the wait in china these days for a referral for those waiting is LONG...to put it in perspective for those not in the china adoption community our papers went to china end of August 2005 and we got referral end November 2006 - so 15 months wait ...In the last 21 months since we came home with Nelly they have only managed to clear 5 months of paperwork ...the wait is getting longer and longer...numerous explanations and theories - many to do with the number of children in institutions, lower abandonment figures, the trend towards domestic adoptions within China etc etc ...whatever the explanation it would seem that there will be fewer and fewer little ones from China and for those waiting it seems will only get harder and harder...I just hope that the theories and explanations are true ...

some recent pictures

My good friend Gill came over from the States and it was the first time she and Scott had met Nelly , we met up in Kensington High Street on an amazingly warm Saturday afternoon in late September and spent an hour or so in Kensington Gardens and then went for something to eat in Wagamamas ...it was lovely to catch up with old friends that we chat to on Skype..

All I want for Christmas ......

and birthday ( december 24th ....so not that far apart! ) ...and maybe for next years Christmas and birthday too.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

are a pair of these beautiful boots........

I

growing up....

my little girl can hold real grudges!



Saturday evening we went along to a fundraising evening at her pre-school...a Bingo night! not our usual Saturday night out ( well we don't go out anymore! but hey.....) but as I am on the committee I thought I should attend ( I made sure that a friend was going to be there...) anyway we passed up Strictly and hotfooted it down the the village hall...They had arranged for Sam - Nelly's key worker - to spend the evening in the other room with loads of toys, books, drawing etc and juice and crisps! to keep the children amused while we played BINGO!!Nelly did well but got tired and we ducked out early....Yesterday afternoon when I picked up N from preschool Sam said that she had been really off with her all morning and Nelly had told Mary ( another worker ) that it was because Mummy Daddy put me in a room with Sam on Saturday night!

some new pictures .................

With Rob between contracts! resting at home ....he has been buying art for the walls!

We found this fab site degreeart.com run by two women who trawl the final degree shows and then represent up and coming new artitsts.. being a distance from London now and having a small child makes doing the degree shows difficult!

ANyway we ahve broken with our usual very abstract works and gone for something a bit more daring, and interesting....

This is by a woman called Kate Marshall - not surprisingly titled Blue Stocking!

These two are by Ruth Holloway and are from a study of hers on womens legs! They are on satin and the image itself is drawn and then overstitched in different colours... this is on our bedroom ...
This is called suncatcher ....................

moving from the cot to a big girls bed....

so one of the final milestones of Nelly moving on from baby to big girl is the move to a bed! We had planned on doing this after our summer holiday but with the whole crying and waking in the middle of the night scenes we had in the summer we decided against it ...SO two weeks ago we dug out the bits to turn the cot into a bed...well we had most of them but the most important bits - the screws had gone missing! Fortunately for us Mothercare provide a service for dippy parents who lose things two years after they have bought them!

I have decided to buy Nelly one of those funny Kidsleep Wake Up bunny clocks to encourage her to stay in bed in the morning when she wakes as for the last two days she has been waking as usual at 5 50am drinking some milk and then falling asleep in our bed until 8am!

Any other tips on making the transition would be appreciated !