A year or two ago we pulled the pin on this adoption.  It was time to update our file, which meant full medicals including heart x-rays and whatnot - an expensive and time consuming process.  It seemed unlikely that it would be worth our while, so we withdrew.

Out of interest, today, I looked up where allocations are up to now. Children have been placed with families whose files were received in China up to 8th October 2006.  In the last 4.5 years, they have got through 9 months of files.  Our log in date was 25 December 2007.  At that pace we would have been waiting probably another 8 years.  I would be 52 years old.  Yeah... not gonna happen.

We feel a bit sad about it, but not terribly so.  We feel like we did what we could, and there was nothing we could have done differently. We learned so much in the process, we discovered a heap about China, and we learned a bit of the language as well.  In the long run, if we weren't needed, that's a good thing.  I have a nagging feeling however, that families are still needed for babies in China, there's just something terribly wrong with the system.

For an update on the China situation, and to make your blood boil, I refer you to Emma and Aaron's blog.

In the 2.5 years that our file has been in China, referrals have progressed by about 3 months. So at that rate, our baby is approximately 20 years away.

Emma and Aaron are a few months behind us. So using that logic, Sebastian will be grown and left home before their adoption comes through. But they are expected to withdraw and start the process again from the beginning.

Sometimes there just aren't enough swear words.

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.

The dossier has been posted!











Now for translation and notarising and blah blah blah other stuff that someone else does. In a few weeks we will be asked for some more cheques, then our file will be sent to China. Some time after that (could be a couple of months) we will get a LID (log in date) and then everything hinges on that date.

Families who are being allocated currently, have a log in date of roughly 2 years prior. We are expecting an allocation date of up to 4 years past our log in date.

So don't start knitting the booties yet...

Finding Zhao Gu

Every month, the China Centre for Adoption Affairs refers children to families. The families currently receiving referrals have had their files in China for a bit less than 2 years. The last few referrals have only included a few days worth of families (does that make sense?) To make it clearer, the families referred this month had their files logged in at the CCAA in the first two weeks of December 2005. That's why I believe that we will have a four year wait from when our file arrives to when we are allocated. It used to be quicker than that, but as more people apply and there are more families waiting, it takes longer.

Anyway, if you like to have a cry over the babies allocated this month, here they are at China Adopt Talk.

Now that we have been approved, it's time to start the quilt. My lovely friend Stephanie has been patient for so long but her quilting fingers are itching to get going. So until I find a spare minute to write the letter, you can start browsing fabrics and thinking about what you would like to say. Pop on over to our 100 Good Wishes blog and you can read a bit about why we are doing this, and also learn a bit about quilting in general.

Steph has a way of getting completely average non-creative joes to create masterpiece quilts. It hasn't worked on me yet, but it has on plenty of others.

Progress report:

I have had my police check with fingerprints. (That's a bit embarrassing. You just want to tell everyone who walks past "Oh, I'm adopting... I haven't been arrested... I'm adopting... yes, hello I'm adopting...") For the record the cost for that is $146.70 and I had the certificate back within a week. It just says that I don't have any criminal convictions anywhere in Australia.

Scott and I have both had our medicals ($102 each) and blood tests (bulk billed to Medicare.) Scott has to go back to the doctor as one of his tests indicated something funny in his kidney or liver or something (I always get those two mixed up), possibly related to the medication he is on for his cholesterol.

I have my Certificate of Profession from my employer, but Scott's is going to take longer because he is self-employed and our company tax is a year behind. I will be nagging him about this constantly... oh wait... I already do.

We have to have it all together and submitted by end November because we will be away in December and I don't want us to be the couple who hold up the batch!

Great news! We have been approved! And, despite the delay, we haven't missed any batches.

Now we wait for a letter in the mail to tell us what to do next. I know we need updated medicals and police checks. And I think we have to write a letter to the Chinese government asking to be allowed to adopt, and have everything translated into Chinese and notarised. The paper chase part 2 begins in earnest...

Woohoo, progress!

We got our report through and it is all very positive and we have been officially recommended for approval. I have written to say that we accept the report, and now we just wait for it to be passed by the committee, or something like that, and we will be approved. After then it comes time to prepare our dossier and I believe that is quite a big job. Hopefully we can get that done by December as we will be away on holidays for most of that month. I'd love to see our file winging its way to China before that.

Can you believe it's been nearly 11 months since we did our Education????