Starting to plan

Well, I won't bore you with a repeat of my morning. Grandpa and Nana's Skype was not working last night so we spoke to them tonight. Most of the time Hannah played in this "room" created by the beanbags in the play room / study. Earlier today it was a kitchen but it was her bedroom this evening. It changed a few times I think. It was so fun to watch her playing away on her own, coming up with lovely ideas.
We mentioned to Brendon's parents tonight that we have finally started to plan a visit back to South Africa. Both my parents are turning 60 this year, so even though we won't make it back this year - it will be lovely to visit perhaps early next year. It all started with us thinking of traveling with a 4 month old compared to an 18 month old perhaps (knowing that under 2 you can pay 10% on the air ticket but then then don't have their own seat). It will be much easier with a younger baby - so that got us talking about possibly planning a trip for early next year. We have said for a while that we will make an effort to get back before Ruth gets to her teenage years. The adoption training we went on highly recommended this for "international adoptions" which Ruth has in a sense become as she now lives away from her birth country. The teenage years can be hard to go through for any child - but it can be especially hard for an adopted child to know where they "fit in" if there is a big unknown about their birth country. So although Ruth would only be 5 1/2 at that time I think she will still be able to take so much in (and all the photos we take and scrapbook we make from the trip sure will help too). She has shown in so many other things how much she considers and things through things. So it won't be wasted on her.  And a friend said it's also the best time for family to meet Ruth and Hannah as they are so much fun when they are so young. So it's all quite exciting although it's still early days.