A Beloved's Journey

Do you have a specific child already? No, I have to wait to be matched to a child. The Indian authorities make the match and then share the information with ICANZ who share it with me. I then have a couple of days to look through the information and choose whether I accept that child. I will be sent a photo (not necessary a recent one) and limited medical information. If I don’t accept the child I am put back in the queue to wait for another one.  How long will it take? The process has already taken 22 months. Once I have been approved by the Indian Authorities the wait could be anywhere from 6 months to 5 years.  Do you go over to India at all? Yes. I have to go over to collect her and I may need to go over one or two times before that. This depends on what the Indian Authorities ask for. When I go over to collect her my mum will have to come with me and we will have to stay for at least two weeks.  Why overseas and not NZ? There are many reaso...

Waiting is an interesting conundrum. How long will it take? What else could I be doing while I'm waiting or instead of waiting? Waiting is never easy. We are all waiting for something in life, a new job, children to leave home, a pay rise, getting married, the queue at the supermarket or the husband to fix something! Sometimes we wait with faith, not actually knowing if what we are waiting for will come about. Other times we wait, knowing that what we are waiting for will come to pass. The waiting for the latter is easier but we still require hope in our waiting. I'm not the best at waiting but I find it easier when I have something to do while I wait. The struggle that exists with waiting for Bunny is not having an end date. I don't know when the waiting will end, I'm in a limbo of waiting for something that I know will change my life with no idea when it will happen. In the meantime I have to live! So what do I do in my living and waiting? 7 years ago I started ...

Almost a year of my adoption journey had passed before I decided that I needed a nickname for the little girl I was to adopt. Saying 'my little girl' was feeling a bit impersonal and at 3 words and 4 syllables long it was taking it's time to pronounce. The search started for a short but cute and relatable nickname for 'my little girl'. The search wasn't a long one. I had already purchased fabric from Spotlight early on in my journey to make a quilt for my little girl. I love to sew and I knew I would need some projects to make and to help pass the waiting time. This fabric is a beautiful woodland theme with deer, acorns, toadstools, trees, bunting and... bunnies. I decided 'Deer' didn't have a very enduring tune to it but 'Bunny' did.   I had also already purchased a 'JellyCat' bunny from the local ToyWorld as I had seen these in 'Harrods' when I had visited London in 2016 and had already decided that they were th...