Today (1/26) is Australia Day. Ever since we've moved to Canada, Andrew & I have always done something special on Australia Day, whether it's making Aussie meat pies (frustrating due to over-kneading of the dough for the top of the pies) or a dinner of kangaroo loin with a pomegranate balsamic reduction (soooooo delicious....drool....). This year we're meeting up with friends for dinner & some Aussie wine. It's been almost 9 years since we left Sydney (I can't believe it's been that long), and still, almost every day, I miss Australia so much that it physically hurts. Of course, it doesn't help that we've been watching the episodes of Oprah's Aussie Adventure recently. I mean, in the past 6 months, Oprah's been closer to my best friend than I have! Seriously, my best friend was at the taping of one of the Sydney shows.
So, in honour of Australia Day, I'll leave you with some of the words of Peter Allen, from his song, "I still call Australia home". They really ring true for me.
I've been to cities that never close down
From New York, to Rio & old London town
But no matter how far, or how wide I roam
I still call Australia home.
I'm always travelling
And I love being free
And so I keep leaving the sun & the sea,
But my heart lies waiting - over the foam
I still call Australia home.
All the sons & daughters, spinning around the world
Away from their families & friends.
But as the world gets older & colder & colder
It's good to know where your journey ends.
But someday we'll all be together once more
When all of the ships come back to the shore.
I realize something I've always known
I still call Australia home.
But no matter how far or how wide I roam,
I still call Australia, I still call Australia,
I still call Australia home.
Lilypie Birthday tickers
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
It's a good day...
Because, at long last, there has been a referral in January! A 4 month old baby girl! Squee!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Long long ago, in a galaxy far, far away…
It seems like that long ago that I posted an update on this blog. It’s pretty evident that I am not a writer, blog or otherwise. I can’t seem to motivate myself to blog most of the time, and the fact that I’m consistently busy at work (not super busy, just consistently busy) doesn’t help matters.
So, where did we leave things? November was the awesome-est month for referrals since the agency came out of bankruptcy. December was less so, but there were still 5 referrals that month, and that is better than a slap in the face with a cold, wet fish. January has sucked the big one so far, but there have been more changes (requirements, really)(shocking, I know) on the Ethiopian side so that seems to be the reason for the slow-down. Hopefully it will pick up again soon. The last time there were changes of this nature the referrals slowed down for a month or two, but then they started flowing again. All in all last year there were 68 referrals. Hopefully this year will have just as many, if not more. We continue to update our paperwork for our dossier, since the majority of it has expired in the last 2 + years since we gathered it the first time. We got almost everything we need, except a reference from one of our friends/neighbours, who we asked BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Seriously, it’s just our adoption, no need for speed or anything. Grrrrr. We’ve since asked another friend for a reference. This stuff stresses me out big time. Our social worker is drafting the update to our homestudy, then everything goes to the agency, then to the government ministry responsible for giving us approval to adopt. They approved us last time, so hopefully they will approve us this time. There have been very few changes in the last few years, and most of them were positive changes. Fingers crossed. Prayers wouldn’t hurt either, if you’re that way inclined.
We’re going to an adoption get-together this coming weekend. There will be families there that have adopted from all over the world, and also families still waiting for their children, like us. I’m really looking forward to it – we went a couple of years ago (we were waiting for ministry approval at the time) and it really charged my adoption batteries seeing all those beautiful blended families. I can’t wait to re-charge my adoption batteries again!
In other adoption “news”, we’ve decided which way to go, crib-wise. We were mulling over purchasing a convertible crib, which would convert from a crib to a toddler bed to a day bed to a double bed, but we’ve decided against it. Wren’s room just isn’t big enough to hold a double bed & still have room to move around. Obviously she won’t be in a double bed any time soon, but we have no plans to move any time soon, so it would just be a looming problem. We’ve pretty much decided to go with a very funky green crib from Ikea. It’s low enough that we won’t have any problems getting Wren out of it without standing on our tippy-toes – “normal” cribs can pose that problem, now that drop-side cribs are banned in Canada (or as good as banned). Andrew & I are not exactly tall. When she outgrows the crib we’ll put her in a single bed with removable side rails.
In other “news”, Christmas was a lot of fun. My parents hosted this year, so that was nice (we hosted the last 2 years). Evie (my niece) was old enough to enjoy it this year – she was 20 months at the time. She got a “laptop” that went everywhere with her. She would walk over to you, plop it down beside you & start typing away. Kids really do learn by example. And every time you would sneeze she would say “Bwess you!”. We saw her last week, and at one point my mom offered everyone a chocolate covered cookie. She spotted the tin of cookies, and with a voice just full of awe, said “Ohhhhhhh, look at that!” She is SO DARN CUTE! I can’t wait to have a cutie of my own. Sigh. It’ll be a while……
We’ve finally joined the age of HD TV, just after Christmas, so the last 3 weeks have been spent (mostly by Andrew) flipping back & forth from the HD channel to the “normal” version, going, “Wow, look at the difference!”. It is nice, and the TV weighs less than half as much as the old-style TV we had. We are simple folk. The old TV now resides in the basement, which is slowly getting cleaned up. I keep telling Andrew to not wait for me – I am a horrible pack-rat & will keep anything I think may be useful in the future. It’s better if he just does a slash & burn-type clean up (with no actual burning, of course).
Well, that’s about all from here. I’ll try to update more often, maybe even from my iPod (the spelling mistakes alone will be hilarious!).
So, where did we leave things? November was the awesome-est month for referrals since the agency came out of bankruptcy. December was less so, but there were still 5 referrals that month, and that is better than a slap in the face with a cold, wet fish. January has sucked the big one so far, but there have been more changes (requirements, really)(shocking, I know) on the Ethiopian side so that seems to be the reason for the slow-down. Hopefully it will pick up again soon. The last time there were changes of this nature the referrals slowed down for a month or two, but then they started flowing again. All in all last year there were 68 referrals. Hopefully this year will have just as many, if not more. We continue to update our paperwork for our dossier, since the majority of it has expired in the last 2 + years since we gathered it the first time. We got almost everything we need, except a reference from one of our friends/neighbours, who we asked BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Seriously, it’s just our adoption, no need for speed or anything. Grrrrr. We’ve since asked another friend for a reference. This stuff stresses me out big time. Our social worker is drafting the update to our homestudy, then everything goes to the agency, then to the government ministry responsible for giving us approval to adopt. They approved us last time, so hopefully they will approve us this time. There have been very few changes in the last few years, and most of them were positive changes. Fingers crossed. Prayers wouldn’t hurt either, if you’re that way inclined.
We’re going to an adoption get-together this coming weekend. There will be families there that have adopted from all over the world, and also families still waiting for their children, like us. I’m really looking forward to it – we went a couple of years ago (we were waiting for ministry approval at the time) and it really charged my adoption batteries seeing all those beautiful blended families. I can’t wait to re-charge my adoption batteries again!
In other adoption “news”, we’ve decided which way to go, crib-wise. We were mulling over purchasing a convertible crib, which would convert from a crib to a toddler bed to a day bed to a double bed, but we’ve decided against it. Wren’s room just isn’t big enough to hold a double bed & still have room to move around. Obviously she won’t be in a double bed any time soon, but we have no plans to move any time soon, so it would just be a looming problem. We’ve pretty much decided to go with a very funky green crib from Ikea. It’s low enough that we won’t have any problems getting Wren out of it without standing on our tippy-toes – “normal” cribs can pose that problem, now that drop-side cribs are banned in Canada (or as good as banned). Andrew & I are not exactly tall. When she outgrows the crib we’ll put her in a single bed with removable side rails.
In other “news”, Christmas was a lot of fun. My parents hosted this year, so that was nice (we hosted the last 2 years). Evie (my niece) was old enough to enjoy it this year – she was 20 months at the time. She got a “laptop” that went everywhere with her. She would walk over to you, plop it down beside you & start typing away. Kids really do learn by example. And every time you would sneeze she would say “Bwess you!”. We saw her last week, and at one point my mom offered everyone a chocolate covered cookie. She spotted the tin of cookies, and with a voice just full of awe, said “Ohhhhhhh, look at that!” She is SO DARN CUTE! I can’t wait to have a cutie of my own. Sigh. It’ll be a while……
We’ve finally joined the age of HD TV, just after Christmas, so the last 3 weeks have been spent (mostly by Andrew) flipping back & forth from the HD channel to the “normal” version, going, “Wow, look at the difference!”. It is nice, and the TV weighs less than half as much as the old-style TV we had. We are simple folk. The old TV now resides in the basement, which is slowly getting cleaned up. I keep telling Andrew to not wait for me – I am a horrible pack-rat & will keep anything I think may be useful in the future. It’s better if he just does a slash & burn-type clean up (with no actual burning, of course).
Well, that’s about all from here. I’ll try to update more often, maybe even from my iPod (the spelling mistakes alone will be hilarious!).
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