This is the diary of Melanie, 40, and Tim who is 39. They have been married for six years and despite three IVF attempts have been unable to have children naturally.

Tim and Melanie were approved for adoption for one child up to the age of three in June 2002.

The diary begins after the couple were approved.

Week six diary

Another uneventful diary entry I am afraid - nothing new to report on the adoption front, not that we'd expected to hear anything anyway.

Mind you, I thought I had put it to the back of my mind until I had the oddest dream the other night. I dreamt that Susan rang us and apologised for not getting in touch but she had loads of children's details for us and was going to send them all in a big parcel to us.

At this stage, I imagined Susan sitting there with piles of paper flying around everywhere - a bit like that scene in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone where he gets all the letters from the owls in Privet Drive and they're flying through the letterbox and out of the fireplace! When I woke up, I was so surprised it was a dream - it really felt real.

Mind you, its probably just as well it was! I just put it down to wishful thinking - Tim thinks I'm finally cracking up!

Our shopping expedition went really well, although we spent most of our time enjoying ourselves rather than shopping! I still can't quite believe it's Christmas in just a few weeks - we still have loads to get so it will have to be one of our usual last minute, crack of dawn, starts at our local out of town shopping centre to grapple with the crowds. It's all part of Christmas though - we quite enjoy it if truth be told.

An update on the cat by the way. I know it's a bit odd talking about your cat on an adoption website, however, she was adopted from the Cats Protection League, so I suppose that's OK!

Quite a few £'s later, she is well on the way back to recovery. She had yet another course of antibiotics - poor thing almost rattles now when she walks she's so full of tablets - and she had her dental too.

At the same time as her dental, they took a biopsy from her paws and we now know what it is - don't ask me to spell it because I couldn't begin to, but basically it is an allergy. The good thing is that it can be controlled by anti-inflammatory drugs if it flares up again - the bad news is that we've now got to try to find out what is causing it.

The first thing we're trying is a flea/parasite control liquid you pop on the back of the neck. We've had these before, but this particular drug apparently kills absolutely everything bar the cat itself. We're hoping this will be the cause of the allergy, although it's not very nice thinking that she's got all these strange microscopic bugs crawling all over her (and us no doubt!). If the allergy then flares up again, we'll have to try other things. We'll keep you posted on that one. The nice thing is that at the moment the injections and drugs have cleared it up, so she's not in any discomfort which is the main thing!

Oh well, sorry there's nothing new for Tim and I to report to you on the adoption, but I think that's the way adoption seems to go - all or nothing!