In the next stage of the adoption process, we have to create a Life Book for the child. This is a book that I guess would be similar to the baby books you create when you give birth to a child. It's something precious for that child that tells them a bit about who they are and how they came to be with you. Most of the life books I have seen are scrap books. Mine will be a scrap book too, except that I am going to focus on the words equally and make it a story book that I can read to our new daughter.

Today I wrote the first draft of the story, and here 'tis.

Once upon a time, in China, there lived a little girl. She was a bright, smart, happy, beautiful little girl and she lived with lots of other little girls at the orphanage. It was fun to have so many other children to play with and the people who cared for the little girls were very kind, but sometimes they told her that one day all of the little girls would go to live with a family.

A family is a wonderful thing to have. There are people who love you and care for you and want to be with you for the rest of their lives. You have a mother and father who look after you and brothers and sisters to play with. Sometimes parents in China have little girls and they are not able to care for them so they send them to the orphanage so that the little girls can find a new family. We don’t know why this little girl’s parents had to send her to the orphanage. We only know that it must have been the hardest and saddest thing they ever had to do. I’ll bet they think about her every single day.

Meanwhile, a long way away in Australia there lived a family. There was a mother and a father and a sister and a brother. They were a happy family but sometimes they felt something was missing. They just didn’t feel complete.

One day the mother read an article in a magazine about little girls in China who needed families. She spoke to the father and the sister and the brother about it. “I think,” she said, “that what we need to be complete is a little girl from China. I would like to ask the government if we can have one of these little girls to come and live with us and be part of our family.”

The father and the sister and the brother thought that was an excellent idea. A little girl from China was exactly what they needed.

So the mother and the father started the very long process of being allowed to have a little girl from China come and be part of their family. There were about a million interviews and about a trillion forms to fill in, but eventually the government said that yes, they would be allowed to have a new daughter from China.

But which little girl would it be?

Back in China, there are people whose job it is to look at all the families who need little girls, and all the little girls who need families, and match them up. They have to decide which family will be just perfect for each little girl. One day, one of these people was looking at a picture of a baby girl in one hand, and a picture of a family in the other hand. “Aha,” she said. “This is the perfect family for this little girl, and the perfect little girl for this family.”

In Australia, the mother received a phone call to tell her that there was a baby waiting in China who was just right for her family. The mother was so excited, and she couldn’t stop crying. All of the family was very anxious to get to China and bring their new baby girl home.

The next few weeks were so busy! There was so much to do but eventually the family flew on a plane to China and went to the orphanage where the little girl lived.

It was a little bit scary, meeting everybody for the first time, but straightaway they all knew that everything was as it should be. They were all just right for each other.

Of course, you know the rest of the story because that little girl was you. Now you live in Australia with Mum & Dad and your sister Gemma and your brother Ben. We’re all so happy to have each other, and none of us would have it any other way.