All my bags are packed...

[Kewcumber]

I'm ready to go...

It was a little over 9 years ago I started a thread like that on MN as I was about to travel to Kazakhstan and exactly 9 years ago today that I met my lovely boy. I have such great support from so many on MN at that time and I'll always be grateful for it.

But this isn't a thread for me to be all weepy and mopey about how lucky I am but to share...

...we're going back!

Next year we're doing a birth country visit - DS is going back for the first time since he was 1 (he's 10 at the end of this month)

Not without some reservations about how he'll deal with it but I hope it will be good for him and help him make sense of his place in the world.

I think I am excited and terrified in equal measure.

And I suspect I might blog about it!

You have the personality height for that hat.

I lurve pink and purple, I am painting DDs room these colours next week .

And I see you've not done the fireplace yet

Or even personality

Sneaky pic of DS and one of his cousins at the wedding... photos of me in pink hat with purple hair may or may not be forthcoming when I get them...

I may have to remove it later but I can't resist...

he really is gorgeous

Did you have a good time ?

We had the best time. The food was fantastic, the marquee looked "better than a cruise ship" according to DS, everyone looked elegant. Later, DS enjoyed entertaining everyone with his impressions of the young men getting drunk and made everyone cocktails (orange juice, lemons and water!) I sloped off to the spare house to chat with one of my nieces and occasionally made an appearance to calm DS down, whereupon everyone egged him on just as I disappeared. Finally got him to bed about 11.45pm.

Then we got up at 7am to drive bad to town so he could play football at 11!

It sounds fab . Was this your sisters child's wedding, the one I've met ?

Are we getting a photo of you in your hat?

Yes I it was - did you meet her?! Gawd my memory is pants these days.

Photographer lady took the other shots so I don;t think I'll get any till the Bride and groom return from honeymoon.

thats not surprising , we were all really hammered as we'd been out clubbing all night. Remember hels was dancing on the table and that guy was trying to pick up Devora ? And you nearly got thrown out for snogging the bouncer?

Just as well there are no photos of that

That's brilliant, Kew! I look forward to the blog. (Namechanger here, have a little girl adopted from Russia, home 4 years today)

Kew how fab. I really hope the visit goes well and exactly how you and ds want it to go.

Your darling ds is a credit to himself and you.

Maybe he will feel both at home and comfortable in the place of his birth but also, perhaps, like any who grow up in a land not of their birth, at home when he returns!

However he feels, I know you will be there, wise and comforting, to help him make sense of it all.

We are so much more international now than we ever were, as a human race and the feeling of being from one or other place and in another is much more common. Maybe he will find it all rather as a tourist does! Who knows. I just know you will handle it well. I hope and pray all practicalities goes well and you will be able to tell us about your travels soon.

Bless you and Merry Christmas.