A week or so before Christmas, my Mother was told that she had an enlarged heart with the added bonus of significant heart disease. She was cautioned to be very careful and not over do things . An appointment was made with a specialist for today. My thinking was that if the Doctor believed it to be life threatening then she would be in hospital - right?
This has caused all of us some considerable anxiety in one form or another. For John and i, it was the fear of our children not knowing one of their Grandmothers and all the what if scenarios that go with it. We had a great Christmas with a shadow looming over us.
Today Mum went with my Sister to see the specialist and was given the all clear. No enlarged heart, no complications! Hooray.
Now life continues ...
Tomorrow our babies will reach 28 weeks.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
26 weeks and all is well with the Beans!
There is nothing to report on the babies except they are doing everything they should ( as is our wonderful surrogate), which is glorious in it self.
John and I began looking at airfares this week;leaving Oz in early March and managed to get fares to Delhi with Singapore Airlines for $1300 each. Last year, travel in February cost us an additional $400 a person!
We ( by we I mean the wonderful Shilpi) are beginning to look at our longer term accommodation options for our time in Delhi. This is made slightly more difficult as John has a pre-existing knee condition and we would prefer not to have to deal with stairs, or as few as possible- any suggestions gratefully received.
On the packing front, we are knee deep in Dr. Brown's bottles. We have our baby slings, Phil & Ted's Cocoon's (in lime green), some premmie nappies, premmie dummies, and some favourite clothes. Things in Delhi are so cheap; I imagine we will be buying clothes, rugs, formula and wipes there.
I have received my birth certificate this week, so after Christmas I’ll make copies of both birth certificates and our marriage certificate and get them notarised. We haven't heard back from the Australian High Commission yet, but I have just read on another Blog that things were closing down for Xmas, so we will have to be patient.
Things to do in January: Organise DNA test & visa's for India.
John and I began looking at airfares this week;leaving Oz in early March and managed to get fares to Delhi with Singapore Airlines for $1300 each. Last year, travel in February cost us an additional $400 a person!
We ( by we I mean the wonderful Shilpi) are beginning to look at our longer term accommodation options for our time in Delhi. This is made slightly more difficult as John has a pre-existing knee condition and we would prefer not to have to deal with stairs, or as few as possible- any suggestions gratefully received.
On the packing front, we are knee deep in Dr. Brown's bottles. We have our baby slings, Phil & Ted's Cocoon's (in lime green), some premmie nappies, premmie dummies, and some favourite clothes. Things in Delhi are so cheap; I imagine we will be buying clothes, rugs, formula and wipes there.
I have received my birth certificate this week, so after Christmas I’ll make copies of both birth certificates and our marriage certificate and get them notarised. We haven't heard back from the Australian High Commission yet, but I have just read on another Blog that things were closing down for Xmas, so we will have to be patient.
Things to do in January: Organise DNA test & visa's for India.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Australian adoptions slump to lowest levels
Australian adoptions slump to lowest levels
The number of adoptions in Australia is continuing its downward trend and has reached its lowest rate since the early 1970s.
Figures released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show last financial year there were just 412 adoptions.
That is compared with a peak of more than 8,000 adoptions a year in the early 1970s.
The institute's Tim Beard says the main reason is there are fewer Australian children in need of adoption because of the growing acceptance of births out of wedlock, better birth control and increased sex education.
He says just under half of all adoptions are of children born in Australia, with the overwhelming majority of adoptions from overseas coming from Asian countries.
"There's also other medical reasons like the development of IVF and other reproductive technologies," he said.
"Fifteen per cent of all adoptions are what we call local, so they're Australian children who don't have a pre-existing relationship with their adoptive parents.
"But then there's another 31 per cent of adoptions which we call known adoptions - they're children that have had pre-existing relationships with their adoptive parents, so they might have been a step-parent or another relative or a carer."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/15/3093425.htm?section=justin
This is why Surrogacy has become so important to Australians.Like many other couples we would have been happy to adopt, if we could. I would like to correct the ABC on one point, these are the lowest adoption numbers since the 1960's.
It is even more heart breaking when you consider that the majority of the 412 adoptions are internal, i.e a step father/mother adopting a step child, which leaves us with less than 200 international adoptions for all of Australia.
There is currently well over 10,000 couples approved and waiting to adopt and many many more beginning the expensive and time consuming process of 'being approved". Most are being told that there is a 8 - 10 year waiting time. After paying ten's of thousands of dollars with the various approval process, most will never become parents and simply drop off the waiting list.
The number of adoptions in Australia is continuing its downward trend and has reached its lowest rate since the early 1970s.
Figures released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show last financial year there were just 412 adoptions.
That is compared with a peak of more than 8,000 adoptions a year in the early 1970s.
The institute's Tim Beard says the main reason is there are fewer Australian children in need of adoption because of the growing acceptance of births out of wedlock, better birth control and increased sex education.
He says just under half of all adoptions are of children born in Australia, with the overwhelming majority of adoptions from overseas coming from Asian countries.
"There's also other medical reasons like the development of IVF and other reproductive technologies," he said.
"Fifteen per cent of all adoptions are what we call local, so they're Australian children who don't have a pre-existing relationship with their adoptive parents.
"But then there's another 31 per cent of adoptions which we call known adoptions - they're children that have had pre-existing relationships with their adoptive parents, so they might have been a step-parent or another relative or a carer."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/15/3093425.htm?section=justin
This is why Surrogacy has become so important to Australians.Like many other couples we would have been happy to adopt, if we could. I would like to correct the ABC on one point, these are the lowest adoption numbers since the 1960's.
It is even more heart breaking when you consider that the majority of the 412 adoptions are internal, i.e a step father/mother adopting a step child, which leaves us with less than 200 international adoptions for all of Australia.
There is currently well over 10,000 couples approved and waiting to adopt and many many more beginning the expensive and time consuming process of 'being approved". Most are being told that there is a 8 - 10 year waiting time. After paying ten's of thousands of dollars with the various approval process, most will never become parents and simply drop off the waiting list.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
We told Nan!
This last weekend, John and I did the road trip to Pt. Augusta to see John’s much loved and adored Nan. It was a pre-Christmas visit and John desperately wanted to tell her the news of our babies. For those of you unfamiliar with distances in Australia, it is about a 3 ½ hour ( around 370 kms) trip each way through scrub, farm land and desert from where we live.
My feelings towards Nan are mixed. She is a woman of strong opinions, sense of self and beliefs. She adores her grandson and quite frankly believes he could have done a bit better than marrying me. I was worried about how she would take to the notion of 1) surrogacy and 2)our children being born in India. I know that this is not a unique worry and something that many of us face with our older relatives.
As always, I was anxious (just give me an opportunity, real or not!) about how she would take the news, but more importantly I was worried that with a word, she would hurt John. Just to prove me wrong, Nan was absolutely delighted with our news. She kept on touching John on the arm and telling John, 'You're going to be a father' with the biggest smile on her face. Everyone became a bit emotional and Nan wanted to know everything about Surrogacy ( something she had never heard about before) and this amazing opportunity to have children which is something she always knew that John has wanted.
Nan told me that if it was just John and I, that would be enough, because we make each other happy, but that this was an additional blessing. The afternoon was spent reminiscing over old stories of John as a baby and looking for an old train set that John and his Pop had put together when John was a boy.
Now everyone in our family knows our news (well except for the under 10’s who will drive their mother nuts asking when the babies are coming. They will be told at Christmas). I have put my maternity leave application in to H.R and it has been approved and my position is being advertised for my period of leave. I have applied for a copy of my birth certificate and have written to the High Commission to get the process started. The Testosterone Temple has been build and things will begin to move out of our house to TT this weekend so that painting can commence.
After an eternity of waiting for something/anything/everything to happen, it looks like things are beginning to move along;all in a bit of a rush.
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