20 May

I have been holding back on adding another entry thinking that I would have a good news entry to add soon saying we have interviews, but alas, no such luck.

Seems like since they decided to move the interviews to July / August, they have put the SA applications without job offers on the back burner to try and get rid of some of the backlog

So now we wait and wait and wait ……..

It seems however that we did use our time productively though (excuse the pun) as we have recently found out that we are preggies again. We are both seriously excited at the prospect of a brand new Clark in the family. Now we are holding thumbs that it will be a boy so that nobody can say I don’t know how to weld , but I have never claimed to be a good handyman, so a second girl will do just fine

28 May

We went for our first scan today – wow the kiepie is almost a centimeter already (one month). What surprised me was that you could already clearly see the heart beating, even though the baby is only the shape of a jelly bean !

Exciting and emotional stuff

This news however has had a knock-on effect as far as our emigration plans go.

We had planned the baby around the April round of interviews, so that Mel would still be mobile and able to help with the moving when we get to NZ. The whole immigration process puts a hold on your life, but this was one part we could not delay any longer as I am now 37, which means by the time the new kiddie is 21 I will basically be a 60 year old fart in a wheelchair <– that’s me at 60 wearing binoculars for glasses.

Since NZIS had moved their dates to July / Aug for interviews, we had decided that we will then hang around till March ’08 for Mel’s Gran’s 80th birthday celebrations in Feb and my parent’s 50th anniversary in March. Now however we have a baby due on 14 Jan ’08, which means we have to make other choices, like -
a) Do we stay and have the baby here, then leave around May / Jun when baby has had a chance to see the world and settle in a bit or
b) Leave earlier, while Mel is still allowed to fly and have the baby in NZ

Each has it’s own pro’s and con’s, but we have decided that it would be easier to leave before the baby is born for these reasons :
1) We will then get ‘free’ delivery as we are not on medical aid here in SA
2) I have been trying to get the hell out of this country for over six years already and quite frankly am not prepared to wait another year +
3) It is easier to travel with a pregnant wife than with a newborn baby, and I presume cheaper.
4) Our container will probably only leave SA when we do, so at least then by the time our container arrives we have only had a month, maybe two without our stuff coping with a new baby as opposed to three – four months if we wait.
5) It makes it a bit easier to get yourself settled if you are able to sleep through the night and wake up fresh for the fight the next morning.
6) I can just roll Mel around Auckland while we are getting ourselves settled in , whereas having a newborn in tow will take ages getting nappies, etc. packed.

So with the second drum roll of the evening :

We are leaving for NZ latest 6 Nov ’07 – Doctors orders

Even if I have to go and find a job initially to do this, we are gone by 6 Nov ’07 ABF !