Out of Review Room!

It's official. Someone sitting in an office in Beijing, China has looked at our file, read all about us and seen our photos. Officially we are out of the Review Room (to see photos of the Review Room click here)... which was an (almost) record breaking timeframe for being in and out the quickest... we were in the Review Room for a whopping 3 weeks! Although you have to remember our file sat on a shelf in that same office for 13 months before anyone looked at it. And now it will move to another shelf before it is looked at again.

So in essence this means that the People's Republic of China have now approved us to adopt one of their precious children.

We are now considered to be 'pending allocation' and that actually means the next time someone will look at our file, they will also be looking at our daughter's (or son's) file as well, and hopefully saying "ahhh yes, this child and this couple will make a lovely family."

Who knows how long we will now wait to get that call. It is such an unknown. When people ask I just keep saying "oh about another year." But I feel like I have been saying that for... well... about a year!

My hopes and prayers are that we will see our child's face before Christmas 2008.

Author Unknown...

There are women who become mothers without effort, without thought, without patience or loss and though they are good mothers and love their children, I know that I will be better.

I will be better not because of genetics, or money, or that I have read more books but because I have struggled and toiled for a child. I have longed and waited. I have cried and prayed. I have endured and planned over and over again.

Like most things in life, the people who truly have appreciation are those who have struggled to attain their dreams. I will notice everything about my child. I will take time to watch my child sleep, explore and discover. I will marvel at this miracle everyday for the rest of my life. I will be happy when I wake in the middle of the night to the sound of my child, knowing that I can comfort, hold and feed them.

I count myself blessed in this sense, that God has given me this insight, this special vision which I will look upon my child in a way that other mothers don't. Whether I parent a child I actually give birth to or a child that God leads me to, I will not be careless with my love. I will be a better mother for all that I have endured. I am a better wife, a better aunt, a better daughter, neighbour, friend and sister because I have known pain. Real pain.

I know disillusionment as I have been betrayed by my own body. I have been tried by fire and hell in a way that many never face. Yet given time, I stood tall.

I have prevailed.

I have succeeded.

I have won.

So now, when others hurt around me, I do not run from their pain in order to save myself discomfort. I see it, mourn it and join them in theirs. I listen. And even though I cannot make it better, I can make it less lonely. I have learned the immense power of another hand holding tight to mine, of others eyes that moisten as they learn to accept the harsh truth when life is beyond hard. I have learned a compassion that only comes when walking in those shoes.

I have learned to appreciate life.

And I will be a wonderful mother.

Sobering thoughts...

When we started along the process to adopt a child from China, allocations were happening at about 6 months after a file was sent to Beijing.

With an anticipated age of the child at about 12 months at allocation, this meant that we believed our child had been born and was already in a SWI (Social Welfare Institute - Orphanage) waiting for a family.
With the current timeframes being what they are - ie. the latest batch of allocations went to families who had their file in China for about 20 months (ours has been there for almost 14 months) it puts us in an interesting position... we are actually waiting for a child to be abandoned so we can become parents. Over and above this is the fact that when our file went to China - his or her birth parents had not even conceived, and would not have even known what lay ahead for themselves, or their child... our child.

Behind this long and hard wait, behind the yearning to become a mother and behind the pain and reality of facing another Christmas childless... there is child who is yet to be born, and who is yet to be abandoned and yet to be found. And there is a birth mother and father, a birth family... who are yet to face possibly the most difficult decision of their lives.

A sobering thought.

Dug a Hole.

Seeing this at the house site reminded me of that great Australian movie 'The Castle' where Dale Kerrigan proudly tells his dad every day - "Dad, I dug a hole."

This is the hole ready for the water tank to go into and some lesser seen footage of the back of the house...

Quick update (for my Mum and Debs)

See - we have a roof!

Apologies...

Sorry everyone who left a message in the last couple of days (even sans photos) - I did read them all but in order to sort out my photo problem I had to delete everything and start again. Sorry - please come back and repeat yourself... Weird thing is it looks to me like the photos have been posted - but next morning... *poof* gone. Weird. Bloody Blogger. So tonight I can see them and fingers crossed you can still see them tomorrow. Bloody Blogger.

Lisa xx

House update...

We've had so much rain that we are now about three weeks behind schedule on building the house. It may look different from the last lot of photos - but it's not that much to say it's been three weeks. Here's what's happened since... all the brick work is complete, and it has been rendered (don't freak that cacky grey is the raw concrete, not the colour we have chosen!), and obviously the roof has at least started. What you can't see is that all the wiring for the electricity has also been done. We have our fingers crossed that the roof will be finished by the end of the week, which means we are at lock up stage - and we can get started on the inside. Yey.

P.S. Due to a short break in transmission (problems with blogger) I've posted a few catch up posts below if anyone's interested!

Lucky 13?

We have now been Logged into the China Centre for Adoption Affairs for 13 months. And we have finally had a little bit of movement. CCAA have officially advised that they have "finished the Review of Adoption Application documents received before 31 May 2006." With a 6 June 2006 LID - we are most defintely in the Review Room. Someone in Beijing could be looking at our file RIGHT NOW! Here are some pictures of the Review Room...