A Beloved's Journey

 The past few weeks have absolutely flown past with organising the last few details of the trip. I have bought all the things that I need for the trip and my bags are packed. I have two more days at work and then 3 days to finish off some last minute things at home before flying out of Christchurch at 1:10pm on Saturday. The closer we get the faster the clock seems to tick down! There is a mix of great excitement in becoming a family and going on an adventure but also a sense of being overwhelmed with the hugeness of those two things. But I know that God travels with us and before us.  Packing was an interesting dilemma. We are allowed 30kg checked luggage for all our flights to Delhi and 7kg carry on. We arrive in Delhi at around 4pm on Sunday and go straight to the hotel to sleep as we have to be awake at 2am the next morning to be at the airport by 3am for a domestic flight at 5:15am. We are away for 3 days and our domestic flight luggage allowance is only 15kg meaning that...

The title of this blog really lets the secret out, but it's the journey there that is the real story. Near the end of last year I started looking at flights and accommodation as I prepared to travel to India, hoping to leave in early February. At the time there were several depending factors including booking a space in MIQ*, isolating for a week in India and working out who was going to travel with me. MIQ was an interesting dilemma as I had to work backwards and forwards at the same time as when you go into a MIQ lobby you aren't guaranteed the date that you want. At the time isolation in India was just for some high risk countries including New Zealand. In order to book MIQ I needed to know how long it would take to fly to and from India (at the time I was planning on flying to Mumbai), stay in a hotel for 7 days in isolation, get a test on day 8 and wait for the results, work out how to get from Mumbai to Akola (train-10 hours, plane and drive-6.5 hours or just drive-16 hou...

I have discovered recently that I struggle to write on the blog when things are hard. And lately things have been hard. I knew I needed to write another post months ago. I eventually started writing this one almost two weeks ago. It's time to finish it. Over this time there have also been some amazing highs amongst the lows so I recommend you prepare a relaxing beverage of choice as this is a long one. In my last adoption update I talked about having my first court hearing and the only thing changing being the date. Well, that happened a few times, 5 to be exact. Different reasons were given such as 'other matters being dealt with in court' and 'emergency holiday' (that was my favourite). Each time it was disheartening but then I would remember that we were still one court case closer to being approved. I managed to prepare the new document they asked for, got it printed at the local printer and set off to the notary to have it signed. While signing it he noticed th...

 I sit here writing this blog with a latte in my hand. Those of you who know me well have just gasped as coffee is not a usual drink for me... and this one is not a single shot (my usual choice when I do drink coffee). It's a decaf! But this is not my latte. It's Stacey's. It even has her name on it. Let me tell you how I got Stacey's latte and how this relates to everything about Christmas. Today I was supermarket shopping at my local mall and because I live close I had walked down. I bought some food for the week and supplies for our family Christmas dinner. Many people were leaving the supermarket at the same time and crossing the entrance to the supermarket in order to leave the mall. This left an older lady standing with her trolley, on the other side of this stream of people, waiting to enter the supermarket. Everyone was in a rush, it was raining, children had finished school and Christmas is coming. I saw. And I stopped. I indicated to the lady that she could go...

 If you read my last post you will know that on 20th September we had our first court date in India. I didn't have to do anything for it, it was just a chance for the judge to read my paperwork. I have an e-court app which shows my court case and it tells me who is involved and the date of the next hearing, but that is about it really. So on 20th September I was constantly checking my app to see if anything had changed. I'm not too sure what I expected but with the time difference nothing had changed until I woke up the next morning. And then the only thing that had changed was the date. I was nervous about this as I know many people who are going through the court process in India at the moment and the judge won't hear their case. This is partly due to a law change that hasn't yet been implemented but will mean that in the future judges won't hear adoption cases. Some judges have started not hearing cases before the alternative system has been put in place.  Luckil...

 Wow, two posts within a week. It must be lockdown in New Zealand! A few things have happened on the adoption front since June when I last updated you on Bunny related news. In July I received NOC (a No objection Certificate) from India which means that their central adoption agency (CARA) have no objection to the match. I have to say that the number of adoption acronyms almost exceeds that of teaching which is quite unbelievable. Receiving NOC was another big step especially as I heard, not long after, that CARA was currently only working with about 4 people (for all adoptions in the whole country and internationally) as the other employees' work agreements had not been renewed yet and so therefore they were unable to go to work. I am not sure how long I waited for NOC, as I don't know when the request went in, but I know that some people have waited over 8 months. My wait definitely wasn't that long as the earliest my agency could have requested it was at the end of May. ...

It is been many months since the following story unfolded but it's now time to talk about it.   At the beginning of this year I went on to the CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority in India) website. On this website there is information regarding children with special needs or large sibling groups who are waiting to be adopted. Previously I hadn't been able to look at their files, not realising that the only reason was due to my computer not allowing pop ups! As I looked at the photos and information on many of these children a particular photo stood out, Little D. I clicked on one of her files to find out more and then went about my day.  A few days later I showed my mum Little D. She asked me what I could do now. I said I didn't know and planned to leave it at that. Mum told me I should contact Wendy (at the NZ adoption agency). I emailed Wendy about this child and she gave me some more information that I hadn't seen due to not opening all her files. She asked if ...