Fingers Crossed its the Last Christmas...

I am still hoping all of you have had a joyful Christmas, surrounded by and shared with loved ones.

We celebrated our two family Christmas's this year and I have to admit something felt a little odd.
As we sat around sharing in so much Christmas Cheer, both Matt and I both felt a little confused and not quite complete.
As we spoke that night on Christmas Day, and came to the same conclusion, we were missing our kids.

By this early stage in our marriage we had both assumed we would be parents, watching our kids opening presents, and them being more amused by the paper and the boxes than the presents.
Or maybe it would be us opening gifts for one yet to be born.

As we sat there over the Two celebrations, watching our dear nieces and nephews playing together, and opening their gifts; we looked in hope at what our kids might be doing, playing Cricket in the park,
running around the playground, having a Nerf War, hugging loved ones.

While we wait for these next few weeks to pass so we can undertake our interviews and assessments, all we can do is hope and dream and keep our fingers crossed.

Hope that all goes smoothly, and that permission is granted and we are approved. Fingers crossed that there are no hickups and that this time next year we will be celebrating Christmas as a Family with our child or children.


Our interviews and assessments are the next big step, one that we are both keenly aware will have a big impact on our application, as always though in all things we pray and leave it in Gods hands.

Pray that he is opening the doors, and preparing not only us but, the child or children who will be coming into our lives, the BParents who are having to relinquish their kids, the Foster Family that will be caring for them, and the workers who take each step with caution to make sure the right match is made.
In all things we pray and we ask that you will pray with us too.

It is coming up to the end of the year and 2012 promises to be a great one with lots of fun and excitement.
I hope you are well, and that you are blessed richly in the year to come

Kat xx

4 Sleeps and many dreams

Today has been spent baking goodies to give as presents this year, and sewing up a storm for a little niece of ours. During today Matt and I have both been dreaming of so many things.

Today while being all creative I caught myself dreaming of kids running around the house and out in the yard, visions that verged of memories of making a floury mess in the kitchen as rolled out the cookie dough to be cut with cookie cutters and then baked leaving a warm and comforting smell of chocolate and cinnamon through the house.

And while sewing up little outfits for a loved ones little girl, I could not help but dream of making them for our own kids.  These dreams and thoughts now see to be so close and so tangible now as we edge towards Christmas and on into the new year of 2012.

Matt came to me a couple of times and helped where he could, telling me rather giddily hey we could do this with our kids, and how he saw some bright coloured kids utensils in the shops the other day and how we could get some of them so they had their own to use.
As I completed each little outfit it went from a "oh I like that fabric" earlier on in the day to "those look wonderful, you could make some like those for our kids".  my response was well maybe but would have to change the fabric and pattern  for a boy because I am not so sure they would want pretty pink flowers or a dress to wear.

The Truth of it all is, we have been dreaming a lot of late, and even more so the closer we get to Christmas.
Dreaming of :
Letters to Santa being written and sent out.
A Family Decorated tree, surrounded by presents and stockings waiting to be filled.
Sweet sleeping children tucked up in bed after a day of school or play.
A countdown to Christmas in sleeps with activities to whittle the time away.
Making and decorating Gingerbread men and cookies together.
Sitting around in the lounge room on Christmas Eve, reading the real story of Christmas and Jesus Birth.
Starting up so many of our own Christmas Traditions as a family

O so very many dreams to look forward to :)

It is our hope and our belief that once they come into our homes and our lives, no matter what thier previous experience of this time of the year has been in the past that they will come to love it, to celebrate it, to enjoy it and find peace.
Christmas is a time to feel love, to share love, and to give love.

Just in case I don't make it back on here before then, I hope and pray that each and everyone of you is blessed richly this Christmas with joy that overflows, with love the fills your heart and home, and with peace as we finish this year and begin a new.

Merry Christmas Everyone, and a Safe an Joyful New Year for 2012.
God Bless
Much Grace

Kat xx

Tis the Season to Be Jolly while we wait for you

Well we are now at the start of December 2011.

This past month has been something of a whirl wind for us, not quite sure where the month has gone really.
We celebrated the marriage of one of my dearest and closest friends in the middle of the month, and I felt so truly blessed to be part of that special day.  This are slowly kicking along.

It is the start of December and we have put up our Christmas Tree, and some decorations, and have even started to organise Christmas this year with our families.
And as we sit here this afternoon we wonder about our kids; what you are doing, are you playing, are you safe, what do you like, what do you wish Santa would bring you for Christmas, do you already know about the first Christmas?.. all these things and more are running through our minds, along with, when will we finally meet you, what will you look like,  do you like to do the things we hope you will ??

We set up the tree, and have placed presents underneath so you know we have been thinking of you.. while the presents contain our love, our hope, our support, and our care in all things, rather than toys and games. we look forward to filling your life with these things and the presents follow.

We have just been assigned our Case Worker and look forward to meeting with her in January, because it will be one step closer to our Kid/s coming home..

hoping you are all well, much love and grace to you all
Kat

WOW November already

ok my deepest apologies for not updating this blog sooner, I honestly had not realised time had passed so quickly since my last entry..

so there are lots of things that have been happening,
Matt and I have both been busy at work, Matt more than myself, but we have both been getting active and enjoying being part of our local community more and more.

This past fortnight an Uncle of mine returned home for his eternal reward. I mention my uncle because he was an amazing man, he and his wife who have now both passed on are  and have been an amazing influence in my life, and especially now. You see, for over 40 years they were foster parents and adoptive parents.
their grace and love and giving spirits were and still are amazing and precious gifts that they shared openly.
Our hope is that when the time comes, when we are old and grey and called home that our loved ones will see is in this same light, with love and grace and care.

We have completed and submitted our life stories and medicals and all our current references are in too.
I have to say, those life stories while it looked like a simple task to complete before we started, it was far from it.  Those questions did exactly what they were meant to do, they gave us the time to look at ourselves at our own life and make sure that we knew we were ready.
if you are at this stage in your own application I have only one bit of advice, take your time, this is not a race its a marathon. Take the time to really consider and answer all of the sections properly, the end result once completed is so worth the wait and the time it takes to complete it.

so now we sit back and wait again. the next few weeks and few months will be more than a little interesting we're sure.
I am off on a weekend adventure with a dear friend to check out some Horse related bits soon, a dear friend of mine is getting married not long after that and I have been asked to be a matron of honour, mum is hopefully going to make it through her 71st birthday, and then we are into December.. will do my all to keep this up and running a little more regularly. over the coming weeks
hope you are all well
Kat xx

Watch this clip, and open your hearts

during our Education Sessions we were presented with the following clip, it is reasons like the ones expressed in this clip that we know we are on the right path, and know that this is where God has prepared for us to go.

I suggest to any one of you who are watching this to have the tissues ready, to have your hearts and minds open to what you read and hear.  If Adoption or Permanent Care or Foster Care is something you are considering watch this first.

Short Explanation.. time for more paperwork

I had someone ask me the other day why the change of the Blog name from Adoption to Permanent Care.. Well the truth is Permanent Care is the area we have always been leaning towards..
Adoption is infant adoption (new borns) a process and a path that can be quite lengthy and in the end you bring home a baby.. now while we are not against the idea of having a baby our focus has never been that.,. it has been to become parents, to share our love and care with a child or children that come into our care.
So we felt that the name change was needed.

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and now time for more paperwork.. we received our medical check and life story questions this week.. all I can say is bring on the Medical Checks and Time to do one question at a time in that life story .. Its going to be interesting going through the long list this next few weeks..

I have been sick with the flu this last week and it is finally starting to ease up so fingers crossed this is all the start of something wonderful.
hope you are all well..  take care

Kat

Third Friday ... and now what...

sorry its taken a couple of days to get an update in here, have been quite busy helping friends move house so have not had much time near the computer lately.. also haven't been to well, some silly head cold thingy trying to take over and I am almost winning at the moment..

anyways .. last Friday the 26th,  as the title said was the third in the PC Education Sessions. the final one before we start our paperwork.

To sum up this last month it has truly been the most extraordinary time.  It has definitely put in perspective what we had been considering and discussing over the course, and also over the time we personally were considering where to go and what to do after our fertility issues became a bigger issue that once thought.

Right now we are in a really good place.. we went into all of these sessions with an open heart and an open mind ready to have any questions answered, to make new friends, to understand the support and the process that will be involved and now we are starting the next step in the process.

On the last  day, everyone was handed a preliminary application form to fill out, to give a small amount of insight into our selves and our lives and what we are looking at applying for.

So we filled it and and sent it off this week, and now we need to wait for the paperwork to come so we can start working on filling out all the application details and forms: Get Medicals, references, life story's and all that jazz completed.

As excited as we are to begin it all we are going to sit back and wait for it all to roll in we don't want to jinx anything so I apologise if the future posts seem a little vague. They may not be but I am sure there will be some you might read and just go "what on earth are they talking about?" so again in advance I apologise. But in the same breath I don't.

This is a very personal and important time ahead of us and our families and right now we ask that you will keep us in your prayers and thoughts.

We don't know how long or how short this path is ahead but we know everything is in Gods hands and will come to pass in His time. So for now until the paperwork arrives, we wait and we pray and we hope.