1st - We switched homeschool curriculum and I am SO EXCITED about that! :) The boys are MUCH happier, and I am a MUCH HAPPIER Mama! :) Yay!
2nd - Spunky is doing really well. We still have our moments (as I blogged out last), but she is really doing well and attaching and adjusting. I find it so interesting how it ebbs and flows. When she first came, she attached to Steve and bonded to him first. She really didn't want anything to do with me - we think because of 'loyalty' issues with her Mom, but now she's attached to me and has this 'push/pull' relationship with Steve. She loves him and wants to be with him all the time, then when I am around, she totally pushes him away. It's as if she only knows how to love us one at a time, and has no concept of a 2-parent home where she can be loved by both and love both. It's so interesting to watch her try to figure out what a 'normal' home is like, when I'm sure it feels anything but normal to her!
She's also done a couple interesting things lately: First, I found her looking at pictures of our family that are on the wall and she would make comments like "oh, that's when I went to my mom's house for a little bit, right?" as if she just stepped away from our family, had a visit with her bio mom, we took a picture, and then she came home. It's so interesting to see and hear how her brain is trying to figure it all out and process it.
Then, today - we had a family team meeting with all the foster/adoptive parents, the grandparents, social workers, adoption workers, therapists, lawyers, etc. Yah, rather interesting. Tough situation and really not a fun meeting, but a lot of stuff needed to be said and it was said in a respectful manner, which was good. But, at the meeting, Grandma gave me an envelope with pictures in it of Spunky and her siblings from the past year. I am so grateful for how willing Grandma has been to give us photos!! Spunky loves to look at them! And, tonight we were going through them and looking at them together and I had an extra picture frame, so I put one of her in it and set it on the shelf with a picture I have of the boys. She loved that. But, then she began looking around and pointed to a family photo that we have in the living room. She said, "you need to put my picture there with our family". I was like "really?" Wow. So, we cut one a bit smaller and stuck it in the glass within the 8x10 of our family. She smiled so big and said, "yep, that looks good"!
I can't even begin to tell you what it does to my heart to see her beginning to actually 'belong' and you can tell she's really feeling a part of our family. I love that! I know she doesn't comprehend all that is happening, but with these small steps, my heart is bursting with happiness at how far we have come!!!! :)
And, finally 3rd - I am LOVING being back at the gym and working with my old trainer! It has been soooooo hard at times and very emotional, but each week, I feel stronger and gain more endurance. I have a very long ways to go and we're not even focused on weight loss yet, but we are moving forward! :) Thanksgiving week I did something stupid and worked out for 8 minutes on the treadmill. Cory had told me NOT to workout on the treadmill or elliptical; however, those were my only options, other than walking outside in the snow! lol He was not amused that I'd walked on the treadmill and I learned my lesson - walk in the snow next time! lol For whatever reason, my hip cannot handle the treadmill yet. Bummer. So, that set me back a couple days when I returned and was in quite a bit of pain. I was so bummed and frustrated and mad at myself and just despising how slow we are having to go. But, I also was reminded of why I am working with Cory again in the first place and the fact that I need to actually listen to him because he knows what he is doing! :)
Well, here we are 2 weeks later and I finally got to bump up to working out 4x this week and we've added bike interval training!!! So, I do about 15 minutes of prep-movement exercises and foam roller exercises, then 20 minutes of weight training, then 20 minutes of bike intervals and then stretching for about 10 minutes. I am SO EXCITED!!!!!! It's still so far from where I used to be, but we are progressing and I am learning to be excited about each small progression. :) I can't tell you how I feel when I leave the gym.....this is me! This is what I used to love and had to give up! I am so out of shape, but slowly but surely, I feel stronger! I just have to listen to Cory, listen to my body, and take things line up on line. We will finish out this month really working on building a strong foundation, and then in January we will hopefully kick things up a bit more, change things up, and begin focusing on losing weight and getting fit again! yay!
So.......life has been busy, but good!!! :)
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