Goodbye twenties!

A year ago today I wrote about being desperate to turn thirty so our file could go to China. Well, the day has arrived! I'm thirty! Unfortunately our file isn't going anywhere until we've completed the dossier and there are four more couples at the same point, but I'm still very excited! This is the biggest box to check yet!

I had a super fun weekend with a couple of quiet, last minute get-togethers with the excuse of my birthday, and there was a certain theme to my gifts... a jade bangle - my parents organised a friend in China who went shopping with an ex-jade dealer to select it, green tea caraffe, stunning Chinese cookbook and story, beautiful adoption book , red eggs (my cousin and her family are so awesomely thoughtful!), a red packet, a gift voucher and a cute shirt that says 'my heart is in China'. I also received a big slow cooker which I'm looking forward to using, and Aaron bought me a stunning diamond and gold locket pendant for my belcher bracelet.

The pic is from my fourth birthday.

Happy Australia Day!

Happy Australia Day! Because we're so isolated, Aussies came up with our own lingo which makes no sense to the rest of the world. Inspired by an article in today's paper, I put a quick quiz together. Have a go and test how 'strine you really are (or whether you'd need an interpreter if you ever visited)!

1. What does it mean to chuck a u-ey?

Turn your car around

Throw up

Throw a sheep




2. What is a Hills Hoist?

Climbing apparatus

Party on Ayers Rock

Clothes line




3. What do you do with a lamington?

Kill it before it bites you

Eat it

Wear it




4. What is vegemite?

The greatest food known to mankind

The greatest food known to mankind

The greatest food known to mankind




5. What are budgie smugglers?

Drug dealers

Bird watchers

Swimmers for men




6. Fair dinkum, ridgy didge and true blue are all what?

Types of beer

Ways of saying something is real or authentic

Aussie cartoon characters

(after you get your score, click back and let me know how you went!)

** I've posted the correct answers in the comments

USA here I come!

Do I have any bloggy buddies in Seattle? I was told today that I'm heading there in March for a few days for work. Sadly I am not able to add any days before or after to scoot around America visiting people I would love to meet and checking out the sights, so I'm a little restricted... but if you're in the area let me know so I can work something out!

I'm a little concerned about how COLD I will be and whether I'll have enough warm clothes. I live in beautiful, warm Queensland where I get to wear a jacket only about three days each year.

About the dossier...

As I mentioned a few posts ago, we were approved for adoption by the Qld government last month. What that means now is that we are required to compile our dossier to be sent to China. The dossier must contain certain documents and information, so we've spent a few weeks chasing some of it up and still have more to go. We've been told we'll be the first couple in a new batch, and that we need to wait for four more couples to be approved and compile dossiers to they can all be sent to China together. This means that some of the documentation and requirements that have a life span (like finger prints and cheques) we have to hold off on arranging until further advice from the Dept so they don't expire too quickly.

In the meantime we've been busying ourselves with other dossier requirements, like doctor appointments - because the first comprehensive medical we did last year to prove eligibility isn't sufficient. Ewww. We have to have blood tests. Not cool. Ewwww.

When we've got everything ready for the dossier we'll be officially batched. It's not looking like it will be shortly after my birthday (next week) like we planned all along. Unfortunately for us, Queenslanders are no longer rushing to be part of the China program due to the massive increase in wait times. We were advised four more couples could be approved by March/April 'if we're lucky'. And then, if we're really lucky, we could even have a referral for a baby by the time the next millennium rolls around ;-) If you've got friends in high places, please send up a prayer for us!



**I added a new email subscription option - check out the right side bar to sign up!**

A strange attraction

Two posts in two days. Try not to go into shock.

I read an article today about unknowing twins in the UK marrying each other. The twins were separated at birth and adopted to different sets of parents. They only discovered they were brother and sister after they married, at which point the marriage was annulled.

Mess mess mess mess mess.

Read the article here.

About names... again

I think about names a lot (hence one of my other blogs, The Name Warehouse), so anything to do with names AND China is going to get my attention. On the Eastern Journey blogged about Chinese people using English names last year, and then when Nancy shared the link to the video below I thought it might be timely to write an entry too.

When we taught in China our students mostly had English names. They really did it to make life easier for the foreign teachers. Many of them were given their English name by their elementary school English teacher (often a Chinese national who has never conversed with a native English speaker) from the back of some book from the 1950s. Consequently a great number of our students had names reflective of that era. Other students chose their own name based on famous westerners or movie characters, or they used a dictionary and picked something with a useful meaning.

I had a student who named himself Little Pig. Others were self-named Apple, Secretary, Hamlet and Eagle. Marking the attendance roll was fun, especially when someone would forget their English name. I remember a guy in my class had a girlfriend in one of Aaron's classes, and when I asked him who, he had no idea of her English name - and we had no idea of hers or anyone else's Chinese name!

This clip about English names in China made me smile, hope you enjoy it too! Long live Samanfar!

(In other news, I could have done the interviewing in this video! I understand and can speak just about all the Chinese that's used! It's pretty basic, but I guess I'm progressing!)

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!

IAFQ Picnic in the park

Here are a few pics from the IAFQ Picnic in the Park today. The picnic was designed to bring a focus to intercountry adoption, particularly issues around fee increases, post adoption programs, and the need for more agreements between Australia and other countries in order to open up new programs. We had a number of guest speakers, including IAFQ's new official ambassador, Deborra-Lee Furness. Deborra-Lee and her husband Hugh Jackman have two adopted children.
Most of the other speakers were politicians, including local ministers and the Federal Attorney General Phillip Ruddock . I enjoyed most the speech from Jann Stuckey MP for Currumbin. She showed genuine concern and passion for intercountry adoption.

Here's the two of us, just kicking back!If you're in Australia, be sure to watch Today Tonight and A Current Affair tomorrow night (Monday 19th Nov).

**Leisa can be seen in the background of our pic, and she has written an informative post about the picnic - read it here.

Aussie adoption books

I bought some new books last night, specifically relating to intercountry adoption within Australia. Kudos to Borders who have significantly expanded their range of adoption books over the past year.

Adopting Overseas (2007), subtitled as A Guide to Adopting from Australia, Plus Personal Stories that will Inspire You. It discusses the history of adoption in Australia, and relevant processes, facts and statistics as well as advice on managing a range of issues. I want to share a great passage from it that had me in tears (though that doesn't take much really), but have to see if the publishers will give permission first.
Adopting Parents' Stories (2007) which is a compilation of stories from adoptive parents and families in Australia. I haven't started this one yet, but I like the way its organised into different chapters, eg. Dreams, Loss & Grief, Hope, Conflict, Journey, Challenge - and that it is real stories and recent stories.

Unfortunately Amazon doesn't stock either of them, but both can purchased direct from the publishers (which I've linked to if you click each title).