DHL are MOVING

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Departed Facility in London-Heathrow - UK 04:34

Arrived at Sort Facility London-Heathrow - UK 05:08

Departed Facility London-Heathrow - UK 08:43
Transferred through London-Heathrow - UK 08:43

Woohoo lots of movement from DHL this morning :-) We think "Transferred through" means our dossier is now on the PLANE :-) How cool is that????

Little Prince is doing so well :-)

I have to speak to Little Prince's teacher at the end of each school day so that she can let me know how he has been. Tonight Little Prince was so proud of himself because he had earned a Headteacher's Certificate for "challenging himself with his writing" :-) Apparently he normally has someone to write his answers to the Mental Maths test each week, but he is now insisting on writing his answers himself. He also made a HUGE effort with a piece of written work for whcih he had earned a Headteacher's "Happy Note" earlier in the week :-) If you have been following my blog you'll know that Little Prince has been diagnosed with severe dyspraxia (it affects his fine motor control) and so these writing awards mean so so much. I was so proud of my little man and it brought tears to my eyes listening to his teacher tell me how well he was doing :-) She also said that his behaviour has improved dramatically, and she is very proud of him too. Some of his classmates were messing about in the toilets, and he just didn't get involved, which must have taken a LOT of effort on his part :-) We discussed the Speech Therapy report, of which she has a copy, and she said she would read it over the weekend and we'd discuss it at next weeks Parent's Evening. I mentioned that I didn't agree with most of the assessments and felt it didn't not accurately represent Little Prince, but that if it would be useful to school to get him extra resources and help then I'd be satisfied. The teacher laughed and said that he is making so much progress lately that she isn't sure if he will need further interventions!! Wow :-) And I can't remember if I've mentioned it already but Little Prince has also been moved up to the middle of the next level in his reading scheme, and is still managing to read his books easily :-)

After school we went to Little Prince's swimming lesson, he hasn't been for the last two weeks due to school holidays, so he was raring to go! Every other time I have stayed and watched the whole lesson, but today I had to rush to the Post Office to get an urgent letter posted. Me and the teacher impressed on Little Prince that he must behave and wasn't to use this as an excuse to get into mischief. I got back half way through the lesson and Little Prince was doing fantastically :-) Afterwards his teacher reported that he had worked extra hard and was doing extremely well and she was very proud of him :-)

I don't think the doorways are wide enough to get my head through now :-) I am so pleased and proud of him :-)

This Morning's DHL activity

Checked the DHL tracking this morning and there's been quite a bit of movement :-) Still very exciting :-)


Thursday, February 28, 2009
Transferred through East Midlands - UK 22:35

Departed Facility in East Midlands - UK 22:35

Friday, February 27, 2009

Arrived at Sort Facility London-Heathrow - UK 01:01

Processed at London-Heathrow - UK 01:45

Arrived at the Airport!!!

DHL tracking now says:-

Arrived at Sort Facility East Midlands - UK 21:20

In case you don't know that's an airport :-) Exciting exciting exciting :-)

I can't wait to see how far its got in the morning :-)

Dossier is moving :-)

Just seen this on the DHL tracking site:

Thursday 26th February 2009 Departed Facility in Teeside - UK 17:54

Yeah :-)

More Paperwork!

I've just found out that if we do as we are planning to do, and only I travel on the first trip to Ethiopia. Then Mr Messy needs to give me Power of Attorney to act on his behalf while I'm over there. After a couple of frantic emails to our Notary, who was supremely helpful, efficient and knowledgable when we were processing our dossier, we now know how to proceed. He has sent me a template of the letter we need to sign and have witnessed. Then it needs to be Notarised, then legalised at the Foreign and Commonwealth Offices and then authorised by the Ethiopian Embassy. This is probably going to take about a week to do, and cost about £250, but after everything else we've paid to process our papers so far, I've just stopped counting! There can't be much more paperwork can there?!?! Well not until we are re-adopting our child under UK law I suppose!

And We're OFF :-)

I've just got the email from DCSF with the DHL tracking info and I can see it on the DHL website already with the message "shipment picked up" YEAH!!! It is out of the hands of DCSF and on its way :-)

Thursday, February 26, 2009 Shipment picked up 11:44

I will be checking its progress across the globe and can't wait to see the message "shipment delivered" :-)

Magical Email has ARRIVED!!!!!

I don't know if the DCSF read my blog or if shouting at them this afternoon worked or what?!?! But I have FINALLY received the magical email containing the information I need to book DHL to send our dossier to Ethiopia!!!! Our dossier should be there by Monday!!!!!

Its not quite sunk in yet!!! Someone pinch me and make sure I'm not dreaming!!!

What a difference an email can make :-)

MORE b*llocks from DCSF!!!!

I have (once AGAIN!!) just phoned the DCSF. Using the same number I have been using for the past 8 weeks and yesterday and the day before! The lady who answered said the helpline was no longer in operation!! She would try to get through on my behalf and ask for the dimensions of the dossier package!! This is SH*TE!!!!!!!!! How on earth can this be a good way to run the department?!?!?!

The receptionist got back to me and said I will get an email in the next few days with the dimensions!! THE NEXT FEW DAYS!!! I told her that was completely unacceptable and sent her back to the team to find out what the problem was. She came back and said that PAUL on the team (who gives a flying f*ck about confidentiality) said he would work on it today I would get the email tomorrow. And pigs might fly!!!! I yelled at the receptionist, but she just kept apologising and saying she could not put me through. This is a public service entity but they cannot be contacted by the public!!! I will be contacting my MP and Tom Jefferies the Director General of the DCSF.

Today's Plan

Last night Mr Messy finally got the blind and pelmet shelf fixed in Little Prince's room. So my plan for today (to distract me from obsessing over the DCSF!!) is to get his room completely ready for him to sleep in tonight :-) He knows this is happening, so I can't duck out of it lol. He told me that he wanted to take his bed to his new room and that he was a big strong boy, I think I'll manage that myself though!!

Here's my to do list:-

• Tidy away Mr Messy's tools DONE
  
• Put the ladders away DONE
  
• Adjust the blinds to the right length DONE
• Fix the pelmet DONE
  
• Remove LMS's loft bed ladders DONE
  
• Move all LMS's boxes of stuff on top of the wardrobes into the attic DONE
  
• Tidy up all the spare foam from making the sofa bed more comfy DONE
  
• Tidy up the remains of the first attempt at a pelmet shelf DONE
  
• Put Little Prince's bed in place DONE
  
• Vac and dust DONE
  
• Clean the window cling fairy off the window ONGOING!!
  

Still Waiting!!

I have sat glued to my computer all morning waiting for that magical email from the DCSF, and wearing out my "send and receive" button!! I finally gave in and rang them as soon as their phone line opened. Only to be told it won't go today!!! I am so frustrated, I asked the lady who answered how it could take so long?? We were third in the queue over a week ago and still it hasn't gone!!! She said she understood my frustration (YEAH right!!!) but that "send to country" wasn't being worked on today and we are now top of the list and should (!!!!) go tomorrow. I can't take much more of this!!!!!!

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow!!!

I spoke to the DCSF earlier and our papers should be sent TOMORROW!!! Very excited!! Very shaky!!! Very can't quite believe its finally happening!!!!!! I just hope that the DCSF don't let me down on timescales again!!! I am on such a high now I don't want to come back down to earth with a huge bump!!!!

Busy Weekend

And I still obsessed about our dossier and the DCSF the whole time!! On Saturday me and LMS went out to buy some more craft stuff for a present she's making for her American, I think it was supposed to be for Valentine's Day, but I think its going to be late!! We got the supplies sorted pretty quickly, and went back to the car to come home to be confronted by a completely flat front tyre!! Which is very strange as it was a brand new tyre from its MOT the day before!! I called the AA and we went back into the shop to wait, sat in the cafe chatting and munching for ages and then had yet another mooch round the shop. We were just getting bored and running out of things to look at when the AA man paged us from the front desk. He diagnosed a leaky valve and was going to put the spare tyre on, when he noticed that was flat too!! So he pumped up the original tyre and said if we took it easy going home we should be ok, but to get it checked out as soon as we could.

When we got home, me and Mr Messy packed our stuff as we were travelling over to a family birthday meal, and staying out overnight!! This is the first time BOTH of us have left Little Prince since he was placed with us over 4 1/2 years ago!! LMS and Drama Teen were our babysitters and we hoped they would be able to manage him!

Before the meal we had to visit Mr Messy's mum and stepdad (the birthday boy) to try to fix their video, which had a tape jammed in it. Mr Messy hadn't got the right sort of screwdriver to open the video up, so he swapped it over with their spare one and brought the original one home to fix. That was the easy bit, the hard bit was trying to tune everything back in again. After spending ages trying with his mum, stepdad and brother all giving "helpful" advice he gave up and got it so they could watch TV and said his brother could fix it later! We drove over to our hotel checked in, which took over 20 minutes as they couldn't find the printout of whether our booking was paid for when I booked it online or if it just took an imprint of our card!! Our room was small and pokey, but at least it was clean and tidy. Mr Messy had a shower while I watched TV and read a magazine, then we both got ready and set off for the restaurant. As requested we left our room key at reception!!

The meal was in an Italian Restaurant we have been visiting for many many years, through various different owners and styles and we have always really enjoyed our meals there. This time with 22 of us in the party it was a bit different! Most people had ordered their food weeks in advance, and couldn't remember what they had asked for! The ones of us that ordered on the night did have it a bit easier lol. Two people sent their meals back, including Mr Messy's younger, grumpier (yes really!!!) brother! Mr Messy was not impressed with the "nouvelle cuisine" size of the portions and was still hungry after three courses! Stepdad's adult daughter managed to annoy most (well all!!) of Mr Messy's side of the family! She had bought her dad a digital camera (they don't even own a computer!!) and hogged it all night taking pictures at strange times and demanding people don't go to the the loo, or stopped eating justs so she could get the shot she wanted right there and then! Luckily she was sat at the other end of the table to us, and we could mostly ignore her. We sat with two of Mr Messy's brothers, his eldest nephew and his wife and his aunt and uncle, all of whom are great company and a good laugh. The grumpy brother was made even more grumpy when it took him ages to get drinks served on a number of occasions!

Once the meal was finished and we'd all sat around chatting (and the others were drinking) for ages, we set off back to our hotel. When we arrived there was no one in reception. The place was a rabbit warren and despite being told that the staff were in the bar, we couldn't find the bar! We tried ringing, and stood in reception listening to stereo ringing, and still no staff appeared! In the end we just hunted round and round till we found the bar and the ONE member of staff working and got him to give us our room key!! Mr Messy said he slept great, but I was kept awake most of the night by other guests comings and goings which I could hear through the paper thin room walls! The hotel didn't redeem itself at breakfast time either, there were hardly any guests around and it wasn't late but there were still hardly anything left on the breakfast buffet! We had been sat down eating for over 20 minutes before we sighted the ONE member of staff working!! He brought us our toast, but we had to wait for him to appear again to ask for butter! It was shambolic!!! You get better service and bigger, quieter rooms staying in a bog standard Travel Lodge type hotel!!

We left there and went over to Baby Sis's house. Her fiance was in bed with a hangover, so we didn't see him lol. She took us over to their friend's house, where Mr Messy was booked to photograph their little girl. The little girl was a lovely tiny little thing and although she didn't really co-operate (as little kids do!) Mr Messy managed to get some great photos of her. Her mum and dad were stressing quite a bit that she wouldn't do what was asked of her and it was confusing having me and Baby Sis in the room too, so Mr Messy and the mum took her upstairs where they got quite a few more good shots. When it was obvious that she was getting too tired (and mum was too stressed) we stopped and went back to Baby Sis's house. Fiance managed to rouse himself and didn't look too worse for wear lol. We chatted for a while, before dropping them off at their car that they'd left at the local pub, which was incredibly lucky as all cars parked on their street had been "keyed" that night!

When we got home I was greeted by a limpet Little Prince who clung to me for ages. Mr Messy took LMS out to the local car garages to get an idea of what kind of thing she is looking for when her current car bites the dust (June when its MOT runs out!!). She is in Florida all Summer so we will look for something for her, so that it is ready for when she comes home again. This made Little Prince dissolve into hysterical sobbing and it took quite a while to calm him down again. He and Drama Teen then watched some Pokemon on TV while I caught up with some emails and then we were just about to watch a DVD, when Mr Messy rang up and asked if we wanted to come out to a local restaurant and meet them for tea. Little Prince was extremely excited about this and grabbed his coat and shoes almost instantly.

We were half way there when we got another phone call asking us to go to a different restaurant, which caused a meltdown with Little Prince. He wanted to go to the first restaurant, and started to threaten to misbehave and/or sleep in the second restaurant if he had to go there! Only the thought of a Ferrari that they had spotted in the carpark calmed him down any, luckily it was still there when we arrived and he had a good look round it (with me hovering closely by making sure he didn't touch!!). He was fairly wild in the restaurant, but luckily we were in a booth over in a corner so we didn't disturb too many people! For once it was me getting stressed by Little Prince's behaviour rather than Mr Messy, so we swapped over so that Little Prince sat with his dad and that solved that problem. Thank you Mr Messy I needed that :-)

When we'd finished our meals Mr Messy took LMS and Little Prince home, and LMS sat with him and did his homework. Me and Drama Teen went off to find a garage with a working air-line to pump up my fixed tyre. We only had to visit two garages to find a working one, and its a good job we did as the pressure had gone right down again. Hopefully now the valve is fixed it will be alright again! I have quite a bit of running around to do tomorrow and need my car!

Its Friday, Its Five to Five and its....

A total washout from the DCSF. On Monday we were third THIRD in the queue. Yet here it is the end of the day on Friday and NOTHING!!!! How the F*CK can they run a government department like this?!?! This is a PUBLIC SERVICE entity for gods sake!!!!! Well it looks like I'll be making my usual Monday phone call again next week. How are you supposed to stay positive in this game?!?! My life has been virtually on hold for EIGHT F'ing weeks!! Waiting for some public servant to put papers in an envelope!!!!!!!

Fab Progress :-)

Despite all his difficulties Little Prince continues to try so hard to be like his friends, and is making fantastic progress :-) This might seem like a little thing to most of you, but it is a great leap for Little Prince and needs celebrating :-)

He can now zip up his coat all by himself - and will demonstrate with great flourish given any opportunity :-) I am so proud of my special little boy, who has tried so hard and been so determined to be able to achieve this :-)

No news yet!!!

We've just been away overnight, and I was so hoping to come home to an email from DCSF with the magical dossier package dimensions so that I could arrange for them to be shipped to Addis. But it was not to be :-( I even had Mr Messy faffing around on his iPhone to remotely check the webmail last night when we were away lol. Well its only Wednesday so there's another couple of days before this week is finished!!

We were away collecting Drama Teen from her ski camp and then driving her over to LMS's University to stay with LMS until weekend. Drama Teen was very tired and quiet in the car after we picked her up, and it turns out not only was she tired she was also waiting for a boy from camp to get in touch! We had booked ourselves into a hotel in University Town, and were all going to eat together in the hotel restaurant. We got checked in and swapped our stuff into Drama Teens huge suitcase and got her to put everything she needed into our small, pull along suitcase, so that it would be easier for her and LMS to bring her stuff back on the train at weekend. By this time LMS had arrived and we made our way over to the restaurant. Our table was a huge one with loads more chairs than we needed, and Little Prince dived straight to the head of the table chair, me and LMS sat either side of him and Drama Teen and Mr Messy went to the other end of the table! I was very upset by this, and despite me telling them this they refused to move. So it was a pretty uncomfortable meal :-( Once back in our room Little Prince insisted that LMS put him to bed, and then sobbed when her and Drama Teen went off to her University rooms :-( I tried to get him settled, but he wasn't having it, then Mr Messy tried to get him settled and he had as much luck as me. We then spent a frustrating hour or so telling Little Prince to settle down, which he normally can do very easily, but as he'd napped earlier in the car he was having none of it! By about 10.30pm we gave up, got in bed and turned out all the lights, which is what finally got Little Prince to go to sleep!

We had to be up and out early in the morning to get back home in time for me to go to an appointment with the Citizen's Advice Bureau who were going to assist me in filling in the application forms for Little Prince to receive Disability Living Allowance. Despite our cross country marathon drive we were only 10 minutes late for the appointment, and that was because of roadworks just 5 mins from the Bureau's offices! Not bad :-) It was extremely depressing filling the form in, and going through all the different areas and highlighting Little Prince's difficulties. But the advisor thinks we have made a pretty good case for getting the Allowance and I've got to let him know how we get on. I've pretty much decided I'm going to use the money to pay for a part time nanny (with experience of SNs), so that me and Mr Messy can have a night out every now and again. Little Prince needs such a high level of care and supervision I am not at all comfortable in letting the local teenage babysitters look after him and need someone with more experience and authority!

THIRD!!!!!!!

We are THIRD in the DCSF queue of papers to be sent out to country!!!! Our papers could go out this week!!!!! OMG!!!!!! I can't get too excited as the lady at DCSF said a lot of staff are off due to the half term, so it might take a bit longer!! But wowowowowow it really truly COULD be this week!!!!! The end of this marathon adoption quest could finally be in sight :-)

Shopping and Snow!

Me and my friend Postlady had a girlie shopping day yesterday :-) We went to an Outlet Centre and I managed to get the pyjamas Mr Messy had requested, and a hat to keep his ears warm that Little Prince had requested. And quite a few bits that no one had requested but that I couldn't resist anyway lol. We then went over to a nearby pub for lunch, while we were sat in the pub it started to snow. It had been snowing on and off all morning, but now it started to come down much more heavily and we were getting a tad worried! When Postlady's husband rang her up and said that it was also snowing pretty hard at home, we decided to finish our lunch and set off home again. Luckily we travelled mainly on motorways and major roads so we didn't have too much trouble getting home!

In the evening me and Postlady and another of our friends were supposed to be going out for a meal. Due to the weather we changed the venue and ended up eating in the next town's Chinese Restaurant and had a lovely time - great food and great company. Other friend did drop a bombshell - she's pregnant! It was a bomshell as her and her husband have not been getting on (she suspects he is having an affair!) for months now!! I'm not sure if she is trying to use the baby to fix her marriage, or if she is being totally selfish and having a baby because she wants one and not thinking about the acrimonious situation she is in! Knowing her quite well I suspect the latter!! Her husband has questioned who the father is!! And also asked when she was going to "get rid of it"!!! And she is STILL going to give him a week or so to decide what he wants to do - divorce (which was the plan before this happened) or stay and try to make it work. I was fairly blunt with her (me and Postlady have been telling her for months to stop putting up with all his stuff and sort out a better life for her and her two current kids!) and said she now has a deadline to sort this out (less than 9 months!!) and she can't bring a baby into the house with the atmosphere like it is! I also asked her if she truly thought her husband could change and if not what would she do? And asked what is good about her marriage? Sadly she couldn't name one single thing. My heart is breaking for my friend, her two current kids and the baby she is carrying. She is going to stay at her parent's to give her husband time and space to think things through and while she is there talk to a solicitor friend (she can't ring one from home as husband checks all the numbers on the itemised phone bill!). Her parents have the space and money to support her and the kids while she gets back on her feet, but she just needs the strength to move on.

Busy Day

I trekked out to the DIY shop AGAIN this morning! I had a list of stuff I needed to get so that Handyman could finish the jobs I'd got lined up for him. DIY shops are totally out of my league, they are so confusing!! I had joked with Handyman that I needed exact specifications and preferably part numbers before being let loose in them! And sure enough, once Handyman arrived and inspected my purchases he found quite a few bits that weren't quite what he was expecting!! So we went BACK to the DIY shop (THREE times in two days!!!) to sort the bits out. Which of course meant that there wasn't enough time before Handyman stopped work to finish the huge list of jobs I'd got for him!! So he is coming back, yet again, on Friday (tomorrow is Retail Therapy!!).

He did get most of the jobs done, apart from the ones in Little Prince's future room! And after he'd shown me how to do it, I managed to strip the paint off the original lock that wasn't attached to its door when the doors went to be stripped - and even though I say so myself it looks fantastic :-) It wasn't attached to its door, because we had to remove it when Drama Teen was little as she had a habit of locking herself in rooms with locks on the doors, and there was no way we would have been able to get her out again!! She is now old enough, and wise enough to have a lock on her door so it needed to be put back! All the other locks were stripped at the same time as the doors got stripped, and came up looking great, so I'm really pleased that this one will now match :-)

I also got a couple of cushions made for in Little Prince's new room, one in the American Flag material me and Mad Cat Lady bought from Walmart when we went to Florida last year. And the other in a different style American Flag material, that was originally two bandanas that I bought for next to nothing when we visited our friends last Summer :-) Once again I am really pleased at how well they have turned out :-) His new room is going to look FABULOUS :-) If I can get my camera and my computer to actually talk to each other, I'll try and upload some photos when I've got it all finished :-)

Inappropriate Gift!

Little Prince came home from school with a highly inappropriate gift today - a Bible! As a mixed non-Christian religion and Atheist family this just is totally inappropriate! I acknowledge that he goes to a Church of England school, but only because it is the only school that serves the village we live in, if we had a choice that would still allow him to be part of the childhood community of the village he wouldn't attend the church school. But there is no alternative for us, so he attends.

There has been a change of Head teacher in the last few years, and the new Head (and Deputy Head for that matter) push the Christian message much more heavily than the previous Head did. This can leave me (and many other) parents feeling excluded and undervalued at the school. Which is so different to how welcomed and included we felt with the previous Head Teacher who is also a Christian, but one who didn't seem to feel that it was his duty to convert all the pupils! When the Year 6s leave to go on to High School they are presented with a Bible, however, he arranged for Drama Teen to get a different book that had more meaning for her rather than push his religious views on her. Much more tolerant and accepting than the present school regime!

But now the children are sent home with this book, with no warning to parents! Mr Messy is adamant that the book should be returned (the school do know the religious make up of our family!). I am leaning more towards keeping the book but explaining it is a book of stories that some people, but not our family, believe in. However, Little Prince's teacher (the very Christian Deputy Head) has told the whole class what an important gift this book is, so playing down the significance of the "story book" probably won't wash with Little Prince.

I wish school had consulted the parents before sending the book home!

I wish the school acknowledged that not all the pupils/families are Christian!

I wish that Little Prince's teacher (who he idolises) had presented the book as one that SOME people believe is their God's word!

I wish I didn't have to deal with this complication!!!

The Doors are Back in Town!!

Well in my house anyway lol. We finally have doors upstairs again, after plenty of snow caused delays! All except the bathroom lol. Two doors needed completely replacing, rather than being stripped and being able to put them back in place. One door (LMS/Little Prince's room) and the bathroom. The Handyman didn't have time to plane both doors to size, so unfortunately we have to wait until tomorrow to have a door on the bathroom! I also have to find new handles, as the stripping place ruined the finish on them. We thought they were bakelite, but they must have been ebonised wood, and the ebony coating has been completely stripped off leaving very manky looking handles! Luckily Ebay has quite a few of the style of lock/handle and back plate that I need :-) I just have to keep my fingers crossed that I win them! There are reproduction ones available, but they look too new - I want old original ones!

THREE years!!!!!!

I realised today that it is OVER THREE YEARS since we started the process to adopt!! THREE YEARS?!?!?!?! I can't believe its taken so long!! I can't believe that we got caught up in the hugest slowdown in China adoptions EVER!! I am honestly happy that less children are being abandoned and that many more of these children are finding homes in China, I truly believe that it is in the child's best interest to be kept in their home country if at all possible. But one of the reasons we chose to apply to adopt from China in the first place was the stability and predictability of the programme lol. We decided not to apply to adopt domestically again as we felt that would be so much more unpredictable, and we would have no idea when/if we would be matched!! Hahahaha!! So much for hindsight!! If we had our time over, I think we would have gone down the domestic adoption application again, after all we adopted our FANTASTIC Little Prince that way :-) And he couldn't be more perfect for us :-) I am sure that once Ethiopia MeiMei is home with us, that the pain and stress of both persuading our LA to let us change our application from China and the wait for DCSF to send our papers will fade away. I am totally sure she will be worth it, but I just wish we didn't have to wait so long :-(

Proof that I'm Blonde!

I have been playing on Mahjongg on my computer, whiling away the time until I could phone DCSF, and then getting addicted!! After a while I noticed that the tiles seemed to be placed in similar places each time! It turns out I was playing the SAME game over and over, having pressed "restart" instead of "new"!! And the proof that I'm blonde?? It took me AGES to work this out!! AND my score was getting worse!!!!

Spoke to the DCSF!!

I've just made my weekly phone call to the DCSF. The lady I spoke to was (as they mostly are) very sympathetic and helpful. She checked where we were in the queue and since 19th January (three weeks ago) we have moved 18 places to number 9 in the queue. I suppose this is progress, but it is so painfully slow. She said she hoped we would only have to wait another 2-3 weeks (3 weeks takes us to 2nd March), which is what they say every week!! So the time frame is slowly extending!! She said she couldn't be more exact as it depends on what the cases are like in front of me in the queue, she said she had just started working on a case that was a nightmare to do! I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that the other 8 dossiers in front of me are simple, straighforward cases and that we can all get our papers out to our chosen countries SOON!!!

Spoke to the DCSF!!

After only 20 minutes of frantic re-dialling I managed to get through to the DCSF!! The lady checked our file and said its currently taking 6-8 weeks to send papers, so we would have about another two weeks to wait. Then she started asking about the email I sent last week, trying to advocate for the expediting of any single adopters who's papers were at the DCSF. The UK Ethiopia Yahoo group (of which I'm now the owner!!) found out last week that MOWA (Ethiopian govt dept that deals with ICA) has decided to stop allowing singles from the UK to adopt! I confirmed this with our Ethiopian contact and then forwarded the information to the DCSF, to try and help anyone caught in this sudden rule change. The papers of the one single adopter I knew about have been sent off, hopefully it will be in time. Anyway the DCSF lady put me on hold and when she came back said our papers would be sent this week!! I was shocked, thrilled and excited! Then it dawned on me that she probably hadn't read our paperwork, and thought that I was a single adopter. As much as I would love to take advantage of this misconception, I had to tell her that I wasn't a single adopter. She apologised profusely for her mix up and then said that she was so very sorry to disappoint me, but our papers can't be expedited for no reason (I agree it wouldn't be fair) and that we are back to them being sent in a couple of weeks or so. What a rollercoaster ride in a 10 minute phone call!!!! I feel totally drained now!!!

Latest from DCSF!!

As usual I rang the DCSF today to get my weekly update. But like British Rail and most other British institutions it seems they can't cope with a bit of snow!!! The phone was answered by a recorded message stating that the helpline wouldn't be open today due to the weather!!!! I sent a snotty email instead, but I'm not holding out much hope of getting a reply anytime soon!!! I just can't believe how long it takes to put papers in an envelope!!!! They don't even have to post them, as we are paying for them to be sent via DHL - all they have to do is email me to say they are ready!!! For gawds sake how long can it take?!?!?!?!

Happy 6th Birthday

Last week our little boy turned SIX!! I can't believe how grown up that sounds!! He's still my baby :-) LMS came home from University to be here for his birthday, and Drama Teen was off school with the Chicken Pox, so he had plenty of cheerleaders for his celebrations :-) Unfortunately Mr Messy was away on another photography course and didn't get home until the evening, which upset Little Prince, but it couldn't be helped. I spent the night before the big day wrapping up at stupid o'clock - I managed not to be doing that for Christmas, so I suppose I had to do it sometime lol. We had bought Little Prince an iPod Shuffle and pre-loaded it with music he loves, when he opened it he grinned and shouted "Look I've got a teeny iPhone!!" He also got a DS Lite, very kindly sent over from the USA by our Christmas visitor (thank you so much) - we did pay for it lol, we just couldn't get hold of the colour we wanted in time over here!!!

We had Little Prince's birthday party at weekend, at an indoor play centre. I love the fact that the children can run around (and hopefully tire themselves out!!) madly for an hour then get fed, and I don't have to worry about my ornaments or tidying up afterwards :-) Much better than having 20 mad 6 year olds invading our house for a couple of hours lol. My Sister, her hubby and 4 kids came over for the party and then came round to our house afterwards to play/chat. Mr Messy showed them the results of the photoshoot he did for them a few weeks ago, and I think they liked the photos :-) The kids got along great and Little Prince and his similar aged cousin really seemed to play well together :-) We had takeaway pizza together before they set off on their long drive home. It was great to see you all :-)

I'm Back :-)

I've had a pretty rough time the last week or so while I've not been posting. Firstly Drama Teen has had a bad dose of Chicken Pox, no joke when you are almost 15!! She returned to school at the end of last week, insisting on using foundation/concealer on the unhealed "pox" and I wasn't going to argue with her! Poor girl had been feeling really ill and feeling she looked awful (she didn't, she always looks gorgeous) but she seems so much better now :-) Then Little Prince came down with a tummy bug and had a day off school too! Luckily it was only a 24 hour thing and he was right as rain the next day. I've also been feeling pretty down about the lack of info (and ever extending wait times - sound familiar?!?!) from the DCSF. We can't plan ANYTHING!! We have no idea when they will send our papers and it is so so frustrating!!!!