April 27, 2014
My first "catch-up" with an out-of-province friend! Not that I took the road trip to BC. And not that Christine wouldn't prefer to not be making these road trips to Calgary herself (details later). But lucky for me, she was able to carve out some time for a lunch date during one of many, recent whirlwind visits to our fair city.
Chris and I met in 2008 when she became a new administrator in Cochrane. She wasn't new to the job itself, but new to Alberta. I was a relative newbie in my role as well and so we immediately had that in common. She also worked, and became good friends, with Diane (see Cup 1), we sat on some committees together, and she and her new hubby, Marvin, lived nearby in Tuscany. One of my biggest regrets, while they lived in my same community, was never visiting their place at Christmas time. It sounds like Marvin was (perhaps still is) the Clark Griswald of Christmas decorations on their block. Maybe Halloween decorations too!
While we didn't work for the same school board for a long time, we did have some excellent professional conversations and I feel very fortunate to have her still in my network. Chris is wonderful about staying up to speed about what is still going on here, East of her re-location back to Sparwood, BC. Besides lunch last week, we have also been able to connect at recent leadership conferences. Chris left Alberta, after 4 years with Rocky View, to tackle on her own principalship and is now in her second school, seeing her name on the big office door. However, as with most people, a career and professional ties are rarely the most interesting or important parts of a person...
Through the blessing of surrogacy, Chris and Marvin over-achieved in their dream for a little one and are now uber-proud parents to twins Charlie and Carter. Everyone who knows them love seeing the boys' progress through photos. (Each parent was able to claim one boy to either be their personal Flames/Stampeders fan or Oilers/Eskimos fan and we will commonly see the boys dressed in theme according to these rivalries.) More recently though, those in their circle not only see their progress in photos but we frequently read about this family's journey through Christine's new blog. Earlier this year little Carter was diagnosed with Type One Juvenile Diabetes (hence, the unrequested recent, trips to Calgary and the Alberta Children's Hospital) and his devoted mama has been tracking everything they are learning and going through. Everyone should check out Chris' blog to learn some things. I know I have: http://twinalivingwithd.blogspot.ca . While it is "neat" (?!) to have each other's blogs to read, of course I wish she could have chosen something else as her focus! How Chris is managing to keep her wits about her while she and Marvin wrestle with new realities, and still run a school is a testament to who she is, who Marvin is, and who all the fabulous people are in their support circle. I would like to think I am one, albeit from the province next door.
I look forward to keeping in touch with Chris thanks to social media and intentionally finding more opportunities to meet up in person. I especially look forward to continuing to read Chris' blog, ideally finding out they are beating JD. I'm not sure if Carter is the Stampeder or the Eskimo but he's a fighter. So is his mama.
While we didn't work for the same school board for a long time, we did have some excellent professional conversations and I feel very fortunate to have her still in my network. Chris is wonderful about staying up to speed about what is still going on here, East of her re-location back to Sparwood, BC. Besides lunch last week, we have also been able to connect at recent leadership conferences. Chris left Alberta, after 4 years with Rocky View, to tackle on her own principalship and is now in her second school, seeing her name on the big office door. However, as with most people, a career and professional ties are rarely the most interesting or important parts of a person...
Through the blessing of surrogacy, Chris and Marvin over-achieved in their dream for a little one and are now uber-proud parents to twins Charlie and Carter. Everyone who knows them love seeing the boys' progress through photos. (Each parent was able to claim one boy to either be their personal Flames/Stampeders fan or Oilers/Eskimos fan and we will commonly see the boys dressed in theme according to these rivalries.) More recently though, those in their circle not only see their progress in photos but we frequently read about this family's journey through Christine's new blog. Earlier this year little Carter was diagnosed with Type One Juvenile Diabetes (hence, the unrequested recent, trips to Calgary and the Alberta Children's Hospital) and his devoted mama has been tracking everything they are learning and going through. Everyone should check out Chris' blog to learn some things. I know I have: http://twinalivingwithd.blogspot.ca . While it is "neat" (?!) to have each other's blogs to read, of course I wish she could have chosen something else as her focus! How Chris is managing to keep her wits about her while she and Marvin wrestle with new realities, and still run a school is a testament to who she is, who Marvin is, and who all the fabulous people are in their support circle. I would like to think I am one, albeit from the province next door.I look forward to keeping in touch with Chris thanks to social media and intentionally finding more opportunities to meet up in person. I especially look forward to continuing to read Chris' blog, ideally finding out they are beating JD. I'm not sure if Carter is the Stampeder or the Eskimo but he's a fighter. So is his mama.
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