May / June 2003 |
The batch of couples that travelled to China together (NSW Batch 7 as we are called by the Department of Community Services) had a reunion to celebrate our first 4 months home with our daughters.
The four girls have all grown in their four months with us in Australia. They are all understanding English very well and have learnt many new skills. We are sure these Mother's Love girls will be good friends as they grow up. All the parents are still amazed that we got the "right" daughter for each of us. We could easily have been matched with each others' daughters or a daughter from Batch 6 as it is supposed to be a random matter but we all feel we were superbly matched with the ones we have.
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Batch 7 includes a couple that did not travel to China because his mother and father, Chris and Kasuko were fortunate to receive a beautiful Japanese baby boy, Sei, via local adoption a few months before we travelled. Sei loves to come to Batch 7 activities to meet all his "girlfriends". Cen's three bio brothers also were a big hit with our girls and they all played together for hours.
Two couples, one from Queensland and one from Newcastle, were unable to make this reunion. Thank you to Ken and Anne and their daughter Kimberley for organising us. The next reunion is planned for October and some of the batch are planning a visit to Tumut in August to play with Cen in the snow. |
L to R: Cen (16 months), Lin (20 months),
Chelsea (18 months) and Kimberley (20 months) |
November / December 2003 |
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We drove 5 hours to Tumut for a Batch Reunion in celebration of the first anniversary of our Allocation call (December 4th 2002). Our wonderful hosts, parents to Cen, the youngest batch member, own the Riverglade Caravan Park in Tumut.
For the 6 couples in Batch 7 they provided riverside cabins nestled amongst huge green trees and organised BBQs, pizza parties and Chinese take away for us all each night. They also provided three beautifully behaved older sons to play with our six little children. Xiao had a fantastic time in their backyard, on the swings with Chelsea and on their trampoline. She even went skinny dipping in the very very cold waters of the river outside our cabin. A journalist from the
Tumut Times wrote a full page article about us all. |
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