Our Journey

I have just realised that, even though this blog is entitled 'Our Journey to Alice' I have written very little about our journey so far. It has been a long one. Not, I should add, as long as those of some people, but long enough. We made the initial decision to adopt from overseas in January 2005. Both my kids were in school, and I just felt that I didn't want to stop being a full time mum! DH and I can't have any more kids the old-fashioned way, so, after much prayer and soul-searching, we decided upon international adoption (I.A.). And what a journey it has been. We lodged our EOI (expression of interest) in February 2005, and started our social worker visits in April of the same year. This involved four separate meetings, each of almost three hours duration (grilling). Luckily our social worker is a lovely person and the process wasn't TOO painful! During this time (April-July) we also had to complete a country project, dealing with the country we had chosen to adopt from, and write up answers to about seven A4 pages of questions about ourselves, our family life, our childhoods, our preparedness for adopting, our parenting techniques, etc etc etc etc. When we finally received our official approval to adopt in September 2005 we were thrilled, and hopeful of being DTC (dossier to China) very soon. Fate, however, had other ideas. Due to a departmental mistake, our file was held up and was not sent until November 8th 2005. Little were we to know at that time that those few months would be so crucial..... When our file left for China, allocations were taking around six months - ie: your file was sent to China, and six months later you received your referral. Good ol' Mr Murphy came to visit though, and as soon as our file was received by the CCAA, the Great Slow Down (mentioned in a previous post) began. The wait stretched out and out, to the point we have reached now - 17 months and two weeks since DTC and STILL no allocation. We really hope to hear our good news in the not too distant future. If I am being uber-optimistic, I would say July, but more likely to be August, with September as a bad case scenario. SO - this means travel to China somewhere between September and November this year. I am just so thrilled to be nearing the end of this emotional roller coaster, and not just starting out. If you aren't directly involved in the IA process, it is difficult to understand the plethora of conflicting emotions that you experience, sometimes on a minute by minute basis! But I have been very fortunate to have made some fantastic friends whilst on this wild ride, and I am truly blessed to be undertaking this very special journey with so much support, both from my new friends and old.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, and Happy Mothers Day to all the mums and mums to be.