Any Australians/ New Zealanders?

[KLJC04]

Hi there,

Just checking to see if there are any Aussies or Kiwis out there?? :shy

[witt]

here I am :wave

I think I'm the only one though, never seen any others.............
We are in Wellington, NZ
My signature contains probably all you need to know!!
We have 2 boys and number 3 on the way.
how bout you? where are you? :)

[KLJC04]

Hey!!

Nice to get a reply. :thumb My partner and I are from Sydney, Australia. I am a SAHM to our 18 month old twin girls. :love Considering TTC#3.

Lisa

[witt]

We are coming to Sydney in Feb 8-11!! Family wedding! Staying really central. I love Sydney been there a few times.

There must be a big lesbian mum community in Sydney?? It's big enough here in Wellington.

NIce to see your post :thumb

[KLJC04]

Yeah there is a big community here....we have a group called Rainbow babies and Kids , plus there are a number of other groups throughout the suburbs. I know from the clinic we used there were so many other couples & singles TTC as well ....so many wanted and loved babies in the world :hug ......now if only our Governments would catch up with the times hey !! :irked:

[witt]

but our govt is pretty good now, we have the Care of Children Bill which puts Laura's (my partner) very firmly as role of mother. She has additional guardianship and soon will be able to put her name on birth certificate as other parent. Technically she has all the rights of a bio mum also. It only came through last year.

With our new baby due in July she gets automatic guardianship now we don't have to apply through family court this time :)

Civil unions have come thru too now

[KLJC04]

I didnt realise that......New Zealand is ahead of Australia, some states are better than others. we are about to apply through the family court for guardianship for my Dp for our girls. We have a will and have each other as power of attorney but thats about all we can do. There were only 2 clinics in Sydeny that would let us use donor sperm so I guess we were lucky to even get Pg.

Maybe we need to jump the ocean to live....good ole Johnny Howard :angry

[KLJC04]

Look what I read in the news today we wont be able to gooverseas and marry, what's next? :rolleyes http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=81811 ....why do these so called leaders waste their time & money on making life difficult for others :Peace

[witt]

that is terrible. Well things may change a labour/left wing govt must be due for you over there!!!

Labour are in their third term here and they got loads of slack for the changes in law to civil unions and lesbian gay parenting rights. The critics accused labour or "social engineering".

Still they got the bills into Law! We were overseas at the time (in UK living there last year) I'm pleased I missed it all, sounds like media etc was full of homophobic Christian comments and others whining about the sanctity of marriage etc and the poor children!!!

It's all settled now it's passed into law

[KLJC04]

Yeah our Liberal Govt is in it's 3rd term and they won the last election quite easily and have majority power which means they can pass any laws :irked:

Well Done Govt of New Zealand :thumb

[etsba]

Me too!

I'm from Melbourne, me & my wife have 3 kids. Two sons, an almost 4yr old and a 7 1/2yr old & a 1yr old daughter.
We'll be celebrating our 8th anniversary this May.
My wife is a dual Aus/UK citizen so we will be getting married at the British Consulate soon (civil partnership registration - http://bhc.britaus.net/Consular/consulardefault.asp?id=682
). Although it won't get recognised here it gives me & our kids rights in the UK and parts of Europe, where I want to work as a midwife once I graduate.

I'm so envious of NZers. Compared to Australia there's better laws for queers, way better feminist stats, better reconciliation with the Indigenous population, the anti-nuclear policies, the midwifery system is awesome...
I'm this close to migrating.

[KLJC04]

Thats great you get the opportunity to do that. Some of the world is moving ahead while the rest seem to be going backward somewhat :irked: :(

Maybe we can move our family for work...... DP and I are both Registered Nurses.

[witt]

hi there welcome!

THought there were only two of us!! Nice to see another australian!
Just got back from Sydney today. So nice to have hot sunshine, and I come back to NZ and it's cold.

So Oz is not all bad you guys!!

Oh well, you have poisonous creatures, we have earthquakes!
:lol

[ThisLifeTimeMother]

Thought I'd say hi!
We're in Brisbane (me and my 2 girls), though we lived in northern NSW for a while. Much prefer NSW. Queensland hasn't at all recovered from the days of Sir Joh. Extremely conservative. And small. But it's where family is, so I suppose it's got its good points :innocent

[witt]

Hi Jenn
welcome:w

[ThisLifeTimeMother]

Hi,
Thanks for the welcome. I've just looked at what I've written. Oh, my:shy
I must have been having a very bad day.... Or it might have been that I'd just read the newspaper - always a mistake for anyone who want's to forget they live in crazyland. In any case, it's not really all that gloomy.
We're going to Woodford to plant trees and listen to great live music for the long weekend. Wonderfull! It's so great to be out in the bush, living in our tent. Food for the soul.
Jenn

[witt]

sounds lovely, although I have to admit I'm a little paranoid in Australia re spiders and poisonous things........... must be what you are used to I guess.

I live in a city where there is a 90% chance of major earthquake in the next fifty years......... and we have them all the time........... that would probably freak you out if you weren't used to it......... :wink

[ThisLifeTimeMother]

Yeah, earthquakes .... I think you can keep those. I've just spent 5 months or so travelling through central Australia with my girls, just driving a regular car and sleeping in our tent. One night we were awoken by my daughter yelling that something was wrapping itself around her thumb. After I stopped trying to tell her it was just a dream I started paying attention. A centipede had crawled into her bed and really was wrapping itself around her thumb. It's amazing she wasn't bitten or stung or whatever they do. A local told us they give one of those painful stings that make you wish you were dead for many hours. Like having boiling water poured over you, he said. So then we jumped up and got out of the tent into the shade shelter, only to find a snake hunting near the zipper door. We spent the rest of the night playing chess by candlelight with our feet pulled up on the chairs. Dawn has never been more welcome. Until the bush flies started up in their thousands again. I swallowed about 6 of them packing up the tent that morning.
I love this country.
But I would love to spend time in New Zealand too. A friend lived in a women's community over there for a few years, and it sounds like a good place to be. Didn't know about the earthquakes though. Give me creepy-crawleys any day.
Jenn

[KLJC04]

Hi Jenn & Welcome, :wave

My Dp & I are from Sydney, we have twin girls that are 20 months old.

Hmmm...yeah I'd take the creepy crawlies over an earthquake. So witt..do you have them all the time (smaller ones) that must be freaky. How is your Pregnancy going, do you know what you are having?

Lisa

[BrookeC]

Hi All, I'm new to this site! It's great to hear of other lesbian mums in Australia and New Zealand. My partner and I like to hear of other peoples experiences, be them good or bad and how they handle day to day issues. We have been lucky that most people are very accepting of our lifestyle, however we still encounter some negativity. It's great to have somewhere to share thoughts, and ask for or offer advice.

[witt]

hi there,
yes we have them a lot......... lots of little ones you can't feel often but some bigger ones. In the last year, I have probably felt three that made me run to my boys and grab them and get under a door. My heart always pounds afterwards. We have 250 litres of water stored and a load of food. Wellington is built on a fault line so when we have the next big one (8.4 richter scale in 1855, and 7.0 in 1945 - so in theory should be another one in my lifetime) the city will be out of water etc etc for months really before stable services again. Bit like New Orleans if you can imagine rebuilding a city.

The whole of New Zealand is like this. But we have wooden houses which are built to take the shakes and commercial buildings are built to earthquake standards. Me, I'm frightened of the poisonous creepy crawlies - otherwise I'd move to Oz!!!!:lol

Actually Oz had a freak earthquake in Newcastle once I think?

Welcome BrookeC - where are you?

Pregnancy going fine, am 29 weeks and just washing baby clothes and trying to get organised now........ <sigh> this is definately it for us. 3 children will be our limit!!!

[BrookeC]

Hi Witt,

I'm in Brisbane Australia. My partner, our son and myself love living in Brisbane. The weather is generally really nice and so are most of the people.

I don't know how you cope knowing there could be an earthquake sometime soon, I'd be petrified. I'd rather the creepie crawlies which we really don't see that often anyway. Most of the poisonous type ones don't venture into homes too often.

Good to hear your pregnancy is going well, I can't wait to start trying myself. My partner had our first so I'm yet to experience pregnancy.

See Ya,

BrookeC

[KLJC04]

HI Brooke :wave welcome, I'm envious of you living in Brisbane as I love warmer weather.

witt- we will probably start TTC#3 towards the end of the year too, it will probably be our last (unless it happens quickly) as our donor has stopped donating. I'm looking forward to a singelton pregnancy. Glad to hear your pregnancy is going smoothly.

thats crazy about the earthquakes although you guys sound prepared. Yes I remember the Newcastle earthquake, I was primary school age at the time & I was opening the bathroom door, I remember the house shaking for a few seconds. I think there have been a couple of small ones since but nothing to cause damage to anything.

Talking of creepy crawlies, our cat followed a red belly black snake in our house. I nearly died. I called up a Nature reserve park and they sent out someone to find catch it for us (crocodile hunter style lol) Anyhow he pulled out one of the biggest red bellies you had ever seen from behind our tv. which he relocated. The funny thing was DP just did a lecture on Envenomation (she an ICU nurse).

Lisa

[witt]

Brisbane is lovely. I love most of Australia........

yes earthquakes, not nice. But I think you get used to these things.......... all my life I"ve hidden under doorways and no body likes them, but everyone lives in denial........... did I mention we have a high tsunami risk too, oh and volcanoes

what a lovely country this is:lol

good luck with ttc'ing
yes three is our lot :thumb

[KLJC04]

Hey witt,

I heard this morning there was a 7.8 earthquake in Tonga & a Tsunami warning that was later cancelled. I couldnt help but think of your post :huh freaky huh? Did you feel it?

Lisa

[witt]

yes there was a tsunami warning in parts of New Zealand. Apparently Hawkes Bay was evacuated!!!

No earthquake here but NZ is at high risk of tsunamis. Big uproar that some parts of NZ didn't get tsunami warning until 30 minutes after tsunami would have struck!

Freaky through, I was tucked up in my bed at the top of a very high hill........ blissfully ignorant

[KLJC04]

Yikes!!! Glad your up high.

wow i thought Tsunami warnings would have improved since the BIG one (dec04).

[witt]

you would have thought so..............
big uproar here as you can imagine.... headlines go like "we're not prepared" etc etcc:o