Looks like allocations this month will take us up to 25 January 2006.

Referrals?

It looks like referrals are coming shortly. The rumour is that the cut off date is 22 January 2006. That's 10 days allocated - the previous allocation was only 3 days. According to my spreadsheet, at this new quicker pace, it will be only 7 years until we see the Panda.

Oddly enough, 7 years sounds like good news at this point.

I made a natty little spreadsheet today. You enter in the most recent date allocated, and the date allocated prior to that, and it works out how long it is until our LID, then calculates - based on that rate of allocations and the days between referrals - what date we will receive our allocation.

So apparently we will see our next child on 31 July 2026.

Referrals are up to 12 January 2006. Currently the rate of referrals is 3 days every month. :(

I'm feeling a little more heartened after reading the IAFQ (International Adoptive Families of QLD) magazine this month. There are plenty of families where the older children are 16 & 13 or whatever, and the parents are close to 50. We would hardly be unusual in that regard. And at least we won't be paying 3 sets of school fees at once... plus Gemma will be old enough to babysit the Baby Panda and drive her to swimming or whatever, while I rest my weary bones.

Allocations are up to 9 January 2006 and our LID is 25 December 2007. Wow, that only leaves about 1800 days to get my 100 Good Wishes Quilt ready... better start planning!

My friend Stephanie, Quilter Extraordinaire, sent me a beautiful necklace in honour of the Panda's quilt. Click on the link to our quilt blog (to your right and down) to see it. You can see she also has plenty of quilting projects to keep her busy while she patiently waits for me to get my arse into gear.

Here's a shameless plug for my favourite online store:

Gosh, if we have to wait 4 years for our baby, then I had better find something else to update this blog about, otherwise I am going to lose all my loyal readership - both of you.

So I will tell you about my au-pair instead. At the recommendation of a friend (Jo, over at Horizontal Hostess), a few months ago I decided to look into getting an au-pair. This is really common in Europe but almost unheard of here. The idea is that you have a young woman (or man) live with you, and for room, board & pocket money, they help with light housework and child care. I was really struggling to get the kids ready and off to school on time when I was trying to get to work myself, and I was finding that I would get home in the evening and I have to clean up the breakfast dishes before I could even think about starting dinner. Then I had to make sure the kids had done their homework, emptied their bags, showered etc. I felt that I was spending my life yelling at the children instead of having any fun with them.

But then along came Lucie. Lucie moved in with us last Wednesday. She is from the Czech Republic - gorgeous, smart, friendly & helpful. Already the children are arguing over who carries Lucie's handbag from the car. Lucie is here to study for 6 months, and is working as an au-pair to pay her living expenses. She starts Uni on Monday, and I think I might get to start having a life.

So if you have a couple of kids and a spare bedroom, maybe you should consider getting a bit of help also - you don't have to do it all on your own. (Of course, some of you may have husbands who love housework - don't tell me about it - you will only upset me.)

Here's where I met Lucie.

Apparently the China Center for Adoption Affairs doesn't close for Christmas - our LID is 25 December 2007. Merry Christmas!

Time since Monday, December 24, 2007 at 12:00:00 Noon (Brisbane time)
29 days
704 hours
42281 minutes
2536897 seconds

But who's counting?

Our file was received in China by Mr Li on 24 December 2007. No LID yet.

We've been batched!

We are now officially one sixth of QLD Group 8/07.