About Me

This blog is about me and my voyage to becoming a mummy. Ironically called “mummy in the baking” as together with my passion and obsession for all things cake related, I will never be able to have my own "bun in the oven." Years of fertility treatment have taken their toll and I now find myself on a new..eek, i hate this word...journey! The crazy train to adoption. I hope you will join me while I bake my way to becoming a mummy. I want this blog to be a source of information as well as a comforter. I hope it will inspire and help anyone who is considering adoption or who has in fact already bought their ticket for this..here I go again...journey. Cake makes me happy and I hope you will enjoy sharing my love of it. I want it to help lift your spirits and hearts through what can only be described as 'the trials and tribulations of the adoption process.' Along with my desire to be a family, I love my dogs, have an unhealthy love of sausages and chenin blanc, adore my land rover uber-nerd of a husband and continiously dream of balmy summer evenings. Baking in progress…..

Wednesday 25 July 2012

The initial visit...
I am up super early. I hoover every nook and cranny of the house, in fact I will admit, I even hoover the dogs! LRUN is nervous I can tell but he's trying to act cool. I re-boil the kettle several times and re-arrange the cookies......obsessively artistically.
She arrives and we instantly warm to her. I offer my squeaky clean kitchen table but she says she would prefer the lounge. I am sure she sees the panic in my eyes as I hadn't quite cleaned that part of the house as well. Oh well...She has a cuppa but declines my biscuits. I will admit, I am dissapointed in her. I eat the biscuits.They're good.
We talk and talk. She's here for about 3 hours. We talk about us, our childhoods, why we want to adopt, our lifestyle, how our lives will change. She talks about the system, how it works, their rules..which include no smoking and no unprotected sex (hee hee..feel like I am young again!)
She mentions that the next prep course is coming up next month and they might have a space for us. This would be so so super amazing but we don't want to get our hopes us as she explains that the deadline is tight. She has a few concerns about our lives abroad when we lived on sailing yachts and how they were going to get around the neccesary paperwork but we will have to work around it. Also, I am from South Africa which adds further paperwork nightmares but nothing we cannot handle or Fedex over. She has a quick look around the house and seems happy with it. One would hope so....I love our house. It's the perfect family home. We wave goodbye and close the door and both let our enormous sighs (well my LRUN passess wind but let's not go there...something about it was a long time to hold it all in!) We stand and hug each other...tightly. I hold my nose.

Monday 23 July 2012

The night before....
I lie awake thinking what we should do about the dogs. I know they will get so over excited initially and what if she doesn't like dogs. I decide that a long walk in the morning will calm my nerves and tire them out and a chew bone should hopefully take care of the rest.

I spend ages cleaning the kitchen table and making sure everything is just right. I can't decide what to bake for her. It's stressing me out, so I decide to buy in some cookies. It feels safer this way and I opt for some oaty soft cookies.

Friday 6 July 2012

She called!
We have a date for a home visit! I cannot begin to describe how excited we are. Ok, so it's still 3 weeks away but it's a date and it is something to work towards. I come home and make a batch of chocolate brownies and imagine myself making them with my little ones one day...chocolate and flour everywhere but I wouldn't mind. I smile quietly to myself.

Chocolate Brownies
 

Monday 2 July 2012

Finally get a reply....
So three weeks later, I get a reply. It doesn't say much.....just an acknowledgement... but this is enough for me. It gives me butterflies. It says that a social worker will call me shortly to arrange a visit. I call my LRUN, we are beaming. It finally feels like we are getting somewhere.
Back at home, my Amazon wish list is spiralling out of control. I must be a  real dream target for any marketing analyst. There are books on adoption for dummies, toddler adoption, trauma, bonding, attachment issues and theraplay...all mixed in with a good helping of Peggy Porschen's romantic cakes, the Hummingbird Bakery and Cakes to Fall In Love With. I have a lot of reading to do.