Hi there. It’s been a long time. My silence hasn’t come from lack of adventures. There have been many. In fact, every single day it’s one thing after another.

Like last Thursday when I was fingerprinted. It’s another hoop that Toronto Children’s Aid has put forth in the adoption saga. The end had been in sight last spring. Now it’s not. I think Toronto sent the final paperwork to Saskatchewan. Now someone in the redacted department of Saskatchewan needs to go through all the paperwork and remove any identifying information. Eventually I’ll receive a redated copy of Cora’s history that I ended up writing since, strangely, there was nothing in her file regarding the six years she’s been in foster care. Added to that, Toronto now requires all foster and prospective adoptive parents to complete a Broad Record Check. This covers much more than typical police checks but Saskatchewan doesn’t do Broad Record Checks. It took ages to discover something similar that will appease Toronto. With that I needed to be fingerprinted.

Adley and Cora came with me into the RCMP station. I’d done fingerprinting once before for Raine and Athena’s adoption. The process was quick and done in the lobby. This experience was very different. We were taken down multiple hallways and through many doors into the official booking room. On the wall were instructions for capturing proper mug shots and a page explaining how to obtain legal representation. It was a daunting experience. The aged officer found the computer uncooperative. It took several tries to capture my fingerprints.

“It’s Saskatchewan,” the man explained.

“My hands are so dry,” I replied, guessing at his meaning.

“Everything’s dry. That’s the problem.” He rubbed some sort of baby wipe or cleaning cloth on my fingers then dabbed them dry. We tried again and again. Eventually he declared the image to be good enough.

In two to six weeks I’ll have the results. There was another component I completed online. I’m not sure how long the results for that will take. It looks like the redacting of the file, and this will delay the adoption.

“I don’t see why,” the adoption worker in Toronto said. “You know everything, and we’ve entrusted Cora to you since she was born.”

But that’s the system. There isn’t always a real good why. It’s just the way it is. So we continue to wait. Maybe by Cora’s 7^th birthday this will all be wrapped up. I don’t know. Not the only concern, but one of my biggest has been what will happen to Cora if I should die. When we lived in Kingston the social worker told me without question Cora would be removed from our family. Raine and Athena might be allowed to visit her but Adley and Branch would not be able to have any contact. The boys aren’t biologically related to Cora. Even though they are in every way her brothers and have been with her every day of her life, they and my extended family have no claim on her. The response was not unexpected but it still felt so brutal. The social worker here in Saskatchewan has assured me she won’t let Cora be taken from our family. With Raine and Athena much older now and extended biological family near by, the social worker was sure she could justify Cora remaining in the family under some sort of kinship arrangement should I unexpectedly pass away. There’s a small measure of comfort in that but it would still be nice to have this journey towards adoption come to an end.

While I was getting my fingerprints done, Athena and Branch went for a walk in downtown Swift Current. The weather was lovely. I’d promised the children we could go through Tim Horton’s Drive thru when done. It was an exciting time. Our vintage passenger van lost it’s appeal in weeks of minus twenty weather. I ended up getting a 2009 Honda Odyssey. It’s old but so very lovely. It’s small enough and the windows work so we can once more go through drive thru. Athena and Branch met us at Tim Horton’s.

Then we were on to pick up some cast iron skillets from a woman’s house. She left the pans in a bag on her front porch and asked me to leave the money in her mailbox. I hadn’t even thought of bringing an envelope. Athena stuffed the cash into a small paper bag from Tim Horton’s. She put it in the mailbox and grabbed the skillets. I’m going to once more try to master cooking with cast iron. My last attempt failed when somehow a cobbler I made ended up tasting like fish. I don’t know if it was the pan of the fact that my mom accidentally dished it out with a spoon that had earlier been used for fish. Whatever the cause, I gave up after that.

With that pickup complete, we headed to get a vintage bench that I’m going to use as a couch in the mobile. The couple and their son were waiting for me. The husband was quite skeptical of fitting the piece into the minivan with so many children present. I’d measured carefully and, based on the dimensions his wife had sent, it should have been fine. Unfortunately, she didn’t measure the full height just from the ground to the seat without considering the arms that extended up above. It did end up fitting but not as I’d planned. We had to put down more seats. Ten-year-old Branch ended up in the passenger seat. Adley was in the far back. Cora was in the middle row. There was no seat for Athena but she was happy to occupy the floor beside the bench.

We stopped for a few groceries. The excitement of the day left Adley dysregulated. Athena was grabbing things and putting them in the cart. Mainly things that we normally get like tortellini, brie, crackers. There were a few things that we don’t usually have that I vetoed. Adley tried to do the same only he was selecting things that were completely unnecessary like broccoli which no one will eat. Or massive bags of garlic and canisters of what he thought was coffee but was not. Considering he isn’t even allowed coffee despite his love of it, his irate response when I put the canister back was unnecessary. He continued putting things in the cart that I took out and he kept screaming and pounding on the cart in protest.

The plan was to get Subway for supper to ensure Cora and Branch got to skating lessons on time that evening. Getting there is always so challenging. With Adley was screaming about my choices in groceries, Branch was antagonizing him to keep the uproar at a steady pace. I grabbed a couple of boxes of chicken fingers and a bagged salad to eliminate the added stop at Subway.

We headed home. The new van drives so smoothly, well as smoothly as possible on the unsmooth highway. By the time I realized I was going a little too fast, there was a car behind us that could be an unmarked police car. Turns out it was. Not far from town, I was pulled over. Athena hid under the bench. Branch panicked about being in the passenger seat when he’s only ten years old. Thankfully Cora was bucked. She often takes her seat belt off while we’re driving despite firm instructions not to. Once pulled over, Adley removed his seat belt and began screeching and pounding on his seat.

“Just keep quiet,” I told them all.

The office explained why he’d pulled me over. A breathalyzer was brought out. Once he reviewed the procedure, he had me blow into it. My first attempt was a failure. I didn’t have enough breath to complete the analysis. I tried again. And again. Then once more. The police officer was trying very hard not to laugh at me.

“Maybe if you blow harder,” he suggested. “Or if you blow longer.”

Eventually I managed to accomplish the task. The reading was an expected zero.

The officer took my license and registration. He returned to his vehicle. We waited. Adley continued to bounce around in the car. Athena tried not to laugh and Branch was appeased by the fact that his infraction was minor compared to my speeding and Athena being without a seat.

When the officer returned he said I could go with just a warning. I thanked him explaining that the vehicle was new to me and I hadn’t realized my speed. He smiled and sent us on our way. We headed towards town still holding our breath. The unmarked police car pulled up along a marked police car a little bit farther down the highway. We turned off and traveled through the town of Herbert.

“You know if we get into an accident, that same police officer will end up coming,” Athena pointed out.

“Then he’ll see you,” Branch added.

“And he’ll say, Where the heck did you come from?” I added.

“Police are supposed to be observant but he sure wasn’t,” Athena commented.

We took a moment to be thankful for that fact.

At home, Branch preheated the oven. Athena and I carried the bench with ease into the mobile home. The man we bought it from had insisted it was immensely heavy and worried about my ability to unload it. We managed just fine.

Supper was served and we got to skating without a moment to spare. Cora’s friend pulled into the parking lot just after us.

“We’re not the last ones here this week,” Branch pointed out. That seemed to appease him.
Though I try my best we hardly ever make it on time. Generally, the other children are already on the ice while Cora and Branch struggle to get into their skates. But at least we weren’t the last ones to arrive that day.