent each week.  Actors and actresses who, when they were growing up, couldn't necessarily see themselves on screen because there were so few similar faces on screen at the time...

I also want to take one last moment to acknowledge the importance of Asian men being the object of women’s affection.  I remember seeing The Edge of Seventeen (Caution, spoiler alert!) and feeling so happy about the lead finally falling for the Asian kid.  Although he was a bit nerdy, and was another Chinese Canadian actor (Hayden Szeto) playing the role of a Korean, the fact that the girl actually fell for the Asian boy made me so, so happy!

In Kim’s convenience, the same wonderful thing happens.  Shannon (the wonderfully funny Nicole Power) can’t keep her eyes or thoughts off Jung (let’s face it, who can?) and it’s not an Asian fetish thing!  She is clearly in “lust” with him because of who he is and how incredibly hot he looks (is it getting warm in here?  It is, isn’t it?).  I love hot Asian men!  There you go, I’ve said it.  And, similarly to how it is (or rather isn't) for Shannon, this is not a fetish.  In my case it is because I am so tired of the stereotype of the small, skinny, nerdy Asian guy.  There are so many gorgeous, fit, sexy, strong Asian men out there, and I love that media is finally catching up with this!  I want to see more leading Asian men and women in mainstream media.  I want to see them in roles that don’t need to be Asian.  In other words, I want to see Asian men and women in roles that do not specify a race.  Let’s make that happen so that young Asian boys and girls can see mirrors of themselves on TV, in movies, in magazine ads, on YouTube, and everywhere else.  Let’s do it because representation really does matter.  Let’s raise confident Asian boys and girls who understand that they are worthy of the same kind of praise as their white peers. When a person visualizes an Asian man, I want the image that pops up to be a good looking man like Simu Liu, Eric Chong or Leehom Wang (oh dear-have I forgotten to talk about heartthrob Leehom Wang? Well, that will be a post for another day...).

While we're on the subject, I need to also point out the delightful way that women like Sandra Oh, Andra Bang and Jean Yoon have portrayed strong Asian women who defy the fetishized stereotypes.  They are all beautiful women but have also brought a strength, confidence and independence to their roles.  I love seeing Asian women cast in those types of roles because, again, when a person visualizes an Asian Woman, that's what I want them to think of first and foremost.  My daughter is already a strong, confident young lady and she has these wonderful role models to look up to! 

Clearly, in order for these fabulous actors and actresses to shine, there is much work that needs to be done behind the scenes.  I'm so thankful for the writers, producers, directors, casting directors and all the other people behind the scenes who have and continue to contribute to the rise of these awesome Asians!

IMPORTANT CONNECTIONS
SO when I tweet something and these amazing people who have such an important role in my daughter’s upbringing go ahead and like, reply to, or retweet something I’ve posted, it just makes my day.  And my week.  And my month, and even my year!  The fact that these wonderful people who are in the limelight and have made it in their chosen field take the time to recognize the young people walking in their footsteps and their parents (like my daughter and me) makes me so happy.

So why, getting back to my initial thoughts, are Social Media and IRL connections with these people so important?  Because my daughter is growing up at a time where real life and social media blend in such a way that it is sometimes difficult to make a distinction between them.  Celebrities lives have become so much on display that people feel like they know them, inside and out.  But I grew up at a time when average people did not have these personal relationships with celebrities.  If you wrote a letter to a star and they wrote back, that was a pretty effing big deal!  But I had the benefit of working closely, over the course of my life, with people who were idols to some, be it NHL players, comedians, musical artists, etc.  And I thoroughly cherished each one of those connections.  I have fond memories of time spent chatting over coffee or a couple of beers, walking around the city in the middle of the night, playing pranks on other people in my office, pouring over albums to find good photos to send to family members, etc.  some of these things happened 20-25 years ago, but their memory lasts forever....  So when Simu Liu or Eric Chong replies to a tweet and we banter back and forth, or takes the time to chat with me and my family when we come to visit, it means so much to me, and to my daughter.  These individuals are her idols.  And mine too. 

Because #RepresentationMatters.  It really does.  From the bottom of my heart, thank you to every single one of you who are a part of this.  You matter an awful lot to us.

Tuesday 17 February 2015

When we feel our children's pain

It's been almost 7 years since we adopted the love of our life.  She will be 8 years old next week.

I don't really remember her as a baby.  I remember bits and pieces of experiences, but when I look at her, I forget that she was once an infant.  Then I look at pictures, and am reminded that she was once a baby.  And a toddler.  And a school aged child.  And now, she's almost 8.  Sometimes I have more vivid pictures of what she might be like at 18 than the way she was at 3.

Then photos and videos surface.  I see them and delight in seeing how my baby girl has grown.

For years (7, to be exact), I have hoped that someone in our adoption group had captured our 1st moments with our daughter.  The person who was videotaping our magical moment accidentally pressed the button on our video camera twice, thereby starting and immediately stopping the recording before the important moment happened.  She was devastated when she realized this, and she felt so bad, we couldn't possibly be mad at her...  Surely, someone else might have caught it.

Seven years later, it arrived.  Another family in our group had indeed captured this moment and provided us with the video.

I watched it.  And bawled my eyes out.

I got hubby to watch it, and he got pretty emotional too.

Then we asked our daughter if she wanted to see it and she said yes.  We'd told her the story many, many times, about how unhappy she was when she was placed in our arms.  How she screamed and pushed us away.  And how we patiently let her, knowing that this was likely a "good" thing in the long term.  It meant that she had formed attachments to her caregivers, therefore meaning an increased likelihood of her being able to form an attachment to us.  All these years, we focused on how difficult it had been for us to be rejected in this way by this little girl we had been waiting for forever, but being proud of how strong we were to get through this together as a family.

Our daughter watched it and thought it was cool.  It matched the story we had told her over and over again.  She even asked to watch it again before she went to bed tonight.  How lucky we felt we were to have found this piece of our daughter's life puzzle.

Then I watched it again, and worked really hard at analyzing the sounds in the video, trying to commit every detail to memory.

And it hit me like a ton of bricks....

I've always known that our happiness in becoming a family came to the detriment of our daughter's linkage to her 1st family,  Adoption is only possible because a child has experienced loss.  Tragic loss.  Horrible, painful loss.  Loss of their 1st family.  Loss of their orphanage caregivers.  Loss of their foster parents.  Foster siblings.  Crib mates.  Culture.  Language.  Familiar smells. Familiar voices.  Ethnic heritage.  Racial connection....

In the video, the nanny comes out with a beautiful baby girl. Our girl is calm, content.  She seems happy. They say her name,  Then they say our names.   We move forward, and I hear my husband crying.  I can't see my face in the video, only the back of me.  But I know I am crying too. Then I hear her cry.  A lot.  Hysterically.  She cries louder.  My husband tried to soothe her, as she is in his arms.  I try to soother her too.  She is un-con-so-le-a-ble.  The video ends.

But I remember what happened after that.  She continued to cry hysterically. She kicked.  She screamed.  She pushed away from us as hard as she could.  She whipped her little head back to try to distance herself further than her little arms could.  She kicked us so hard, we had bruises on our bellies (it took a while before we realized that if we took off the cute little shoes they put on her, it wouldn't hurt so bad),  I remember her lying on the floor and us just protecting her so that she wouldn't hurt herself as she flailed. I remember the other parents coming into the room, one by one, and reminding us that this was a good thing.  It meant she would eventually attach.  I remember the orphanage staff eventually coming over to tell us that it was time to go, so we had to do our family photo.  The photo that would end up on our adoption certificate.  It has us smiling and our daughter miserably sobbing.

I remember her finally falling asleep on my husband's shoulder.   Her face was haughty. Her eyes and nose dripping.  But she fell asleep, exhausted.

Photo op:  Dad holding sleeping daughter.  Thumbs up.

We got on the bus to the hotel.  In the bus, she woke up.  She looked at us with a look of horror.  It was a "you're still here?  WTF???"  and she started crying again.

When we got back to the hotel, she eventually stopped crying.  We sat on a blanket on the floor with her with some toys.  I took off her pants, to make sure she had a diaper on.  Check. Then I started taking off her sweater.  One arm,,, then she grabbed on to the sweater and got upset again.  So I let her keep it on.  We have photos of her lying on her belly, with half a sweater on.  She looks so sad in those pictures.

I remember the next day, she was standing in her crib next to me.  Still sad, she called out "Mama!".  But that wasn't me.  She wanted her Mama.  She was asking me to find her Mama.  To get her Mama for her.  Her foster mom, who she obviously had considered to be her forever mom.  She was calling out to the one person she knew to be able to find comfort with.  And although I had longed to be her Mama and she had been my daughter since the day we saw her photo for the first time, I was nothing to her.  Surprisingly, I wasn't hurt by this.  I knew this would be "good" in the long run.

Fast forward to today.

My daughter and I love each other more than anything in the world.  We have this cute thing where she tells me I'm her favourite mom.  And I tell her she's my favourite daughter (I have no other children at this point).  Every few times, I remind her that this is not fair to her other moms (which she knows to be her birth mother and her foster mother) because she doesn't remember them and that it's ok for her to love them too, even though she doesn't remember them.

She does this thing where she sets the scene ("Mommy, I need to talk to you about something very important.  Something I've been wanting to talk to you about for a long time") and then "pops" the question ("Will you be my mom forever?") I pretend to cry like I'm being proposed to, and then I assure her that no matter what, I will always be her mom and that I will love her forever. Sometimes I "propose" to her.  She's been doing it about once a day, lately.  It is our way of helping her feel like she has a bit more control over the choices that grown ups have made on her behalf.

Our daughter is a perfectly well-adjusted kid.  She's also been a relatively easy kid to raise.  I can count on one hand the number of times she has had tantrums.  When she's had them, they've been doozys.  But she does not show very much emotion, so when tantrums happen, they are always with very good reason.

The day we met her was one of those times.  She was hysterical.  Knowing her like we know her now, we know how much it takes for her to show any emotion.  The day we met her, we figured, "well, babies cry,  She's just a normal kid".  We were wrong.

This child trusted the people who cared for her. She was a happy, healthy, trusting baby.  On the day we met her, our "magical moment" was one of the most traumatizing thing she had ever had to live through.  This was the beginning of our life as a family.  But it had to come to the detriment of her connection to everything she had ever known.  She was ripped away by strangers,  She was the answer to our prayers. We were her worst nightmare,

In the end, she has accepted us.  She loves us more than life itself,  She doesn't know or remember any other parents than us.  Even though she knows there are people out there who are a part of her, she can't picture them,  And that makes my heart break.   As she grows older, I know her need to know who they are will likely grow.  And I hate the fact that due to the nature of Chinese adoptions, we'll likely never be able to find them.

When I heard her crying in the video I received today, I recognized that cry.  It was the hysterical cry of a child who was frightened and needed her Mama.  And that wasn't me.   That day was hard for us as parents.  We often talk about our own experience on that day and how it felt to be in our shoes.   But that's nothing - NOTHING- compared to what she has had to live though...  Today, I felt it.  I felt her anxiety, her sadness, her fear.  I felt it like a pit in my stomach. It hurt.  A lot.  Because seeing my child in pain hurts me so vehemently.  I wish I could have protected her against this pain.

Our daughter doesn't remember that day.  She's not overly concerned about what she saw in that video.  But that's the way she is.  She see the good in everyone and everything.  She is an optimist at heart and doesn't let emotions stand in her way.  But someday, she will recognize what this video represents and she will feel the pain that I felt today.  I could hide the video away and shield her from it, but it is not my right to do so. This is a part of her history.  It's a piece of the puzzle that is her past.  All I can do is be there for her if/when she needs me...  And cry with her when she needs me to...

Monday 2 February 2015

Stop! It's Winter!

Stop.

Stop complaining.

Stop complaining about the weather!

If you live in almost any part of Canada, whether you were born here or moved here later on in life, you are living in a country where we have winter.  Winter is cold.  Winter is icy. Winter is snowy.

Come to think of it, I’m not entirely sure why I am bothering to address the fine people in this country who immigrated here.  They’re not the ones complaining...    
So if a person can come from much, much warmer climates such as India, southern China, and all of Africa can get through their days without complaining about the weather, why-oh, why- can’t people born and raised here?

I believe life is all about choices.  We can’t control the things that happen to us (such as weather systems).  Those things are not choices.  But how we react to each and every thing that happens to us in life is a choice (Note: I am not oblivious to the fact that there are many mental and physical conditions that affect some people’s moods and ability to make proper choices.  Individuals affected by these conditions obviously are in a very different situation.  I am talking about people who are healthy physically and emotionally, but just grumpy about winter....)

Winter is awesome.  And, I say this as a woman who has severe osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis, meaning I have to be doubly cautious in icy weather. And as both a driver and a public transit user , meaning I have to deal with the weather conditions whether regardless of how I travel. And as a mom, who has to make sure the child is snowsuited and properly accessorized for the winter.  And as an employee in an industry where I can’t work from home.

Granted, Winter can be tough at times.  I’m not thrilled with having to put on a coat and boots before I go out, even for just a quick jaunt to the corner store.  I don’t take particular pleasure in having to take the snow off my car before I drive away, or having to sit there while the car defrosts, making me late on a regular basis.  I get nervous driving on icy or snowy roads in my little Honda Civic.  I’m not thrilled with that either.

But please take a moment to look at the cool things we get to do because of we live in a place full of WINTER:

Winter Sports
Whether its skiing (cross-country or downhill), snowboarding, skating, ice-fishing, snow-shoeing, playing hockey or ringette, sliding down a hill on a toboggan or other kind of sled, you can’t do it in a warm climate (with the exception of Summer hockey or ringette, which only exist because they are so  popular in the winter).  Ergo, without winter, you can’t do any of these things!

Fun transportation
Many communities in Canada have places where you can take advantage of Sleigh rides or dog sledding.  How cool is it that we are able to spend time appreciating the beautiful animals that have been placed on this earth to team up with us in making transportation more fun and exciting!

Winter “crafts”
Ice or snow plus food colouring =amazingly beautiful igloos and lawn ornaments!  What a bummer than people to the will never experience this!  Snow forts!  Snowball fights!  Again-only available in Winter climates!

Beavertails
Eating a Beavertail  used to be only possible for us Ottawa folks, but now Beavertails are available elsewhere too.  Here’s the thing: if you’ve had a Beavertail in the Summer and one in the Winter, you know that Winter Beavertails are a million times more deliciouser than Summer Beavertails (And if you’re planning on commenting that “deliciouser” isn’t a real word, you have obviously never tasted a word-inventingly-amazing treat like a Winter Beavertail)

Winter accessories
Cute hats, beautiful warm cozy scarves, funny or original mittens, leg warmers, head bands, Oh my!  How amazing that we can take a mandatory but usually boring piece of clothing (a coat) and change it up every day with cute accessories!  The variety is mind-blowing!  I have about 15 magic scarves that I cycle through, matching with either my boots, my mittens, my regular clothes, etc.  It’s fun and exciting to figure out “what shall we wear today?”.  Winter accessories are sooooo much fun!!!! 

Warm drinks
I don’t enjoy warm drinks.  I spent the first 40 years of my life avoiding them.
Then, this year, I got all excited about teas.  I started drinking a lot of it.  And hot chocolate.  And hot apple cider.  And unfortunately, coffee...  But I realized that I don’t enjoy these drinks unless I am cold.  So we’ve adjusted the temperature in our home so that it is cooler (which not only is free, it also saves us money in the winter!)  Warm drinks are yet another amazing bonus of living in a wonderful country that has cold weather.  Embrace this!!!

Cozy blankets and pyjamas
Seriously, need I say more???

An excuse to cuddle up and watch a movie
Seriously, how awesome is getting snuggled up with a big bowl of popcorn, watching a movie?  There are lots of things to do in the Summer instead of watching movies.  So in the winter, after a big day outside,

Attending Winter themed festivals
WinterludeJack FrostFestival! Carnaval de Québec!  So many opportunities to see ice sculptures, do fun outdoor activities and spend time with friends and family being goofy and having fun.

Maple Syrup
Although more of a Spring activity and product than a winter one, it only is available as a result of having had the Winter.  Sap needs regular frosts and thaws in order to flow.  And seriously, you can consume many maple products but none is as delicious and amazing as Maple taffy on snow.  And for snow, you need....  Winter!  :-)  Ok, ok, you can make snow in other ways, but a) it’s not the same and b) you still need the winter weather for the sap to flow to make the Maple taffy!

And, of course, Christmas just isn’t the same without snow....   

So yes, it’s cold.  And snowy.  And windy.  And icy.

And you have the choice to bellyache about it or embrace the wonderfulness of it.  We are so, so lucky to have 4 seasons.  Why do you choose to be so grumpy during this one?  Huh?


STOP!

Wednesday 27 August 2014

Why choose IVF over adoption

This is a long post.  I’m sorry, but today, I have a lot to say.


I read a post on a website today, where this question (along with potential answers) was explored: 

Why are some people seemingly obsessed with having a biological child? They will spend literally thousands of dollars, be willing to endure miscarriages, be poked and prodded, etc in the name of having a baby that has their own DNA.As an adoptee, I have to tell you, IT HURTS. It hurts to see that people are literally willing to move mountains, go into huge debt, risk their health…..and some won’t even consider adoption. … or to them, it’s a “last resort”… I’ve just always wondered why for some, adoption is no biggie and for others, it feels like they’d rather be childless than ever adopt.


Here is my answer and it is one that we have wept over, cried out in exasperation over, and, if we were violent people, would probably have punched a wall or two over (as in, the frustration that has built up over this and has festered has evoked such a strong emotional response likely similar to the ones that make violent people "lose it").

We always knew we would not likely be able to conceive.  My Dr told me that very early in my PCOS diagnosis.  If it was to happen, it would not be easy.

From a young age, I had wanted to adopt.  My husband and I never dreamed of having a mini-us.  Adoption was chosen as an option (by no means a “last resort”) as it made sense to us.  We wanted children.  There are millions of children in the world needing families.  To us it was just one of those "everything in the world balances out" types of things.

We tried some hormone therapy, but not to any great extent, as we knew the possibilities were slim.  It was with easy acceptance of this that we decided that adoption was the direction in which we wished to head.

In 2002, we were approached by a colleague who was also an adoption agent.  He had been approached by a birth mother, and, having just started his adoption agency practice, did not yet have a large clientele base, and knew that this was something we had started looking into.  He proposed us and 2 other couples to the birth family, and they chose to meet with us. After an in person meeting, they chose us.  We had to rush to complete our homestudy and all of the other required documents, and embraced every moment of it, as this was us, finally building our family. Several months later, the baby was born, and the agent advised us.  We had a son.  We named him.  We announced the birth to all of our friends and family because the birth mother was unwavering right from the start.  With everything in place to bring our new son home (diaper bag packed, formula in fridge, carrier in the car etc. etc), we waited.  Then the call came: The birth father was having second thoughts.   Over the course of the next few weeks, the birthparents went back and forth on their decision, eventually choosing to parent the child.  We were heartbroken but supported their decision.  It was their decision to make and we trusted that they had not made it lightly.  We grieved.  A lot.  We felt this was our son (who was even born on my deceased's mother's birthday).  It was the hardest thing we've ever gone through. 

Many months later, we felt that we were ready to start a new adoption process.  We decided to go through public adoptions.  Our private homestudy was used by the new social worker, but she needed to update it as the requirements for public adoptions are different.  Although we were considered perfect for a private adoption, the "requirements" made us less appropriate for a public one. Firstly, the social worker felt we did not properly grieve the child that would ever grow in my belly.  The fact is that that child never existed.  I did not feel a sense of loss in terms of this fictitious child.  I had, however, felt grief over the failed adoption.   I had lost my mother less than a year before, with whom I was extremely close. Didn't any of that count? No.  Apparently, that was not real grief, and I would never be able to identify with my child's sense of grief over losing their birthparents.  Ok.

But there was more.  Our home was a story and a half, with a master bedroom upstairs and the second bedroom downstairs (although no further than 25 feet from each other).  Not appropriate.  “What if the child has night terrors?”  Apparently, we would not be able to be there quickly enough (which, since now understanding night terrors and having dealt with a child with night terrors, seems like a ridiculous argument).

We then turned our mind to adopting from China, thereby returning to our private social worker.  While we were in the homestudy process, we sold our house and moved into an apartment, waiting for our new home to be built.  While we were in that process, I decided to quit a job in a very toxic work environment, and start my own law practice.  So there were big changes in our lives, because we were in the process of developing a more stable and flexible life for ourselves and for our eventual child.  Bad move.  Change in residence and employment=lack of stability.  Apparently, it doesn’t matter if you are working towards something better.  So, our file was put on hold.

By 2005, we were finally able to restart the process. In our province, all international adoptions have to go though the provincial Family services authority.  So we needed to seek the approval of the very people who had denied us for a public adoption.  This approval did not come easily (although at this point, they did try to convince us to adopt a newly available sibling group they were having difficulty placing, while trying to discourage us from adopting internationally because people adopting internationally “are just trying to avoid the red tape”.  Uhm-what???).  We decided to carry on with our international adoption, and held our breath while they made their decision.  Their decision came half-heartedly (“we still don’t feel this is appropriate but we won’t go against the advice of your private social worker”).  Talk about a bittersweet feeling.  When we should have been celebrating, we had to do so while swallowing the insulting pill that had just been dealt.

In time, we got over the nastiness and started jubilating about the wonderful addition to come in our family.  By 2008, we finally had a referral for a beautiful 10 month old girl.  Our life changed.  We were so elated at the thought that we had a daughter!  But this came with its emotional challenges as well.  Remember 2002?  We were so close.  But then it got ripped away from us.  What if this did too?

We prepared for travel, being nervous at every little glitch.  And plenty of them came (I'm sure those will be the subject of another blog at some point).

On our adoption day, I remember standing in the room at the location where we were meeting the kids, and thinking: this is as far as we’ve ever gotten.  But until she is in our arms, it can all be taken away (what if they give us the wrong kid, what if she is ill, what if they say there’s been a mistake, what if they decide our file is incomplete? What if, what if, what if….)

Then, our daughter was placed in our arms.  And we cried.  And she cried. Then she yelled.  Then she kicked and shouted and pushed us away.  But I knew she was ours and we were hers.  No matter what she did, she was our daughter and we would go through whatever was necessary to make sure that she was as healthy, happy and comfortable as possible.  The road ahead wouldn’t be easy, but this was what we had signed up for.  100%.

Once our daughter reached the age of about  2, we decided we wanted to adopt again.  At this point, we didn’t have the same financial resources as we did when we started our first adoption process. We had additional debt, a mortgage, a business which suffered along with the crash in the property market.  We lived frugally, but our daughter never wanted for anything.  We couldn’t buy the most expensive gadgets, clothes and diapers, but our daughter had everything she needed, diapers on her bum and clean clothes that fit at all times.  We couldn’t afford big Christmas presents, but we showed her the importance of family and traditions around the holidays.  We bought our clothes and hers in thrift shops, and we saved up to do cool things as a family.  We couldn’t afford the filet mignon, but we could do wonders with ground or stewing beef and discovered the benefits of finding a good butcher, growing our own vegetables and buying in bulk.  We budgeted and made a game out of seeing how much we could save on our grocery bills each week while still getting everything we needed. We ate at home more instead of eating out.  We turned the heat down and wore big sweaters, and flannels to bed.  We played cards or games instead of watching tv, and used 2 for 1 coupons to go to the movies.

Then we decided to move back to our (much larger) hometown, to make a better life for ourselves and our family.  Our hometown was much more culturally diverse than where we’d been living, and that was really important to us in raising our daughter.  I got a well paying job, so we packed up and moved, before our daughter started school, so that she could start in her new city.   Less than a year and a half later, I got laid off.   So I had to start over.  We struggled but got ourselves back on top.  I got a better job, my husband did too.  We moved about every 2 years within the city, to try to move up to bigger places gradually.

Here we are today.  I am in a secure job that I love.  My husband has found the job of his dreams.  Our daughter is happy, healthy, well-adjusted, awesome kid.  We have an incredible connection to the Chinese community here, and our daughter attends Chinese School every Saturday in addition to participating in two different Chinese dance programs.  We are a strong family.  But we have a lot of debt. We make a fair amount, but still live frugally, because we’d rather pay off our debt than go bankrupt, if at all possible.  And there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

So now, ask me why parents choose to go through IVF instead of adoption.

My answer is this.  Look at our background and history.  We have had to fight for every single part of our 1st adoption process, and now, we’re having to fight for our second.  We are still considered  “unstable” because of changes in employment and another recent move (from a 2 to a 3 bedroom, to accommodate a future child).  We have a lot of debt.  My inlaws, who adore our daughter, were difficult to convince that an international or domestic private adoption was the right option for us.  How challenging is it going to be to convince them that we are making the right decision about a public adoption? 

When the social worker comes over to start her new homestudy, will she notice that the dog smell left by the former tenants in our house?  Will she feel that our house is too small to bring in another child?  She will question whether we have the means to raise this child.   She will wonder which one of us will be taking parental leave.  She will pry into our personal lives, our relationship.  The questions we’ve already had to answer on the questionnaire were so invasive.   But we’ve done it before and accept that it is what it is.

But we worry.  We worry that we won’t be good enough.  We worry that we won’t be strong enough, healthy enough, financially stable enough.

We embark on this process, knowing what we might expect.  We also know that even though we have hundreds of hours of education already under our belt (including excellent parenting experience), we still have to attend a total of another 40 or so hours of training (most of which we’ve already done in another province.  But that, apparently, doesn’t count.)

And when our new province’s family services are going through their screening process, they’ll be calling our former province’s family services branch.  You  know, the ones who tried to stop us from parenting the first time?

So if I knew that there was a chance IVF might work, I would be doing it in a heartbeat.  I would do it to avoid having to justify my parenting skills, financial situation, residence, choices, relationship, etc.

It frustrates me when I see parents who are blessed with children and who mistreat them, neglect them, or make them feel like a burden.  I cringe when I see kids with soaking wet diapers, dirty clothes, hungry mouths and resolvable but unresolved health issues, in the care of their biological parents, with no consideration of whether they are good parents or not. 

As a family law mediator, I see parents using their kids as pawns.  I see parents who put their own needs ahead of their kids and are more concerned with getting even with the other parent than providing what’s in their kids’ best interest.   They never had to justify to anyone why they should be able to parent their kids.

I have friends who receive social assistance.  They have been welfare recipients for as long as I have known them.  They have 3 children.  They didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission to get pregnant.  They didn’t have to think about what to say to person x or person y to make sure their pregnancy could continue advancing.    They didn’t have to worry and be careful to not say the wrong thing to so and so at the risk of that person saying that they would have to wait before having their baby.  I have no problem, at all with my friends having this luxury.  As a matter of fact, I am thrilled that they don’t have to go through what we’d have to go though, as they could lose their right to become parent, and that wouldn’t be fair.

I see ads all the time on posting websites, by single moms who are pregnant and are having to “start over”.  They are asking for everything, from pots and pans to beds and clothes.  No one tells them that maybe this isn’t the right time for them to be starting a family (or at least, no one who can impose this on them).

Yet, even with an excellent track record (our kid is pretty awesome, and if we could use her as a reference, we would!) of positive parenting, of beating the odds and not falling into a depression when most people would have, of not going bankrupt and choosing instead to cut our expenses so that we could repay our creditors, of allllll of these things, we still need to justify our ability to parent before we are able to be matched to another child.   

Parenting is seen as a right.  You can only have your right to parent taken away from you 1) if you abuse it; 2) if you are severely unwell; or  3) if you choose to give that right up. Well, if you are a biological parent (including a parent by IVF), that is.

If you are not a biological parent, let's be clear-you do not have a right to be a parent.  Someone has to allow you to do it.  You have to justify that you’re financially stable. You have to justify that you are mentally capable.  You have to justify that you live in the right kind of accommodations (often determined by a very subjective or blindly objective set of criteria). You have to justify that you are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure your child will be safe, happy, and healthy.  You have to plead your case to people who are not impartial by any stretch of the imagination, and you have to be prepared to be evaluated, watched, assessed, checked up on and researched even though you have never, ever, ever done anything in your life to hurt so much of a hair on a child (in other words, if CAS has been called on you in the past, I can understand why they may need to do these things, but where there is no such history, and, actually a strong indication that everything is peachy, it sucks to be on the receiving end of this scrutiny).

To be fair, I get it. I understand why it is so important to make sure that adoptive families are appropriate.  So many horror stories have happened before (and I’m sure even a few since) these measures were put in place.  Same goes for the training. I get it.

But when someone asks why families would choose IVF over adoption, my story is all I can offer.  For me, it has nothing to do with wanting a child who is my flesh and blood.  It has nothing to do with having a child who is half me and half my husband (as a matter of fact, our choice would be to do IVF with both sperm and donor eggs of people of chinese descent but apparently, that’s frowned upon because we’re caucasian).  I know that these are factors for other families, but our family’s reality is very different. 


So to a child (or adult adoptee) who feels unwanted because parents have chosen to have a baby grow in their belly instead of adopting them, you don’t need to tell us how much it hurts you to feel unwanted or less desirable than a birthchild.  We know.  In an obviously very different way, we feel it.  We feel it everytime we’re told that we are less desirable.  Not less desirable than couple A or couple B.  Less desirable than any other couple (there’s a difference between birthparents choosing another couple to parent their child because they have a different life than you do, and a social worker telling you that you can’t be chosen by anyone because you don’t even make the list).  Less desirable than birthparents, who obviously are the best option if at all possible.  Less desirable than a parent who has alcohol or drug dependancies, but is getting the help they need.  Less desirable than a parent who beat the crap out of their child but is taking Anger Management classes.  Less desirable than a parent who spent all their money on cigarettes and ipods for themselves, but accepts the help of food vouchers and food banks.  No one would want US as parents because we’ve moved more than once in the last 5 years. It stings for us too. And when you question why YOU would be less desirable, I weep.  Because you would be my first choice, and it saddens me that you can’t even know that.

Saturday 23 August 2014

The pressure of parenting in a family formed by adoption

(I wrote most of this over a year ago, but had never finished it.  A lot of things have changed since then, but I thought I would publish it anyway because it poses some important questions and food for thought.  Thanks for reading.)

Lately, I've seen numerous articles talking about how we need forget about the myth of "what makes a good mother" and embrace our fallible, often mistaking, self-embarrassing mothering selves.  One of those examples is here.

It always makes me ponder about the differences between parenting a biological child vs. parenting a child who was adopted.

As an adoptive mom, do I come more under scrutiny?  Or does it just feel that way???

I feel the need to constantly display good parenting skills (and even justifying them, if necessary) when in public.  This is a common feeling amongst mothers.  However, when I go through this, it is more than "I hope they don't think I'm a bad mother".  There is the added dimension of "I hope they don't wonder why I was allowed to adopt".

I doubt most bio moms think "I hope they don't wonder why I was blessed with this child".  Perhaps most of them never even realized how blessed they were to have that child.  When you've had to spend years of energy, money and sanity proving that you are going to be a fit parent, your child becomes a bit of a prize. It's like an NHL Team who has worked their butts off and finally wins the Stanley Cup.  There is always an expectation, the following season, that they will come out with a bang.  If they don't people wonder what happened.  What went wrong, what changes did they make, would they have won it if they had made those changes the year before?

Or think of beauty competitions-the winner has a reign for a year, and if it is discovered that she does something or has done something in the past that is less than respectable, she is shunned and sometimes, her crown is even stripped away.

Let's say I win an Apple Pie Baking contest at my local fair.  If I am seen buying pies at my local store a few weeks later, won't people wonder if I bought the one that won?

All those things seem fair to me.  So when I look at all we did to be able to adopt our amazing, perfect, wonderful daughter, she feels like a prize sometimes.  We worked so hard to grow our family, and we were rewarded for our heartache and hard work with this amazing kid.  (Alright adoptive parents-stop judging me.  I know this is not about me, its about her.  She is not a prize or a possession.  She is a human being who has suffered loss and tragedy and when I talk about her in this way, I trivialize that.  I know.  YOU can stop judging me too).

So it's clear I feel judged.  When I hobble off the bus with my daughter, I feel people are judging me for wanting to parent a child when I am having so many mobility issues myself.  When I take her to McDonald's I think they're judging me because I am overweight and she is so skinny ("for now", I think they must say).  When she asks me a question that I find embarrassing, I think that they're judging me for the way I raise her.
But I also feel judged by the adoption community.  I feel judged when I wish someone a happy "Gotcha Day" because even though we don't use that expression, some people do, and others feel it is inappropriate.  I feel judged when I even take the bus because "shouldn't I have enough money for a car if I adopted internationally?" (For the record, we do own a car, but in our city, buses are way more convenient).  I feel judged when I talk about our family dynamics, about our finances or about our values, because they may not match other people's.  I feel judged when I talk about our daughter and the fact that our family was formed by adoption, always afraid of using the wrong adoption-friendly language, because it may appear that I am stupid or that I don't care.  I feel judged when I try to correct my mother-in-law's inappropriate adoption language and she thinks I'm overreacting.  I feel judged when I talk about adopting again because my physical health is not the greatest and I'm afraid people will not feel that I can be a good mom even with debilitating arthritis (my mom sure was!).

So WHY do I feel so judged?

Regrettably, I think it is because I am a very judgmental person myself.  But interestingly, I think I am only judgmental when it comes to parenting.  Especially when I see people who would, quite universally, be seen as "bad" parents.  Woman comes on to the bus with a large stroller carrying a young child.  The child has a messy shirt, chocolate all over the lower half of his face, and is screaming like a banshee, rocking his stroller back and forth, clearly looking for attention.  Mom is busy texting someone on her cel phone.  When the child reaches for the cel-phone, she shouts at him, maybe even grabbing his hand, pushing it back towards him and telling him to sit back, and shut up and that she is busy.  I judge.  I wonder why God would bless her with a biological (presumably-because if she had adopted she would surely be a better parent-how snooty of me...) child and not me?  It seems I feel I am so much better than this stranger about whom I know nothing.  I have made a judgment exclusively on what I saw of this person in 10-15 minutes.  I never even spoke to her.

I hate that I am so judgmental.  Maybe that's why I think I'm being judged all the time.  I hate that feeling, and wonder, if I became less judgmental, would I feel less judged?

The games people play

Boys: listen up.

Women like to find a deal.  What I mean is that when we go out looking for something, and we find the exact thing we were looking for on sale 40%, 50%, or 75% off, we get a feeling inside that is very difficult to describe.  It is a feeling of accomplishment, satisfaction, amazement and excitement all in one.  It makes us feel like a winner.  I think it must be close to the feeling of winning the Stanley Cup or Wimbledon.  It is thrilling beyond explanation.

A little game we like to play is the "let me show you how awesome I am" game.  This involves asking you how much you think we paid for the item (alternatively phrased as "how much would you think is a good price to pay for this item").  Here's the thing:  if you love your lady, you must play along.

In the event where your lady feels you may not be familiar with how much these items usually go for, she might help you out.  She may suggest to you what she's paid for this type of thing in the past.  Or she may tell you what the regular price is for this item at another store.  

Then, when she asks you the magical question, kindly remember that you are to aim high.  For God's sake!  AIM HIGH!!!!!  If you don't, mark my words, you WILL piss her off!!!  

So when your lady says: Baby these cake mixes are usually 3.99 each!  And these cookies are usually $4.99 each!  I know how much you love cookies and cakes, so I got these for you and stocked up!  How much do you think these 5 cake mixes and 8 boxes of cookies cost?  C'mon!  How much???

The answer, in this particular scenario, is not: "Uh-I don't know, 12 bucks?"

No.

That is most definitely NOT the correct answer.

Because suddenly, I (uh, I mean she) feel(s)  that the $60 worth of food I (she) just bought was not really a good deal at $15.  And that is Bullshit.