Back Again

Only 28 days since our last post. Sigh. We have had lots of action in that time. We'll try to get caught up here.

John started back to work at IBM on November 2. He was happy to get together with his colleagues and friends there and to catch up on all the news on events of the past few months. John doesn't want to embarrasss his boss, Tara, so we won't mention all of the fantastic support she provided over the past couple of years as we pursued our adoption process. We wouldn't have been successful without her help.

The three of us went over to Monika's cousin Kazik's house on November 7 for a birthday/meet-and-greet celebration. Alexey got to meet some more of his relatives on Monika's side of the family. Kazik and his wife Natalie prepared a wonderful buffet lunch for us all. Alexey got to meet their son Gabriel for the first time. Gabriel is already in grade 1 at school. Alexey also met Kazik's parents, Zbyszek and Ewa,  and Kazik's sister, Anna. Babcia (Monika's mom) was there too. We had a great time, since it was an honourary birthday celebration for Alexey and a real "on-the-day" birthday party for Zbyszek. Alexey was showered with lots of gifts, for which we are all very grateful.

After a couple of weeks back at work, John decided that he wanted to stay at home with Alexey and Monika. So he caught a nice case of pneumonia. Seriously though, this likely happened because his immune system was suppressed due to the food poisoning he had when we first returned home. So he went on a fine course of antibiotics for 10 days and was off work for a week. Monika once again became a single mom for almost two weeks because John couldn't do very much. Some days he couldn't even pick up Alexey.

Speaking of health, though, Alexey finally received his citizenship certificate, so we were able to get a health card number for him. Monika and Alexey got their H1N1 flu shots a couple of days later. We also were able to get a SIN card for Alexey, so he can go to work at any time now.

That brings us up to date.