Another adoption update- setting the date!

How does the saying go about telling God your plans? On the weekend I was all set to delay our assessment stating by a month or so to settle into the new job. Then last night we received a call from our assessor! She suggested that we make use of the school holidays with Murray being off work and booked our first session in for next Monday!

So now we are trying to get everything in order prior to the first meeting. Each interview goes for around 2.5 hours, and she would like to finish things off by 6.30pm, so I'm going to have to build up some flexi-time at my new job to leave early for the interviews over the coming months.

I can't believe we are actually doing this! Luckily Thursday is a public holiday for ANZAC Day which gives me an extra day of cleaning and putting together our paperwork. We need to provide payslips, mortgage docs, loan docs, insurance papers, as well as bringing out our birth and marriage certificates again.

Speaking of my new job, I also got the go-ahead to take two weeks off for our holiday in July! I was worried I'd have to cancel or reduce the trip to one week, but my boss was happy for me to go, even without having enough annual leave accrued by the time we go. I love my new job!!!!

Latest adoption news - our assessment

We were very excited when the letter below came in the mail this week!

 

We are now progressing to the next stage of the adoption process. We paid our $750 registration fee a few weeks ago and have been assigned to an assessor named Mary. We are hoping to hold off starting the interview process until Mid-May or the beginning of June, just to allow me to get settled in the new job before taking any time off of work, and also to get my uni work for this semester out of the way.

We also have a working bee planned for May 11 with a lot of our friends and family helping us to fix some things around the house and just bring it up to a good standard before we start the assessment process.

Progress!!!!

What I've been up to - in pictures

Chilling out with the dogs

Getting my housewife on and making scones for Murray

Babysitting my gorgeous nephew William

Saying goodbye to work friends

 

My work friends put on a fabulous farewell morning tea

And I got completely spoiled

I've been busy with uni study

We've picked out a new toilet which will be installed this week - woot! No more leaking!

I spent the past weekend at Relay for Life - I am exhausted!

I was lucky enough to go to the Perth Wildcats Grand Final breakfast and final shoot-around before the game. Unfortunately we lost the game and the series, which I am devastated about. There is always next year though.

Reaching my goals

If you haven't been across to Lose and Hope, I've reached an important milestone last week.
Check it out!

Adoption Progress - House Inspection

One of the things I am dreading most about starting the assessment component of the adoption process, is the house inspection. I completely understand the need for a house inspection. After all, the state needs to determine that we can look after a child, and that includes providing them a safe environment to live in.

We live in an old house in the south-eastern suburbs of Perth. The house is probably around 40 years old, and to put it bluntly, it is falling apart. We have had two ceilings collapse since we moved in 7 years ago, and pretty much anything that can go wrong, does go wrong. The house is filled with cracks from earth movement, we've replaced both the ducted airconditioner and gas hot water system. Now we've discovered that our gorgeous cubby house in the backyard has been eaten out by termites and needs to be removed, along with Charlie's kennel.

There is a lot to do to bring our house up to the standard we want for raising a child in. So I'm finally asking for help. I hate asking, hate putting people out, hate inconveniencing people. But I'm asking. I'm putting the word out to our friends and family to help us get our house looking like it should. I'm not concerned about weeding the back yard, or a prettier letterbox (although those things would be lovely). I need help with stuff I can't do myself. For example we need to be able to put all of our laundry detergent and cleaning supplies out of reach of kids. Unfortunately we have no storage in our laundry, so I am hoping to be able to hang a cupboard above our trough and washing machine to house those things. There are other small things as well like our garage needs to be able to be locked as it contains garden chemicals.

We have gotten so far with this adoption process, yet we are still only at the beginning of our assessment. I just don't want anything to get between us being approved as adoptive parents. I really hope our friends and family are supportive and can help us get there.