ABOUT US !
Gidday, We live in Melbourne, Australia. Melbourne is the capital of Victoria and is Australia’s second largest city. Melbourne is a city of style, fashion, Restaurants & cafes, architecture, galleries, trams & beautiful gardens. Known as the Arts & Culture Centre of Australia and is home to world famous sporting events such as the Melbourne Cup, the Australian Tennis Open, Australian Grand Prix & the Bells Beach Surf Classic. It is also home to the Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final every September at the MCG. Melbourne enjoys crisp to cold winters(June-Aug) Glorious Springs (Sep-Nov), warm to hot summers (Dec-Feb) and mild Autumn’s (March-May) Autumn is my favourite season, actually we were married in the Autumn – April 30th 1988 after meeting in High school! Shucks high school sweethearts ! I am a Pre-School Mothercraft Nurse and my husband is in the banking industry. He is also a councilor for the Municipality that we reside in. We are the proud owners of 2 Border Collies Molly & Fudge. Our cat of 15yrs Pixie went to Rainbow Bridge earlier this yr. We would like to get another cat probably a Birman but are going to wait a few years until our little one is older. Molly & Fudge have been our substitute babies and will continue to be very much apart of our family. No expulsion to the backyard for these 2 spoilt doggies when our daughter/son comes along. We have always had pets but we bought Molly not long after we ceased infertility treatment. The love we felt for this 12 weeks old pup was astounding but certainly not surprising. Infertility treatment was a long hard journey one that has brought us closer together as a couple and also has made us quite resilient! I think it has helped us to be able to meet life’s challenges head on but in the early days of infertility treatment it was certainly filled with pain, actually pure gut wrenching agony, tears & frustration. Having a tiny pup to nurture, take care of – yes she cried through the night lol and we got up for her, must admit it was more Daddy than mommy !! Also we took her to Puppy School and we also attended basic obedience & then advanced obedience classes with her. It was the emotional therapy we, especially (I) needed to overcome the arduous road of not being able to have our own family. Hot on the heels of Molly 9months later we bought another Border collie pup & he was called Fudge after my love of fudge & chocolate. Fudge is a beautiful tan & white border collie; however, breeders call them red & white. Fudge had to a shoulder operation for OCD when he was just 14mons old! He came home the same day as his operation, poor baby. I vividly remembering him whimpering with pain, hubby wasn’t home & I was bawling my eyes out as I could feel his pain! Thankful he made a full recovery with grateful thanks to our vet & surgeon. These guys are doted on, spoilt rotten and in return give us their unconditional love! Border Collies being an extremely active & energetic breed they always keep us on our toes and very active! They LOVE their hourly morning walk everyday, a romp in the park once or twice a week, swimming on the beach as often as we can get there, a ride in the car a few times a week, a twice daily ball play (did I say only “twice” daily?) & several tug games and then they are contented to laze the rest of the day away on the couch or our bed! It saddens me for whatever reason to think of all the people in the world that don’t know what its like to have a dog or cats unconditional love – they are certainly missing out on something remarkable! After infertility treatment we had felt that was “all” that we had focused on for years. It was time to nurture our relationship as a couple & we also thought it would be beneficial for us to take on new interests / hobbies to fill some of the void of not having a family. We share many of the same interests & also individual interests. We both have a passion for travel & have traveled extensively within Australia, Asia, Europe & the US. We are also both collectors. Some of the things we collect are: TY beanie babies, dolphin figurines, border collie memorabilia, Snoopy memorabilia, Artist Trading Cards (ATC’s), Coca-cola Memorabilia, Pin badges all styles & themes but specializes in Olympic Pins & Disney, Playing cards, Spoons, Crystal figurines, Monopoly Games, Collectible Cars, I am a very passionate crafter! My love of Crafts stems from having basic craft lessons in High School and then I have taught myself the rest. There really isn’t something that I don’t like doing when it comes to crafts! I love them all! Depending on what is “in” & trendy is what I dabble in! Some of the various crafts I have dabbled in over the years are: Sewing, knitting, crochet, cross stitch, folk art painting, embroidery, quilting, jewelry crafts, papercrafts – card making, ATC’S, Scrap booking, journal/book making & Decoupage. My husband obviously doesn’t have as much time with a full-time job & his role as councilor in our municipality but when he does get the time he enjoys: golf, working out In the gym, picture framing, billiards, listening to music, reading true Australian crime stories & handyman jobs around the house. We both enjoy walking & we take Molly & Fudge for a 1hr walk every morning! We used to also enjoy bush walking through many of our gorgeous national parks but haven’t done this for years. We also both enjoy 10 pin bowling, gardening, reading, going out to Restaurants, having friends over for a BBQ, watching DVD’s & playing board/card games. Our Journey to adoption certainly wasn’t made in haste. Not that I am saying those that whom do pursue adoption as soon as they cease infertility treatment is made in haste but for “us” we spent 5yrs after finishing Infertility treatment focusing on “us” and our relationship! Putting some fun times back into our lives! My husband had talked about adoption for the first time in 2003 when a work acquaintance had talked about their process to adopt their daughter from China but I was just not ready. In September 2004 whilst holidaying in California, actually no place better than Disneyland, we were relaxed in holiday mode & lots of children everywhere it hit me with such enormity that we could share too in the excitement of taking our daughter/son to Disneyland! To see all the love & joy that children give their parents! Just watching the smiles from the parents as their children were whizzed around on the various rides & to share in all the laughter! Why should we miss out on this too? We also noted the not so glorious side – which I am well aware of with working with Children as my profession! Tired, grumpy, tantrum throwing children & tired, cranky parents but we are more than ready to take on the good with the bad! Bring it On we Say! When One Door Closes, another opens but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us ~ Helen Keller
