My favourite little people...

Hi baby girl,

It's nearly Baby Aidan's first birthday and Aunty Debbie sent me some video this week of Aidan walking... I was having a couple of rough days at work, and after one very crappy meeting came back to my computer and there it was - Baby Aidan walking, bare bottomed, across the floor all on his own. He turns 1 this month... and I find that this stage of his life stirs a lot of emotion in me... I have watched him grow from a baby, into a toddler (that toddles!)... and I know that the changes I have seen in him, I won't see in you. That makes me so incredibly sad...

But I thought I would dedicate this post to my most favourite 'little' people... your cousins and uncles... our Godsons and Brothers...

Blake and Luke (your cousins) - our Godsons

David and Christopher - my Brothers - your Uncles (with Raf and Kenya)

Baby Aidan - your first cousin and Uncle Gordon...

And the beautiful Ellie Rae - your cousin - my favourite girl...

Baby girl every step to you gets harder and harder... it will be another 9 months until we see your face, and another 12 months til we wrap our arms around you. Daddy and I talk about you all the time... you are so real to us. Not being with you breaks our heart... hope you like the photos of your cousins and uncles... they mean the world to Daddy and I.

Hoping you have a full belly and warm hug tonight precious...

Mummy and Daddy xxx

Adoption process update...

Hello darling, well another step closer to you...

We recieved this notification on January the 16th from DoCS...

Dear Shane and Lisa,
We have received your home assessment report from your private social worker today, 16/1/06 . The report will now be referred to your caseworker for them to review and to make a recommendation to our Manager Casework, who will make a decision about approval.

Unfortunately we cannot give time frames from receipt of report to a decision about your application due to the dynamic nature of the workflows in this office. Therefore the time frames that we work towards achieving are from the date of lodgement of an application to an assessment decision of 9 -12 months for 1st time applicants and 6-9 months for 2nd and subsequent applicants.

You will be informed in writing once a decision has been made about approval.
kind regards,
DoCS

Now we wait to hear if we are officially approved to bring you home, and then we put together another big file of information, have it notarised, then we are allocated into a batch with other China adoptive parents, and wait until the batch is filled, then our information goes to China and we are what is known in the international adoption community as - DTC (Dossier to China)!

Then I can really shop for you!!

Mummy xx