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Sunday, March 29, 2009

CACH WEEKEND 2009

For the second year we attended the annual CACH (Children Adopted from China - UK's equivalent of FCC).

It felt different from the moment we got there and I can't believe that's just down to knowing what to expect. This year it really was a reunion with a group of friends enjoying spending time together and we even managed to sit together at the gala dinner.

My travel buddy M (L's father) very kindly looked after Alice for long enough for me to attend a seminar (I didn't go to any last year), brave man, thanks M! I got to a seminar presented by Jane Liedtke from OCDF, it was very informative and thought provoking, as well as adding another element to the 'Reunion Experience'. Jane has a lot of contact with families adopting from China - both at the time of adoption and on return visits. She was very friendly and helpful and offered me some hope in relation to return visits to Alice's CWI.

Alice ran and screeched her way through the weekend and seemed to enjoy it all - particularly seeing her friends. As soon as she was awake on Saturday morning she stood up in her cot and said, 'See L*L* now?'

The other benefit of this weekend was a photographic session - I need to send up to date photos of Alice and I together. It's difficult to get photos of us together so this was a great opportunity, whilst the photos aren't fantastic they are far better than any others I've got recently with a handbag camera and not bad for 5 minutes work!

Overall the weekend was great. The one disappointment was the hotel:
  • it was really hot in all the public areas,
  • the food wasn't great and the menu prices were high (otherwise we would probably have stayed for lunch today)
  • there was a lot of noise in the corridors each evening
  • but most of all, despite all efforts by several families the hotel couldn't put our friends together as we had different room types - that meant that once the girls were in bed we couldn't chat in the hallways.

2 comments:

Virginia said...

I'm glad to hear you had a nice reunion. The pictures of you and
Alice are wonderful!

Gin =)

seaview said...

Good to see you again and catch up on Alice's progress - she's wonderful. I apologise for the noisy corridors - it was probably a pack of feral 10 - 12 year olds, which included my eldest daughter. Who disappeared as we walked through the doors on Friday evening and went into hyper mode for the entire weekend.......ugghh1You've got this all to come.....Vicky x