Wedded bliss

Today we celebrate eleven years of marriage. Can I just say that again - ELEVEN YEARS OF MARRIAGE! Wow.

Yes, just like Jamie I was a fetus when we married. Just 18 (or if you ask Aaron, "she was nearly 19!"). Aaron was so old and mature, he was 21.

Here is a slideshow depicting some of those years:

Let me tell you a little about those eleven years.
- We lived in Brisbane for the first two years while I finished my Bachelor's degree.
- We moved to Mount Isa to do my 'country service' for teaching and ended up staying for seven years.
- We bought a house.
- Somewhere in those seven years we took off and lived in China for five months.
- I started and finished my Master's degree (I graduate tomorrow!)
- We sold abovementioned house.
- We decided to adopt from China.
- We realised we were too young to adopt from China.
- So we waited.
- I changed my hair from blonde to brunette to red to raven and back to brunette.
- And we waited a little more.
- We had busy jobs with lots of travel.
- We made incredible friendships that we treasure.
- Some of those friends lived with us for periods of time. Others might as well have.
- We had fun parties in the backyard and good times camping in the open air bush.
- We played sport together and decided to learn Mandarin together.
- I coached kids' sport teams, debating teams, and computer clubs.
- Aaron played the stockmarket and golf and developed a love for cooking.
- We took holidays and discovered this amazing country of ours.
- We witnessed most of our siblings getting married, and we became an Uncle and an Aunt over and again.
- We moved back to Brisbane and purchased land in the beautiful Sunshine Coast hinterland, where we are now building a house.
- We started the adoption process and it was the most surreal feeling in the world.
- We were APPROVED to adopt! The official notification and final report is being delivered to us by registered mail today! What a sweet anniversary gift!

Brought to you by the letter W

It's been eight weeks since our final assessment, and still no report! (Can you believe it?!) I emailed a query three weeks ago and was told they would find out the status and get back to me. I'll make contact again this week.

I was thinking today about the annoying timing of it all. I turn thirty on January 30. We were hoping to have everything ready to go so that our file can be sent as soon as possible after that. Files from Qld usually go over in batches of 5-7, so I'm hoping we will be the last couple in a batch, rather than the first. Queensland doesn't have masses of files going over, so sometimes it's a matter of waiting weeks or months to have a complete batch. If we're the first couple in a batch it will mean a bit more waiting.

Chinese New Year starts Feb 7 next year. The whole of China basically shuts down and parties for a few weeks, so it's possible that we could be held up by that.

But we'll get there. Eventually. And we will be placed with a child. One day.

It was some time around the end of 1999 (when I was almost 22 years old and 30 seemed so far away) when we decided to adopt from China, so we know what it's like to wait. We just wish we didn't have to!