Jade Elizabeth was born 4 weeks 6 days early at Mercy Maternity Hospital, East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on Saturday 12 August 1989. She only weighed 6lb 6oz and was a tiny little thing! Like her mother, she was born with black hair (which later fell out and grew back blonde) and blue eyes. She's all grown up now and a teenager (boo! hoo! hoo!), but she still has lovely baby blues and blonde hair, just like when she was little! :D

I have a lot of memories of our life together and there's lots of "stuff" I can say about her. For instance, I love her dearly, I miss her terribly every day and she has made me very proud over the years! :D She's also a little horror who drives me nuts at times! lol I've done plenty of complaining about some of her antics, but I would go through it all again in a heartbeat! Now that we're separated by over 10,000 miles, there are many times that I close my eyes and relive my memories. Sometimes they make me smile, sometimes they make me cry buckets. But they also keep me going! :) These pages are dedicated to my beautiful daughter in the hope that when we miss each other, we can feel closer by remembering together ...

When Jade was about 2 months old, I bought her a pretty little pink dress and took her to the local hall to enter a baby contest. Now without bragging or being biased, I had the most adorable baby there! ;) Obviously the judges agreed because she came home with many ribbons and trophies. She won "Dainty Miss", "Most Appealing" and a few others I can't remember. I was the proudest mother in Australia that day! :D Now Jade is a teenager and she's a big girl compared to those days, but she'll still always be my "baby" girl who makes her mother very proud!! :D

Jade didn't get much in the looks department from me, which is probably just as well, but she did inherit my love of reading. Many a day I've spent engrossed in a good book, burying myself mind and body in a mystery world, almost living the story myself. Jade is the same ... neither of us like to put a book down until it's finished, and when it is we want to cry at the loss of a "friend"! She's also taken an interest in crafts over the years, which is something I've always loved dabbling in too. I taught her to knit, which she kept forgetting so I retaught her! ;) I've taught her some cooking, which she took to like a duck to water. But the lesson I'm most proud of teaching her is the enjoyment of reading. Not only can one learn a lot from books, but it is also a good place to forget your worries and troubles and find new friends even if they are imaginary. I hope Jade continues to read, even if I do have to send her Harry Potter books all the time! ;)

Jade has always been an affectionate child, but not always with her little brother Casey. The night Casey came home from hospital was probably the most upsetting for Jade. She'd been the ruler of the roost so to speak for 15 months, she didn't want to share that with anyone! The first night brought unforseen problems when Casey woke up crying for a feed and Lauren was frightened awake by the unfamiliar sound. Her father had to settle her while I shoved a boob in Casey's mouth to shut him up. That's all I seemed to do with Casey for the next 4 months! lol It took a few nights, but Jade eventually accepted the noisy little bundle who was making such a ruckus at night. She still wasn't too sure about her new little brother, not for some time, but she eventually came around and loved him to bits! :D Unfortunately sibling rivalry raised it's ugly head once Casey became mobile and although they love each other, they've been fighting ever since ... sigh!

Overall Jade took to the role of older sister very well and amused me in so many ways. When I was breastfeeding Casey, Jade understood I couldn't play with her so she made it easier for me by playing "peek-a-boo" around the hall door until Casey was back in bed. It's such a shame she didn't continue to be so considerate of her little brother! Once Casey became mobile, he became more of a threat to Jade. Many times she would push him over, block his path or just make his life difficult. I kept telling her he would get her back one day, but she would just laugh or ignore me. Casey, on the other hand, must have been storing up the memories of her little "attacks". One day while Jade sat on the kitchen floor playing, Casey found the perfect opportunity for payback. While Jade's back was to him he picked up one of my small saucepans and hit Jade over the head with it! We're not talking lightweight aluminium here, we're talking 5 layers of surgical steel crashing down on her little head!! Jade gave the obvious response of screaming and crying, Casey crawled away with a smile on his face and I hate to admit it, but I couldn't stop laughing at the poor child! All I could say to her was "I told you he'd get you back one day!!" No damage was done to Jade, other than a wounded pride, and it obviously didn't knock any sense into her, cause they're still fighting today! lol

Jade's first plane trip was with me to Tasmania to visit Granny and Pop Eastley. She was excellent on the plane and enjoyed every second of being spoilt by my biological family. We enjoyed some good times window shopping in Burnie while we were there and it was in Burnie that I found "Little Poppitt's", a cafe tucked away in one of the arcades. Having called Jade "Poppitt" since the day she was born, I thought it was great that there was a cafe named after her! :D The lady who owned the cafe told me that she also called her daughter Poppitt when she was little and that was what influenced the naming of the cafe. It was a nice little cafe and Jade and I enjoyed relaxing there while Mum had a nice hot cup of tea. When we left I took with me souvenirs ... napkin, matchbox and business card with "Little Poppitt's" stamped on them! :D I often wonder if that cafe is still there and, if so, whether the same lady still owns it or whether perhaps HER Poppitt now runs it! ;D

Despite all the fighting between Jade and Casey, Jade was always there for her little brother. Jade and Casey were in a Christmas pageant at the Lancefield crèche where they attended both to give me a break and to spend some time with children their own age. Casey was miserable, not wanting to dress up as a shepherd and perform in front of everyone, Jade was looking gorgeous as an angel. Jade, true to form, spent a lot of time at Casey's side, holding his hand and making him feel better. Despite her efforts it didn't work, as you can see in a photo of them on one of Jade's photo pages! lol If Casey was being picked on by other kids, Jade would rush to his defence. Often she made the situation worse, but at least she was there for him. Despite this support for each other, they still like to agitate each other endlessly.

Jade is very much like me in that she doesn't like to be disrupted when she's being creative. Casey was notorious for distracting her, annoying her and being just downright evil in his intent! ;) Jade, true to nature, always took the bait and pounced back. This usually made Casey happy and Jade rather miffed. At times it took quite a bit of work to calm Jade down and I often felt like wringing Casey's little neck! They were always able to irritate each other and I don't think that's changed one iota. They enjoy the end result too much to stop now. It's not a nice trait in either of them, but I guess I've learned to live with it. Perhaps when they get older things will change, but I think that's highly unlikely because they enjoy doing it so much!! ;D

One thing that often amused or annoyed me, depending on my mood at the time, was Jade's love of animals. When she was little I had quite a time convincing her that Rati (my black cat) didn't want his tail pulled and no, his whiskers were not removable! lol Sasha, my German Shepherd x Labrador, also put up with a lot from both Jade and Casey. Jade has always had a love of animals and always loved to snuggle with Rati or her own cat Patch. Unfortunately Jade wouldn't be told that she was literally loving them to death, almost crushing them at times. Rati was a fantastic cat, a wonderful friend and a great companion, but he would only take so much "hugging" from Jade. When they struggled to get away, Jade tightened her grip which only made them worse. In the end they pretty much avoided her wherever possible! :( I often had to disinfect nasty scratches she'd received from Patch in particular, but still she wouldn't back off. She just didn't want to ease up enough that they would actually enjoy her attention and affection. One day Jade will appreciate what I tried to teach her and she'll have a wonderful pet of her own, like I did with Rati :D

Jade has always been a very outgoing, boisterous, downright noisy child, but fun to have around. Many a time she gave me a terrible headache with her noise, but she carried with her a certain energy and vivaciousness that left you breathless in its wake! lol At times I couldn't keep up with the girl ... one minute she'd be sitting reading a book, five minutes later she'd have written half a story of her own, and after another five minutes she'd be bounding down the road to the library to borrow yet another tome!! Where she got her energy from I'll never know, but I DO know that she's still very full of life today! :D At times this "life" can be quite annoying, like when you're trying to get a baby to sleep and she bursts through the door and hollers "Mum, guess what I did!!!" at about 1 million decibels!! Okay, I'm exaggerating, but not by much! lol Pretty much the only time Jade's NOT noisy is when she's either watching a movie or her favourite show, or when she's asleep. No, that's not entirely true either, because her snoring sounds like a chainsaw some nights!! lol Poor Jade really cops a lot of teasing when it comes to her "volume" and the lack of control of it, but that's just Jade and she'll never change by much ... and I wouldn't have her any other way!! :D

Enough about Jade's past for the time being, but I'll be adding things as I remember them. For now I want to head forward to the present, or recent past. I've had the pleasure of Jade's company from December 2002 to May 2003. It was just fantastic to see Jade again and to see how much she'd changed over the past 2½ years. Jade left Melbourne Airport on December 5, 2002 and landed at Dulles Airport in Virginia on December 6, 2002. We had a terrible time at the airport trying to get inside the security barriers to the gates and I had to run from one end of the airport to the other and back again, but finally I had Jade in my arms! :D Boy did I drench her in tears!! lol I looked down into her face (not much, she's nearly as tall as me now!!) and couldn't believe how much she'd changed. She's grown into a beautiful young lady and her face has changed a lot, but she still has those beautiful baby blues and long blonde hair. Despite her long trip (over 24 hours), she was still her bright and bubbly self! :D

Lauren and Robert took to Jade very quickly and Jade spent quite a bit of time with Lauren as is evident in her photos. She helped Lauren to develop her "drawing" skills (she scribbles so nicely now thanks to Jade! ;D), she often nursed her to sleep at night and she helped to bathe both Lauren and Robert at a time of night when I'm at my worst with shoulder pain. Jade was a big help with Lauren and Robert and watching her with them made me realise she'll make a wonderful mother herself when she's older!! :D I like to think I had a lot of input into her motherhood skills, although I think a lot of it is purely because she loves babies and children and she loves being a big baby with them. I personally think that babies will have more fun if you're just as silly as they are when you play, and Jade and I are very good at getting "down and dirty" with Lauren and Robert! ;D We didn't get to do much in the States with Jade, partly because of the weather and partly because Robert was still having lots of short naps during the day. We also had our move to Europe to contend with, so it left little time to take Jade out and about around Virginia. Fortunately Jade was able to come to England with us and then on to Germany, so she's had the pleasure of seeing three more cultures other than Australian. Not many girls her age have had that privilege, and I'm sure she has learnt some, if not a lot, from her experiences. She certainly enjoyed Germany during her time here and made friends here at Robinson Barracks. She was definitely sad to say goodbye and return to Australia and I was heartbroken at having to let her go! :(

Early this year (2005) hubby and I decided to have a holiday in Australia so that my family could meet both Walter and the kids. In March 2005 we flew to Melbourne, where we enjoyed 15 days in a townhouse in Melton as a family of 6 and travelled around meeting family and friends while we saw some of the sights of Victoria. Prior to our trip Jade had finally agreed to come back with us to live here in Germany on a permanent basis, so it was doubly exciting being there knowing I was bringing my "baby" girl home with me! :D