We are DTC!

Well on the 23rd December we learnt that our paperwork was in China! It had arrived there on 19 December! So our wait begins! Currently our waiting time is at 9 months and CCAA are saying that it could increase out to 12 months! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH! But we are hoping that it will speed up again!
We are all so excited that we are one step closer to getting Alice.
We have had a busy couple of months with Emily well and truely settled at Montessori and Aiden has finished primary school he is now a year seven boy at John McGlashan College. He starts there on February 7 2006.
We have farewelled Richard, Barbara and Devon who have moved to Canberra to live so that was very hard for Aiden the tears were flowing very fast that day!
Emily and Aiden are off for the summer and will both return to school on the 7 February.
Nana came on Christmas day and had a great time opening not only her presents but Emily's too!
We are looking at finishing removing my gear from the OSCAR building since I resigned from OUCA on the 1 December so that will be my last set of duties there.
Keith has completed his Real estate training and has a couple of interesting offers before him. So 2006 is shaping up to a fantastic year!
Well we hope that you have had a wonderful Christmas and that 2006 brings you all the joy, happiness and peace.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Love Ruth, Keith, Aiden and Emily

Emily has an accident!

Hi all Emily had an accident this morning and fell from her chair at the dining table while she was eating breakfast it was a big fall and she didn't calm down quickly like she would normally!
So after about 15 minutes we decided it was time to take her to the hospital!
After about 3 hours a house surgeon, a couple of nurses, 6 xrays, a morphine injection and a consultant we were discharged with Emily's arm in a sling and a fracture to a bone in her elbow! no plaster that would have caused all sorts of difficulty for her! so finally! we left the hospital!I have taken a photo and you can see she was still affected with the drugs in her system once she had had her sleep!
Well she is asleep now for the night we hope so no Montesorri for her today we will try again on Friday!
Regards
Ruth

Our first Visit to Montessori

Emily is having here first formal visit today to Montessori and then next Tuesday starts as a fully fledged Montessori girl! She will be attending 3 am's a week and should give both Keith and I some good quality blocks of time to get some work completed!

It is an interesting time with very mixed emotions about what is best for Emily and us but one thing we do know for sure she does require some interaction with other children!

She has really missed that, and is constantly running towards other children out in the wider community! So this will be an excellent opportunity to interact with many more children and she may even get a glimpse of her beloved Zara and Nora!
So give me strength not to blow it! and cry! She is an interesting girl whom we all treasure!
_Ruth

Leaving the children

I have to leave tomorrow for a conference and this is for 4 days! I haven't left Emily yet for 4 days only Aiden has been away that long from me and that was when he was 8! So for me it is a foreign concept!

I hate being away from the children for any length of time! (sad eh!)
But at least they have Dad at home with them! Keith amazes me constantly and is such an exceptional father. He plays with the children and happily reads all the bedtime stories!
Which in turn allows me time to do the connecting with the extended family and answering emails etc.

Well I must go and pack and get sorted for tomorrow a very early morning flight and 4 full days of work!

Cheers
Ruth

Recently we were on a road trip and as anyone knows who has adopted from China we are all willing to share the knowledge or experience with like minded people. This was a photo taken last week when we popped into visit a family in Southland who are looking at going to China to adopt their first child!

We wish them well on their journey to their child.

It is very early in our house and the children and husband are still asleep.
So I have created a blog so I can journal my thoughts about this whole process.
Our paperwork is sitting in Wellington waiting for enough others to be completed so they can be sent to CCAA in China where the matching process will happen.

This time it took about 4 weeks to get our homestudy finished but we had made our decision to return to China for another daughter before I had even finished leaving China with Emily.

And collectively we made the decision within weeks of being home that we would adopt again. I feel the pull of those children in China greatly.
Maybe also that Emily has been the easiest of children. She has settled really quickly into our family and of course adores her big brother.
The trip in China was a stressful one but one that I would repeat in a heartbeat!

The friends and family that we have meet along the way has also enhanced this experience for us. The isolation I felt when we adopted Aiden from here is completely gone, partly because I was 9 years older! But also you are able to build a support network quicker and easier these days with the internet than ever before.

You can vent and have 3 or 50 people agree with you so instantly it normalises some of the issues we face.