Today is 31st October, my self-imposed deadline for having all documentation back for establishing our eligibility. I knew the only thing that the Dept of Child Safety didn't have was one reference so I sent a text message reminder to my lovely friend Lisa yesterday and she was on the phone this morning telling me that she was completing the form as we spoke, and she was happy to ring the Dept and get their fax number so that they would receive everything today.
Now to wait and see what happens next...
We are planning to be in China for holidays from about 3-18 December so hopefully we will make our next move prior to that.
In the meantime, I am comfortable with several words of Mandarin. The most useful ones include:
Me, I, my, mine
You, yours
He/she, his/hers
Like
don't like
am, is
friend
mother
Thank you
hello
how are you? Well, thank you or Not so good.
and the numbers up to 7.
I like Mandarin. It's a practical, sensible language. So long as you are only trying to speak it, that is, not write it.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Quick update - I had my medical on Wednesday and Scott had his yesterday. I just have to get my chest x-rays on Monday and assuming all is okay then our medical part will be all done.
Jeannie from the EOI Team called me to say that we can't use Damien as a referee because he doesn't live in Queensland so our friend Cahrol has come to the party instead. Very impressively, Jeannie received our paperwork on Wednesday and sent the referee's forms out the same day. Cahrol received hers on Thursday and sent it back the same day. yay! Thank goodness, because I forgot she was going to Peru for a month leaving Friday.
So all is going swimmingly at this point. Fingers crossed it stays that way.
It's Gemma's 11th birthday today and Ben's 6th birthday on Monday. Hopefully by the time they turn 13 and 8, they will have a Mei Mei (little sister.)
Jeannie from the EOI Team called me to say that we can't use Damien as a referee because he doesn't live in Queensland so our friend Cahrol has come to the party instead. Very impressively, Jeannie received our paperwork on Wednesday and sent the referee's forms out the same day. Cahrol received hers on Thursday and sent it back the same day. yay! Thank goodness, because I forgot she was going to Peru for a month leaving Friday.
So all is going swimmingly at this point. Fingers crossed it stays that way.
It's Gemma's 11th birthday today and Ben's 6th birthday on Monday. Hopefully by the time they turn 13 and 8, they will have a Mei Mei (little sister.)
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Yesterday we got the letter. THE letter. The "we invite you to establish your eligibility" letter. The letter that means we are officially in the process. Woohoo! There are 3 parts to this next step.
1. Health Assessment - We need a complete medical check by our family doctor as well as chest x-rays. I've made appointments for Scott & I to see Dr Julie next week to have this done. I have to confess to how much alcohol I drink. Oh thank god I don't smoke any more. Smoking is a big no-no. They ask about genetic diseases. My mother has MND - I wonder if I have to tell them that? It's not proven to be genetic - it's only a theory, and we are not aware of anyone else in the family having it. I will ask Dr Julie. I have to tell them about the health of my parents anyway so I'll need to admit to it there, but I don't want to write it in the box next to "are you aware of any... genetic predispostion to any medical condition which may affect your life expectancy?" Oh, and I have to have a pap smear. Can't hardly wait.
2. References about your suitability - I have already spoken to two good friends of ours who are prepared to lie... er... I mean... tell them what wonderful people we are. Truth is, there are so many people we could have chosen as referees but we chose two who we think are reliable enough to write back considering we don't know how much paperwork is involved. So thank you to Lisa & Damien who love us and want to help us in The Quest for the Holy Girl. If you read this in a few years time, you can say "hey, look - we were part of that!"
3. Criminal history checks - We will piss this in. Scott has a few speeding fines (which he hates me mentioning) but otherwise we are squeaky clean. Good boys and girls. Consider this children - if you do naughty, silly things when you are little, when you are a grown-up it can affect you in ways you never dreamed of. Like you might not be able to adopt. So be good. Thus endeth the lesson.
I am aiming to have all of this paperwork done and back to them by the end of October. If we pass this stage I think we are assigned a social worker and then have to pay another $2000. Ooh, I am getting excited!
1. Health Assessment - We need a complete medical check by our family doctor as well as chest x-rays. I've made appointments for Scott & I to see Dr Julie next week to have this done. I have to confess to how much alcohol I drink. Oh thank god I don't smoke any more. Smoking is a big no-no. They ask about genetic diseases. My mother has MND - I wonder if I have to tell them that? It's not proven to be genetic - it's only a theory, and we are not aware of anyone else in the family having it. I will ask Dr Julie. I have to tell them about the health of my parents anyway so I'll need to admit to it there, but I don't want to write it in the box next to "are you aware of any... genetic predispostion to any medical condition which may affect your life expectancy?" Oh, and I have to have a pap smear. Can't hardly wait.
2. References about your suitability - I have already spoken to two good friends of ours who are prepared to lie... er... I mean... tell them what wonderful people we are. Truth is, there are so many people we could have chosen as referees but we chose two who we think are reliable enough to write back considering we don't know how much paperwork is involved. So thank you to Lisa & Damien who love us and want to help us in The Quest for the Holy Girl. If you read this in a few years time, you can say "hey, look - we were part of that!"
3. Criminal history checks - We will piss this in. Scott has a few speeding fines (which he hates me mentioning) but otherwise we are squeaky clean. Good boys and girls. Consider this children - if you do naughty, silly things when you are little, when you are a grown-up it can affect you in ways you never dreamed of. Like you might not be able to adopt. So be good. Thus endeth the lesson.
I am aiming to have all of this paperwork done and back to them by the end of October. If we pass this stage I think we are assigned a social worker and then have to pay another $2000. Ooh, I am getting excited!
Saturday, September 23, 2006
In the next stage of the adoption process, we have to create a Life Book for the child. This is a book that I guess would be similar to the baby books you create when you give birth to a child. It's something precious for that child that tells them a bit about who they are and how they came to be with you. Most of the life books I have seen are scrap books. Mine will be a scrap book too, except that I am going to focus on the words equally and make it a story book that I can read to our new daughter.
Today I wrote the first draft of the story, and here 'tis.
Once upon a time, in China, there lived a little girl. She was a bright, smart, happy, beautiful little girl and she lived with lots of other little girls at the orphanage. It was fun to have so many other children to play with and the people who cared for the little girls were very kind, but sometimes they told her that one day all of the little girls would go to live with a family.
A family is a wonderful thing to have. There are people who love you and care for you and want to be with you for the rest of their lives. You have a mother and father who look after you and brothers and sisters to play with. Sometimes parents in China have little girls and they are not able to care for them so they send them to the orphanage so that the little girls can find a new family. We don’t know why this little girl’s parents had to send her to the orphanage. We only know that it must have been the hardest and saddest thing they ever had to do. I’ll bet they think about her every single day.
Meanwhile, a long way away in Australia there lived a family. There was a mother and a father and a sister and a brother. They were a happy family but sometimes they felt something was missing. They just didn’t feel complete.
One day the mother read an article in a magazine about little girls in China who needed families. She spoke to the father and the sister and the brother about it. “I think,” she said, “that what we need to be complete is a little girl from China. I would like to ask the government if we can have one of these little girls to come and live with us and be part of our family.”
The father and the sister and the brother thought that was an excellent idea. A little girl from China was exactly what they needed.
So the mother and the father started the very long process of being allowed to have a little girl from China come and be part of their family. There were about a million interviews and about a trillion forms to fill in, but eventually the government said that yes, they would be allowed to have a new daughter from China.
But which little girl would it be?
Back in China, there are people whose job it is to look at all the families who need little girls, and all the little girls who need families, and match them up. They have to decide which family will be just perfect for each little girl. One day, one of these people was looking at a picture of a baby girl in one hand, and a picture of a family in the other hand. “Aha,” she said. “This is the perfect family for this little girl, and the perfect little girl for this family.”
In Australia, the mother received a phone call to tell her that there was a baby waiting in China who was just right for her family. The mother was so excited, and she couldn’t stop crying. All of the family was very anxious to get to China and bring their new baby girl home.
The next few weeks were so busy! There was so much to do but eventually the family flew on a plane to China and went to the orphanage where the little girl lived.
It was a little bit scary, meeting everybody for the first time, but straightaway they all knew that everything was as it should be. They were all just right for each other.
Of course, you know the rest of the story because that little girl was you. Now you live in Australia with Mum & Dad and your sister Gemma and your brother Ben. We’re all so happy to have each other, and none of us would have it any other way.
Today I wrote the first draft of the story, and here 'tis.
Once upon a time, in China, there lived a little girl. She was a bright, smart, happy, beautiful little girl and she lived with lots of other little girls at the orphanage. It was fun to have so many other children to play with and the people who cared for the little girls were very kind, but sometimes they told her that one day all of the little girls would go to live with a family.
A family is a wonderful thing to have. There are people who love you and care for you and want to be with you for the rest of their lives. You have a mother and father who look after you and brothers and sisters to play with. Sometimes parents in China have little girls and they are not able to care for them so they send them to the orphanage so that the little girls can find a new family. We don’t know why this little girl’s parents had to send her to the orphanage. We only know that it must have been the hardest and saddest thing they ever had to do. I’ll bet they think about her every single day.
Meanwhile, a long way away in Australia there lived a family. There was a mother and a father and a sister and a brother. They were a happy family but sometimes they felt something was missing. They just didn’t feel complete.
One day the mother read an article in a magazine about little girls in China who needed families. She spoke to the father and the sister and the brother about it. “I think,” she said, “that what we need to be complete is a little girl from China. I would like to ask the government if we can have one of these little girls to come and live with us and be part of our family.”
The father and the sister and the brother thought that was an excellent idea. A little girl from China was exactly what they needed.
So the mother and the father started the very long process of being allowed to have a little girl from China come and be part of their family. There were about a million interviews and about a trillion forms to fill in, but eventually the government said that yes, they would be allowed to have a new daughter from China.
But which little girl would it be?
Back in China, there are people whose job it is to look at all the families who need little girls, and all the little girls who need families, and match them up. They have to decide which family will be just perfect for each little girl. One day, one of these people was looking at a picture of a baby girl in one hand, and a picture of a family in the other hand. “Aha,” she said. “This is the perfect family for this little girl, and the perfect little girl for this family.”
In Australia, the mother received a phone call to tell her that there was a baby waiting in China who was just right for her family. The mother was so excited, and she couldn’t stop crying. All of the family was very anxious to get to China and bring their new baby girl home.
The next few weeks were so busy! There was so much to do but eventually the family flew on a plane to China and went to the orphanage where the little girl lived.
It was a little bit scary, meeting everybody for the first time, but straightaway they all knew that everything was as it should be. They were all just right for each other.
Of course, you know the rest of the story because that little girl was you. Now you live in Australia with Mum & Dad and your sister Gemma and your brother Ben. We’re all so happy to have each other, and none of us would have it any other way.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Now that we have joined a couple of support groups, I find there are plenty of families who are much further down the journey than we are who also have websites or blogs.
This website belongs to Lee & Donna who are meeting their baby daughter Xiao tomorrow. I wish them the very best and looking forward to the day when we are in the same boat.
http://www.ourjourney.bigpondhosting.com/index.htm
Next weekend we have a Chinese student moving in with us. Her name is Holly and she is 17. Holly is here to learn English but we believe we also have a lot to learn from her. Our hope is that over the next couple of years we will acquire a greater understanding of Chinese culture and some basic Mandarin.
My brother has recently become close friends with a delightful Chinese woman, so if he plays his cards right then our Chinese baby might have a Chinese auntie and cousins. That would be wonderful - I don't want to hope too hard in case the Gods notice how well things are going down here.
Now all we need is to be invited to apply...
This website belongs to Lee & Donna who are meeting their baby daughter Xiao tomorrow. I wish them the very best and looking forward to the day when we are in the same boat.
http://www.ourjourney.bigpondhosting.com/index.htm
Next weekend we have a Chinese student moving in with us. Her name is Holly and she is 17. Holly is here to learn English but we believe we also have a lot to learn from her. Our hope is that over the next couple of years we will acquire a greater understanding of Chinese culture and some basic Mandarin.
My brother has recently become close friends with a delightful Chinese woman, so if he plays his cards right then our Chinese baby might have a Chinese auntie and cousins. That would be wonderful - I don't want to hope too hard in case the Gods notice how well things are going down here.
Now all we need is to be invited to apply...
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Today I posted the first paperwork so I guess we are now officially in the process. That was the Expression of Interest form. From here, we will be either given the flick, or invited to apply.
On Sunday at International Day we met lots of people who had their children within 2 years of starting the process so I hope that will be the case for us also.
On Sunday at International Day we met lots of people who had their children within 2 years of starting the process so I hope that will be the case for us also.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Yesterday, through work, I met a woman who is adopting from Ethiopia. She and her husband have been going through the process for five years! Her file has been in Ethiopia for two years. Now they are just waiting for the call. They have asked for a sibling group so it's lovely to think that a family will get to stay together because of them.
She tells me that the process is tedious and frustrating and you will be expected to jump through any hoop that the Child Safety department thinks is a good idea at the time. However she also says that it's good to see that not just anyone can adopt.
She also tells me to hang in there and not give up. I think I'll need to remember those words in a couple of years - I'm still all starry eyed at the moment!
I'll see her again on Sunday at International Day - the family fun day for the International Adoption support group.
She tells me that the process is tedious and frustrating and you will be expected to jump through any hoop that the Child Safety department thinks is a good idea at the time. However she also says that it's good to see that not just anyone can adopt.
She also tells me to hang in there and not give up. I think I'll need to remember those words in a couple of years - I'm still all starry eyed at the moment!
I'll see her again on Sunday at International Day - the family fun day for the International Adoption support group.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
