A FAMILY from Swindon has a new addition a bonny 11-month old baby all the way from China.

Mark and Carol Ratcliffe have wanted to adopt a Chinese baby girl for the last four years, after watching a television documentary which highlighted China's harsh population laws and showed many abandoned baby girls being raised in orphanages.

The couple raised £11,000 to go through the adoption process, and they agreed every penny was worth it as their new daughter, Zhi Feng, arrived at their home in Stratton.

Mark said: "I can hardly remember what our home was like without her. She smiles and chatters to us and blows us raspberries."

The couple's two other children - Joe, 10, and Lili, nine - are also thrilled with their new sister.

Inspired by a television programme about unwanted baby girls, the couple rescued little Zhi Feng and brought her back to their Stratton home.

Like one million other babies in China, Zhi had been abandoned by her parents because she was not a boy. She has now been given a brighter future thanks to the Ratcliffes.

The couple first wanted to adopt a Chinese baby four years ago, after seeing The Dying Rooms about China's harsh population laws. Families are restricted to one child, and as a result a million baby girls lie abandoned in orphanages because their parents want to try again for a boy.

Zhi, now 11 months, was found in a shop doorway by a man who took her to the nearest orphanage in Jiangxi Province. In her first year she was moved between the orphanage, local hospital and foster carers before being given a permanent home in Britain.

She arrived at her new home last week.

The Ratcliffes had to raise nearly £11,000 for the cost of the adoption process, including flights to China for them and their two children Lili, nine, and Joe, 10.

Carol , a community nurse, said: "We heard of one couple who flew home with a Chinese baby but sent her back when they discovered she was deaf. We knew we could never do that so we agreed to accept Zhi without even seeing her medical report."

The process took two years but the whole family, including Lili and Joe, agree it was more than worth it.