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Travel plans

Looks like we will head to Hong Kong on June 7 and then spend a few days there doing Disneyland and some of the sites there! The biggest Buddha and the peak view. Still open to suggestions so feel free to email your ideas! Then head through to Guangzhou via train! and stop off to visit the White Swan and various sites that all our American friends talk about! Then head up to Ganzhou by train again. WE plan to stop off there for a day or two while we visit Emily's SWI and that will be a great way to see China! Then train the final leg to Nanchang where we will be united with Alice probably on the 16 June and that will just amazing! Then head through to Beijing on the 21 and then fly out of Beijing on Thursday 26 June and arrive home here in NZ on 27. Have the children back in school for a week before the next school holidays!
I can't wait! It will be an amazing journey full of loads of expectations and stress but also full of an amazing time as a family we can spend together! It isn't often that we can spend 3 weeks together without the outside world impacting on us to a great extent! No laundry, beds to be made! ETC but I love the thought of heading back to Nanchang but sad that our travel buddies from our first trip will be be heading to a different region and we will meet up in Beijing!
Well off to bed but thought I should up date the blog!
For those who have spare time here are two great ways to waste time!
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/your-shot/jigsaw-puzzles
www.freerice.com
Hugs Ruth

Referral Announcement Card

A few more details.
Alice is in foster care currently about 50 miles outside Nanchang. We hope to visit the orphanage and meet the staff and foster mother who has been caring for her!
We want to create some photos etc and pack up a care package for Alice and her carers.
She loves TV! OMG Emily will be in heaven especially since Alice likes TV where people sing and dance! Hi-5 rules here!
She is attached to her foster mother and cries when she leaves the room. As of 28 December she she is eating biscuits, rice and noddles.
So we have a fun time ahead waiting to have her in our arms!
Hugs Ruth

We have a daughter! Please welcome Alice!

It is with great joy and happiness that Aiden and Emily proudly announce to the world they have a new sister.
Her names Feng Min Shu and she was born on 4 July 2007 in Fengcheng city, Jiangxi Province 3.3kgs. She will become known as Alice Sandra Min Shu Kelsall
Along with Ruth and Keith welcome with love this much awaited treasure!
We hope to join her in China in Mid June.
Thank you all for your support on this most epic journey!
Arohanui Ruth, Keith, Aiden and Emily
Post more details when it has sunk in!

The eve of our referral

well within the next few hours we will recieve our referral of Miss Alice! She started growing in my heart before I even had left China! As we flew out of Beijing I cried for not only Emily losing the country of her birth but for her birthfamily she was leaving behind. I know that they are missing out on such an amazing life! I often sit with Emily and we talk about what her first family would be like do their eyes Sparkle like hers? Do they dance with the beat of the music? Just like Emily! Now 3 years 6 months later we are waiting for Alice's referral. I knew on that plane trip home we would be back! and soon we will be!
We didn't have a name and much to Keith's shock he agreed that a year later it was a done deal! Our paperwork left her in Dunedin on 17 September for Wellington then off to China on 16 December 2005! So after an official wait of 2 years 4 months we will meet Alice's face tomorrow!
Her brother and sister are so excited! They are reading books on the couch and they are spending great quality time together. My fuse is short just because of the stress of it all! I want to dance and sing about it but I also have this great sense of sadness. We have always felt deeply about the origins of all our children and something about not knowing Emily's and alice's birthfamily makes it harder for us!
We have had amazing support over the past two + years and we have been eternally grateful for it!
Tomorrow is the day that I will gaze upon Alice's face for the first time! And I hope that I react with great happiness! I know for sure that Emily and Aiden will! Keith said at dinner tonight that Alice will be about 8 months! I don't know where he got that figure from! Well we are off to set up for a workhop on Saturday and need to sort that out! A lifebook workshop! I don't know if I can concentrate! Oh well we will all start!
Hugs and thanks to all!
Love Ruth

We less than a day before referral!

I hope that this time tomorrow we will be sitting with great big smiles! We will have seen Alices face for the first time. We have had phone calls today from our Swer and they were sent an email saying the parcels are on their way!
We hope that we can sleep tonight I know that Aiden is so excited and it is wonderful to watch him feel so excited about the arrival of our referral!
Yeah Roll on tomorrow!
Hugs Ruth