We received updated measurements of our little (or not-so-little!) Ollie yesterday....
Apparently he now weighs 10kg (at 7.5 months). Gulp...guess I'd better add more rice to the baby carrier (I bought a baby carrier a few months ago and have loaded it up with 8kg of rice....I walk around the house with it on for about half an hour every day in order to try and get used to the weight, and avoid nasty achy back in China. The neighbours must think I'm insane....)
The measurements given out by China need to be taken with a grain of salt (or maybe, with a bag of rice!) as they are often overestimates of the children's true weight...probably the children are weighed on dodgy scales, fully clothed in their 2000 layers that the nannies put them in to keep warm.
Regardless, I'm not risking it.....Time to buy some more rice.....
T xxx
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
If you could send love in the mail....
This is what it would look like
We are hoping that our adoption department will be able to send this package of love to Oliver...we are prohibited from having any contact with him or the orphangage until "meeting day", so we have to entrust the adoption department with our precious package and hope they send it on safely for us. P and I have slept with the little blanket and moo cow...we have tried to "pong them up" (as P describes it!!) so that they smell a little like us. I've sealed them all in plastic ziplocks so hopefully the smell will linger...sounds awful doesn't it?!!
We have also enclosed cameras in the hope that we might get a glimpse of Oliver's life before us. The lollies are for the staff, not for Ollie! The little photo album has photos of P and I with the Chinese characters for "Mama" and "Baba" on them, and there is also a little rattle and a bound document with questions in Mandarin about Oliver, his likes and dislikes etc.
Hopefully this will all arrive safe and sound to him.
We have bought doubles of the toys and blanket and will take these to China with us in the hope that he will then get to have something slightly familiar around him (if he gets the package of course).
In other news:
- Oliver's immigration paperwork has been received by the immigration department in Shanghai
- I have nearly caused the poor JP at the local shopping centre to lose his hand from overuse as I gave him lots and lots of documents to certify this morning
- Oliver's cot and changetable have arrived at the shop - Yay!!! We will get them this weekend...and then try and find space in the nursery for them (in amongst all the pink frilly clothes that I need to sort out and pack away!!)
Thank you all for your lovely thoughts and wishes, and for the beautiful comments on this blog. Can I ask a favour? Please don't use our names in the comments, just our initals....P is paranoid about maintaining some privacy ;-)
T xxxxx
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Taking Care of Business
Intention to continue with placement letter - check
Acceptance of allocation forms - check
Immigration forms sent to China- check
Preliminary flights booked - check
Minor mental breakdown - check
Immigration forms arrived in China - check
Enormous stress caused trying to get 6 couples to agree on every aspect of trip to China - check
Care package lovingly prepared for Oliver - check
Doing all that we possibly can to get to Oliver quickly - check, check, check
Surviving (just!) on 3 hours sleep per night - check
Incredibly messy house with paperwork from pillar to post - check
Falling in love with our son more every day
Acceptance of allocation forms - check
Immigration forms sent to China- check
Preliminary flights booked - check
Minor mental breakdown - check
Immigration forms arrived in China - check
Enormous stress caused trying to get 6 couples to agree on every aspect of trip to China - check
Care package lovingly prepared for Oliver - check
Doing all that we possibly can to get to Oliver quickly - check, check, check
Surviving (just!) on 3 hours sleep per night - check
Incredibly messy house with paperwork from pillar to post - check
Falling in love with our son more every day
CHECK!!!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Cloud Nine
That's where we are right now....it's a nice place, albeit a lot more hectic than I had ever imagined!
Here's how the call that changed our lives went down....
Our adoption officer, RT, phoned me at home at 3.45pm on Thursday...I saw that it was a private number and just froze. I was shaking before I even picked up the phone, as I just KNEW that this was it!!
I said Hi to RT and then said "Is this THE call"....she said yes...and I nearly passed out. I let her know that P could be home from work in about 45 minutes, and arranged to call her back as soon as he got home. Oh, that was after I let some not-very-motherly 4 letter words slip out!!
Side Note: P and I had decided months ago that we wanted to be together when we found out who our child was. Normally parents this is not what happens, but we decided that even if it meant having to wait a few hours more to find out who Bug was...we would continue the next part of the journey as we always have - holding eachother's hands and being together. I am very grateful that we were able to hear the news at the same time, in the same room.
I was shaking so much at this stage that I couldn't even dial the numbers on the phone...or remember what P's mobile number was!!! When I did phone P he was with someone at work.. I very calmly (I think!) asked him to excuse himself for a moment, which he did. As soon as he said he was outside of the consultation room I just said "This is it...it's time...come home". He then let some not-very-fatherly 4 letter words slip out, and told me he would have to finish his consult and then could be home in 30 minutes.
I hung up and then raced around the house - I asked (very hurridly and probably not too politely) the fellow who cleans our house to leave - NOW - as I wanted to be alone. I don't think he knew what to do!! I got my "Lucky Mama" Tshirt on, put some makeup on and set up the video camera. The bloody tripod broke as I was setting it up - but more 4 letter words and some quick improvisation with phone books got that sorted. I set up the dinig table with tissues (of course), the list of questions we had prepared the day before, some nice paper for P to write down the details of the call on, and P's special pen (a 40th birthday present from his gorgeous family).
My darling husband arrived a mere 30 minutes after I called him (during which time he performed a minor procedure on someone, finish his consult, got back to his office, let staff know he was leaving, arranged for someone to cover for him, get to the carpark and drove the 15 minutes home).
We checked that the video camera was working (thank you L and S for the loan!!!) and then phoned the adoption department.....we then got given the information that will change our lives forever.
We have a son.
We are parents.
We have a son.
I'm crying again as I type those magical words.
We are so blessed.
Here's how the call that changed our lives went down....
Our adoption officer, RT, phoned me at home at 3.45pm on Thursday...I saw that it was a private number and just froze. I was shaking before I even picked up the phone, as I just KNEW that this was it!!
I said Hi to RT and then said "Is this THE call"....she said yes...and I nearly passed out. I let her know that P could be home from work in about 45 minutes, and arranged to call her back as soon as he got home. Oh, that was after I let some not-very-motherly 4 letter words slip out!!
Side Note: P and I had decided months ago that we wanted to be together when we found out who our child was. Normally parents this is not what happens, but we decided that even if it meant having to wait a few hours more to find out who Bug was...we would continue the next part of the journey as we always have - holding eachother's hands and being together. I am very grateful that we were able to hear the news at the same time, in the same room.
I was shaking so much at this stage that I couldn't even dial the numbers on the phone...or remember what P's mobile number was!!! When I did phone P he was with someone at work.. I very calmly (I think!) asked him to excuse himself for a moment, which he did. As soon as he said he was outside of the consultation room I just said "This is it...it's time...come home". He then let some not-very-fatherly 4 letter words slip out, and told me he would have to finish his consult and then could be home in 30 minutes.
I hung up and then raced around the house - I asked (very hurridly and probably not too politely) the fellow who cleans our house to leave - NOW - as I wanted to be alone. I don't think he knew what to do!! I got my "Lucky Mama" Tshirt on, put some makeup on and set up the video camera. The bloody tripod broke as I was setting it up - but more 4 letter words and some quick improvisation with phone books got that sorted. I set up the dinig table with tissues (of course), the list of questions we had prepared the day before, some nice paper for P to write down the details of the call on, and P's special pen (a 40th birthday present from his gorgeous family).
My darling husband arrived a mere 30 minutes after I called him (during which time he performed a minor procedure on someone, finish his consult, got back to his office, let staff know he was leaving, arranged for someone to cover for him, get to the carpark and drove the 15 minutes home).
We checked that the video camera was working (thank you L and S for the loan!!!) and then phoned the adoption department.....we then got given the information that will change our lives forever.
We have a son.
We are parents.
We have a son.
I'm crying again as I type those magical words.
We are so blessed.
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