Closed Blog

I started this blog with the intention of changing over to blogging here instead of at my original blog. Then I realised I had no way of combining the two blogs into one, well there probably is but its WAAAAY beyond my technical capabilities lol. And after having my original blog "blinged" for my birthday I decided to stay there. The title no longer makes any sense, but the posts and the "history" of our families doings that is stored there make it precious anyway :-) And I realised that taking a detour to China before going to Ethiopia is part and parcel of our new little one's story - if we hadn't done it this way we wouldn't be adopting 'her' it could be some other child. I don't think adoption from Ethiopia was even an option when we started to research all this back in late 2005! So China was a detour that brought us both our precious Little Prince and will lead us to our future little one too :-)

So if you want to know what we have been up to and keep up with all my drivel and waffling please visit HERE.

Meeting (finally!!!)

We heard from our Local Authority last Tuesday (8th April) that Team Leader had finally arranged a meeting with our social worker - at the end of May!!! Me and Mr Messy cooked up some cock and bull story about him having planned to have work holidays that week, and could we please (pretty please with sugar on top) move this meeting forward. A few frantic emails later, and the meeting was rescheduled for the end of April YEAH :-)

Frustrated!!!!

The end of another week and still no word from our social worker. Our LA has tried leaving another message for her, but I'm presuming she hasn't got back to them yet as the LA haven't said anything. Its SO SO frustrating!!! I know that our LA is supportive (and that we are extremely lucky in that) but they work so so so slowly, so every delay before even starting our change of country update, will be compounded by their slowness in dealing with all the paperwork once its finally in their hands. And then we have to renavigate the DCSF nightmare, again adding more and more time. We are probably going to have a long wait once our papers reach Ethiopia, as we want to wait for a child with enough background information, so that we can be sure she is legitimately available for adoption, and the orphanage UK families work with rarely takes in children with known family members. So the quicker we can deal with the UK side of things, the quicker we can get in the queue for the Ethiopian side of things - but we are just in limbo WAITING!! URGH!!!!!

Guess What I've Been Doing...??

Well DUH!!! It was bound to be shopping lol. I got all these outfits from either Gap or Monsoon outlet shops and they cost a fraction of the cost they would in the regular shop - but they are just as cute :-)

I just LURVE shopping :-)

Dolly Delay

I've just had an email from the place I've ordered the Corolle Cecille Doll from, unfortunately the doll won't be in stock until early May. I could have got a full refund, but I prefer to wait and have them despatch the doll when its finally available.

More shopping

Well its all I seem to be able to do for this adoption at the moment, until our social worker gets in touch anyway. I've decided the theme for Little One's nursery will be 'hearts' and today I bought these lovely rustic wooden and fabric hearts to decorate the nursery with - I just can't wait to get it started :-) I've also seen this cotbed in Toys R Us that will go perfectly with my theme (and they do a matching changing unit too), although imagine it in pink rather than blue lol.
Something more like this :-
Which is the Toys R Us "Hugs and Kisses" range :-)

Tuesday's Post!!

I heard from our LA Team Leader today, well she replied to my email!! Apparently she has spoken to our homestudy social worker's husband, and is waiting for our social worker to call her back. Fingers crossed its soon, now we've made the decision to change countries I want to get the changeover underway. The UK bureaucracy is such a pain to get through that I want to start it as soon as possible, preferably yesterday. Its a pity no one else seems to share my enthusiasm!!!

Dolly has arrived

The dolly I won on Ebay arrived this morning and she is even prettier 'in person' than in her photos :-) She is now dressed in a pretty American Girl Bitty Baby dress and is ready and waiting to be loved by our future Little One from Ethiopia. Or to be used as a gun, or swung round by her leg by Little Prince!! Why can't he play more like a girl - probably because he's a boy lol.

I never did pluck up the courage to knit for our prospective Chinese daughter, probably deep down never actually believed she would ever materialise. But I am feeling so much more confident and optimistic about adopting from Ethiopia, that I'm going to have a go at knitting the pattern above :-) I'm knitting it in a lovely baby pink, and in Sirdar Snowflake wool - which knits up into beautifully soft, fleecy garments. It takes me ages to knit anything, so I'll be busy with it for a long while lol.

Another day - another dolly :-)

I just couldn't resist this gorgeous dolly on Ebay - she has such a pretty face :-) I can't wait for her to arrive and to dress her in something pretty :-) Wouldn't it be funny if Tanash (think that's sister in Amharic) was a Tomboy and hated dolls lol. Oh well, I'd just have to play with them myself lol.

We are on our way :-)

I've just spoken to LA Team Leader and after a meeting with her manager last week, they are prepared to support our changing countries :-) She is trying to get hold of our Sessional Social Worker, to set up a meeting between us, herself and the sessional sw - when we will have to explain our reasons for changing countries and to get a child faster isn't a good reason in UK sw terms!! Subject to that being acceptable, homestudy update being successful and passing panel

WE ARE ON OUR WAY TO ETHIOPIA :-)

Cute doll for Little One

I've just ordered this Corolle Les Cheries "Cecile" doll for Little One, from Multicultural Toys 4 U Its the first thing I've bought/ordered especially for our future little one from Ethiopia, and I think its gorgeous. All the Corolle dolls smell of vanilla and are very good quality, so I can't wait for it to arrive :-)

FED UP!!!!!!!

Its now been over a week since I talked to our LA's Team Leader, who oversees our case, and let her know that we wanted to change country from China to Ethiopia. We had found out, via the UK based facilitator, that people in the UK are not allowed to change from a NSNs application to a SNs application. And even if we did change our referral would only arrive 2-3 months (or 3-6 months depending on the source) faster than it would otherwise. As estimates for late 2007 referrals are currently at 5 years (or more) it just isn't worth us trying to fight to change to SNs and then finding out that we wouldn't be that much faster anyway. Mr Messy is adamant that he will be too old to be starting to parent again by then, so it just isn't do-able for us as a family. After talking to the fab OASIS helpline, we started to research Ethiopia. There are many many advantages to changing - not least that our two adopted children would have a shared continental (if not country) background. It is possible to request a child with a Muslim background, which again would have similarities to Little Prince's background. I have talked to people who have successfully changed from China to Ethiopia, and they brought their little one home in 9 months!! We have made up our minds - this is what we want to do. We have to persuade our LA and our sw though, and that is the hard part!! LA Team Leader told me the Dept was very busy and it would take her a while to get back to me, so I knew that she wasn't going to talk to me quickly!! So why is it driving me loopy!?!?! I'm eating us out of chocolate and home, have put pounds back on and am constantly obsessing about it!!! I just want to know if we will be allowed to follow this new path or not?!?! Is that so hard?!?!?!