Hi Lil chookie and Panthya
Ive been reading all through here with great interest. We have begun the ardurous journey down the International Adoption path in the last year. We havent looked at locally because when we looked into it a few years ago we were dissuaded at every turn by officials saying there is a very low number of children. We were told it would take forever, but it seems that may have only been South Australia! It sounds like it could be much speedier for you which is GREAT news. We have completed stage one which, like you girls was very exciting and felt like a really solid positive step after so long waiting TTC. It was hard not to shout from the rooftops "hooray, something is finally happening!!!" We stppped at stage 2 to have another go at ICSI as we havent tried this for about 6 years. but failing that we will proceed with the process.
Good luck to you both, I am really excited for you and wish you all the best for a speedy time of things... hope you have the family you have always wanted really soon.
((big hugs))
My husband and I actually started the Intercountry Adoption process in October 2005 and in December 2006 we were up to sending in our life stories and a cheque so that we could move on to getting a social worker. But we deferred (put on hold) ICA for the next 2 years because we just couldnt afford the costs and Local adoption was something we had considered 10 years ago before going through IVF and looking at surrogacy, then we considered it again while we were going through the ICA process.
I think going as far as we did with the ICA has really helped us in regards to Local as for us ICA was exciting but it was also stressful due to the money issues and worrying about approval, where as with the local I'm more excited and positive and more relaxed if thats possible So I think Local Adoption is the right way for us at this stage.
I heard from DHS today (they got our paper work today ) and we got into the May education groups as the March ones were already filled by the October info session people.
So a letter in the mail should arrive early next week to actually confirm that we have been invited to the May groups.
That is great you heard something and are into the educative groups, how exciting. We haven't heard anything. maybe we missed out this time and we'll be in later in the year.
Hubby and I went to the October 2005 ICA info session. But then in 2006 we had some trouble with ICAS losing one of our references and then not getting the second replacement letter our referee sent, we finally had to get a different referee because we had wasted 5 months with the one referee and problems with ICAS not getting or losing the references from this person.
Lil Chookie, I'm sure you will be in the May group as well. The only reason I heard anything this soon was because I emailed Myo to let her know that we had sent in our paper work and wanted to know what our chances were of getting into the March group.
Having spent the last 2 years in the ICA process I learnt to be a little pushy and just contact people about the process because as I said to Jacinta, hubby and I lost 5 months with ICA waiting around because of a lost reference and with ICAS not letting us know that they hadnt received the first one or the replacement one that our referee sent after we did find out that they didnt have the first copy from her. - I was a little worried about bothering ICAS in case I made the process harder on us, but after the 5 months we lost waiting around and not being told anything I realized that I had to just ask about what I wanted to know.
Anyway as I said If I hadnt of emailed Myo on Tuesday to ask what our chances of getting into the March sessions were I wouldnt have known anything either and would be waiting until the letter gets here early next week, but I'm sure you will be in the May group as well because your paper work was sent the same day as we sent ours in and Myo said in her email that she had just gotten ours that day
Last edited by Panthya; February 8th, 2007 at 10:31 PM.
Actually the first time I called ICA to ask what was happening, I was told to be patient and to call only if necessary.
Which is why I was worried to call when we hadnt heard anything.
But just to clarify an issue which I didnt make clear in my other post the 5 months wasted was a total.
The first 3 months was when we didnt know that they had lost one reference, then I got the courage to call them and was told they didnt have the original reference and I would need to contact our referee and get her to send in a second copy.
So that same day I called our referee and asked her to send off another copy of her reference, which she did the next day, we then waited another month and didnt hear anything - Maybe I was a little naive here as I thought they would have let us know if the second copy had turned up or not but they didnt - so then I called again only to be told that they hadnt gotten the second one. I tried to contact our referee but she had already gone overseas on a holiday with her family and so we had to get other person to replace her as a reference.
That is why the 5 months got wasted, I'm sorry I didnt make it clearer earlier that I had called ICAS twice in that 5 months.
But as I said before those 2 calls I had been told to be patient and to only call if it was really necessary to, which kind of made me scared to call at all.
I'm really glad though that your experience with ICAS has been better than mine
Last edited by Panthya; February 9th, 2007 at 10:57 AM.
This is good having a general chat thread. I was feeling it was abit selfish having a thread in my name when we are all going through our very own journeys, so this thread is perfect
P- We got a letter for a May groups today!! I am so excited!!
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So I think Local Adoption is the right way for us at this stage.
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