On Friday we spoke with the adoption agency again. We are trying to restrict ourselves to only calling every three months or so, because realistically, if the agency hasn’t called us then there isn’t any news.
In WA, you don’t get told whether or not your profile has been put forward to a birth parent to help prevent disappointments, so we wont know that we have been considered until we are actually chosen.
This week marks eight months on the waiting list, which in reality isn’t a long time, particularly when there are so few children placed for adoption. I wont lie though, it is definitely a little disheartening
In terms of information from the agency, there are currently no children with special care needs in care, which is a change from the 50% last year, and there are around six children in care, however some of those will likely return to their parents. While we remain hopeful, we know that in all likelihood, we will not be placed this year.
We were not planning on making any holiday plans as we know that we wouldn’t be able to get a passport for our adopted child if an adoption did take place, so this year was a holiday free zone. After speaking with the agency however, we decided that it wouldn’t hurt to at least think about going on holiday. 24 hours later and we have now booked flights to Europe for Christmas!!! Completely unplanned, but we found an amazing deal flying to Amsterdam right at the beginning of our annual leave period, and so we jumped and bought them! After a week of furiously looking through dozens of websites and Lonely Planet guides, we think we are going to doing some travel through Germany and France, heading to Cologne, Frankfurt, Strasbourg for Christmas, and then a few days in Paris before heading back to Perth on New Years Day. It’s just our sort of thing, short train trips to explore new places, although I’m not so sure how I’m going to cope with the freezing cold weather! Even in the midst of winter here in Perth, I’m sitting inside with a short sleeve shirt and skirt on a balmy 18 degree day (64 fahrenheit).
Part of us is hoping that, having bought the flights, we have jinxed ourselves and we will be placed for adoption and not be able to go on the holiday. We would lose the money on the flights (non-refundable tickets), yet it would be worth every cent. So who knows – let’s make God laugh by telling him our plans!
If you're traveling from Frankfurt down to Strassbourg, stop in Heidelberg! It's a beautiful little city that can be done in 1-2 days -- one to wander around the Altstadt and see the castle, and the other to go up the mountains on either side of the river (one of which has a funicular to the top, the other of which has the ruins of two 11th C monasteries, one of which was built on a Roman temple, and a Nazi-era ampitheater, as well has once being a Celtic fortress ~400BC). And it's just so lovely. The view of the castle while biking down the river never gets old, and I do it every day.
ReplyDeleteExciting about Europe! Especially those areas that you are planning to go. They are not quite common. I grew up in Luxembourg, which is not far from Cologne and Strasbourg. Be sure to bring very warm clothes!
ReplyDeleteOh wow! I will have to pick your brains then :-)
DeleteDepending on whether I am pregnant or not, we are now planning to do Munich, Strasbourg and either Luxembourg or Lucerne in between!