Pu tong hua!

We started Chinese language lessons on Saturday. There is a small group of us; Dean (whom we met at the IAFQ info day... he and his wife submitted their EOI the same week as us), Robin (in Batch 13, DTC and now waiting for LID!*), a man named Bob (I think) - he isn't adopting, but has spent some time in China, and Aaron & me!

Our lessons are held at a magnificent Taoist temple. Our teacher's name is Ellie. There are ten lessons to start with, and we'll see what happens from there. Even though Aaron and I know basic survival Mandarin, it was still valuable for us to revisit the basics. I'm not so crash hot at my tones, so the instant feedback and correction is going to be handy. Most of our current skills were learnt from books or podcasts, so we can really appreciate the value of having Ellie on hand!

*for our family and friends not familiar with the lingo or local process of adopting from China, files of prospective adoptive parents are sent to China in batches of around 5 files. Recently, Queensland sent over batch number 13, so there are some really excited couples and families celebrating this milestone. DTC stands for Dossier to China (for when the file is sent) and LID stands for Log in Date, which is an all important date provided by the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) when they have officially 'put you in the queue'. Currently the wait from LID to referral (where the adoptive parents receive a photo and some information about the child they have been matched with) is about 14 months. There is interesting speculation around about how this time may increase. We're not interested in speculating this early on, as we know that anything can happen over the next couple of years - and probably will!