Vanessa, (Rhodri's sister), had a baby boy, Lewis, at the beginning of December, a little brother for big sister Isabel!
Lewis in January 2005
Isabel in January 2005
Now the waiting really begins! Decided to use the tracking and translation service offered by BLAS (Bridge of Love Adoption Service) which is linked to the CCAA. They track your dossier for you, do all the translations when your referral comes through and will get a medical update. Their travel itinerary sounds good, too, so we’ll probably use them to go to China with. We know that our dossier is in china and has been translated. Haven’t got a Log in Date (LID) which my DTC groups go on about. (I’ve now joined the January DTC group as our papers didn’t arrive at the CCAA until beginning of January). For some reason the CCAA doesn’t usually give the UK people a LID (unlike in the US), so it can be confusing when referrals come through as the CCAA goes by LID’s!
Went to our 2nd CACH (Children adopted from China group. It’s the UK version of FCC in the US, and our area is the NW England and N Wales branch!) mother and toddler meeting. Our area held our first mother and tot meeting in November, which we also went to. Although we’re only associate members (become full members once we’ve actually adopted), I thought it would be good for Gwion to mix with little Chinese girls, so he wouldn’t find it so strange when we go out to China. We meet at a different house every couple of months. Gwion was slightly better this time. In November he wouldn’t leave me alone at all, and cried most of the time. He does get quite shy, and doesn’t like being in crowds with unfamiliar people and places! It’s really good to meet up with other people who have gone through what you are going through, and see how well their daughters have adjusted, etc! The morning goes too quickly!
Kirstin and Gwion in Conwy, Wales...Jan 2005
On the December DTC group I have joined the 100 Good Wishes Quilt group, to make a quilt for our baby. We’ve joined up with some people from the November and January groups to do this project. Apparently it’s a Chinese tradition whereby family and friends give the expectant mother squares of fabric, with a good wish for the baby, and she makes up a quilt. So we’ve been sending two 7”x7” squares of cotton fabric, plus a wish, to everyone on the list. I sent all my US squares to one person on the list, with money, for her to post them all out, otherwise it would have cost a small fortune to send from Wales! Postage is much cheaper in the US! Have been getting lots of great squares and wishes through the post!
