January 6, 2016
When I began this blog back in 2006 (yikes!) I wasn’t sure how much I was comfortable sharing about myself and even more importantly about my family. I blogged to feel better about my life, not to become famous – lol. So I didn’t tell anything that would pinpoint where I live and I just used a first initial for the family. I also tried to be careful to not write embarrassing things – instead focusing more on my reactions and feelings about events. But it has always felt stunted – that I couldn’t really be myself on my blog because I was expending so much energy trying to reign in any self identifying information or sharing too much about […]
January 5, 2016
Since I wrote articles for BLOOM and The Mighty I have been thinking a lot about accepting people’s help but even more so HOW do you let people know you need something as you struggle with a disability (mental health, developmental, health)? I mean it’s easy for me to write that I want friends and family to help me at times but how do I let them know when that time is? What do I do for example when a co-worker asks in passing “How are you”? Do I start in on a long story about how my anxiety is really high and my depression medication has just been increased? I mean how weird would that be? Truthfully I don’t know if I […]
December 24, 2015
It’s almost Christmas Eve and the presents are all wrapped and under the tree. But I find myself at a loss as to what to get for you. A new purse, a book, a gift card – perhaps. Or what about this: When I look back on my childhood I often think of the difficult times like when your migraines were bad, or that time you got called for jury duty and the time the one side of your body was partially paralyzed and they thought you had Multiple Sclerosis. I think about how even good events, were often so difficult for you. There were things that could throw you into a fit – the wrong creamer for your coffee, […]
December 19, 2015
Who knew where life would take us when we first met across the table at Adoption classes? We became the best of friends in a short amount of time and when I adopted my son you were there every step of the way. Two adoptions for you and another for me and quite miraculously all of our children got along which lead to group trips to places such as water parks and apple picking. This was good because often times your oldest son was the only one who would play with my oldest. Being a mom with you felt normal. A normal that I never felt with other moms and kids. Thank you for all those days where my oldest […]
December 14, 2015
So using a random generator I have the winner of the Tim’s or Starbucks giftcard Congratulations Andrea!! Leave a comment as to which card you would like and I will deliver it to you. Thanks to those that played – I appreciate the sharing of my blog and the new ideas for blogposts. Tina
December 7, 2015
So who doesn’t like the chance to win something? The rules are simple – leave a comment here on my blog telling me which blog post is your favourite for a second entry in the draw include in your comment an idea for a new blog post. Share are my blog link on your Facebook status for a 3rd entry (if we are not friends on FB just let me know in the comments that you did it – I trust you) see. Isn’t that easy? Contest closes December 13 so hurry! And for your hard work if your name is chosen I will send you a gift card to either Tim Horton’s or Starbucks. You choose. Happy commenting Tina
December 2, 2015
I’m super excited that another of my writing pieces has been picked up by The Mighty You can read it here This just proves if you keep putting yourself out there you will finally experience success (I had submitted 3 times with 3 rejections before they agreed to publish this last piece). Have a great day! Tina
December 2, 2015
Another of my articles has been published by the website The Mighty. Go here to read it Tina
November 18, 2015
We adopted our first child when I was 28 years old. My plan had been to have at least one kid by the age of 25. We struggled with infertility and since I wasn’t having babies I instead focused on my career in early intervention. I worked my way up to my dream job and the same week I found out I got the job we also found out we were adopting a little boy. A little boy with big blue eyes and an endearing smile. Also a little boy that NEVER stopped moving and was constantly getting himself into trouble. I didn’t know it was going to be so exhausting day in and day out. It wouldn’t have been […]
November 15, 2015
I first knew something was amiss when 5 year old Jeremy said from his car seat “Mom let’s have a meeting” . I looked at him in the rear view mirror and asked “Why should we have a meeting?” “Because you have meetings for Corbin all the time. You are always at a meeting. I want to have a meeting”. I worked hard not to cry as it settled in just how much time we were spending on Corbin’s life and how little we spent on Jeremy. “What would we do at the meeting?” I asked “Do stuff that I want” and then he paused before saying “I will bring the pens and paper and you bring the Brownies”. Such […]