Not long to go

I can't believe that in just nine days time we will know if we have been approved as adopters!!  After all these months and months, of what seems like an eternity, we will know if we have been progressed to the next stage.

It's been a interesting few weeks with, in hindsight, lots of activity.  And lots of welcome activity.  There have been meetings, courses and readings.  We've been lucky enough to have some really interesting and insightful conversations with a handful of different people and are both feeling positive and hopeful.  We even painted the spare room today and got rid of the old double bed that was in there.  It looks like such a different room now, not at all like the room it was at the start of this process.

So, at this very moment in 9 days time it'll either tears of joy or tears and tantrums.  Either way, there will be tears.

It's a waiting game

So after the heady excitement of a couple of weeks ago we seem to be in a bit of a no-mans land.  No more excitement, no visual movement, no nothing.  We've had a couple of emails from our SW but nothing to write home about.

On Thursday our SW's boss is coming over for a '2nd opinion visit'.  I don't really have any idea what it involves but I'm guessing she'll be taking about our PAR, which hopefully should have been completed by then, and asking us any other questions she might have.  Luckily she has been to our home before so she should, fingers crossed, see all the changes we have implemented.  Let's hope she's proud!

On this very day, in exactly four weeks time, we will find out if we have been approved or not.
Four weeks.
"Not long to go", I hear you cry but in this process four weeks is like an eternity, especially with the prospect of our little one already waiting around the corner.
Four weeks.
Four long drawn out weeks with nothing to do but watch the clock.
Four weeks.
Not long when you consider we first started looking into this process 20 months ago. But then again four weeks is only the next barrier/hurdle we have to face.  Once that is out of the way the real waiting begins!

The last assessment visit

So that is it, for this stage anyway!!!  Yesterday we had the last of our assessment meetings with our social worker.  We won't be seeing her for another six week until we go to Approval Panel.  In that time she'll be writing up our PAR (Prospective Adopter's Report) and no doubt sending us countless emails to clarify bits of information we've spoken about over the last six months.  In fact, I've just got off the phone to her.

There seems to be lots of action going off in the background and things seem to be moving pretty fast so who knows what we'll be faced with next.  Can we really be as close to the end as it feels?  Can it be possible that we have already seen our little one??

Well that was a surprise!!!

Well, you could have knocked us both over sideways!

We had our penultimate meeting with our SW today and we knew it was going to be a tough one.  Not only were we both tired (long working days for both of us) but we were going to be going over our finances.  I had not been looking forward to it but in actual fact, that part wasn't that bad.

Our SW is really pushing us now as we are coming to the end of the assessment and she has always said that she wants us to be prepared and  today it became clear why.
In mid conversation she pulled out a stash of papers which included the advert-style profiles of three children the family finding team already have in mind for us.  You should have seen us when she gave us the papers.  It was like we'd been told we'd won the lotto, total shock and surprise.  It was certainly not what we were expecting, not tonight anyway.

Yet again, it's another stage where things become more real than they have ever been.  Suddenly we're  no longer talking about kids in care, we are talking about real children, with real names and real wants.  It's crazy to think that we may have already seen the face of our little one.

If we have seen you're face for the first time little one, we can't wait to meet you in person.  But who knows what the future holds in store, we may not have found you yet in which case we'll just keep on looking!

We're getting there

Isn't funny how time races away from you when life is busy?  Even at the moment, we don't even have a little one to run around after, but there never seems to be enough time.  I meant to write an entry last weekend but I suppose it's better late than never!!!

Last Saturday we met up with some of the member of our prep group in Central London.  It was the first time we'd seen any of them since the workshops finished in February although we've mostly stayed in contact via email.  I don't think anyone knew how it would go as, in reality, we didn't really know each other but the conversation flowed easily and it was really interesting hearing about everyone's process and experiences.  I really bonded with L, even at prep group, and now that we learned that we will be sharing our social worker there is an even stronger bond.  It was great to be able to share some of the things we have experienced with her and let her know our thoughts about our social worker.  Luckily, our thoughts were good ones and compared with some of the experiences the others have had we were in an excellent position.  And talking of positions, it appears that we are further into the process than anyone else.  Now I know this isn't a race (if anything this is the hardcore training before the long race) but to have people who are in the exact same boat smile at you and say, "You could be the first to be placed with a child" was quite something.  I had to use all the will power I had just to stop myself from getting too excited.
I also enjoyed chatting with J & A.  A is a funny fella and has lots of similar ideas( wacky as they may be) to me.  We also learnt that one prep group couple had decide not to proceed with the adoption.  It just goes to show that this process isn't for everyone, only those who are really determined. 


On a lighter note, we had a trip to IKEA on Sunday and bought a new wardrobe so we could start to clear out the spare room for little one.  Whilst there we ticked a few things off our 'health and safety list' as provided by our social worker and bought a Sun light-shade, the first step on transforming the spare room into a kiddies room.

Learning lessons

We are firmly into the second week of our holiday and this week we have seen more of Little G's ups and downs which is all good considering the amount of time she has spent in this endless heat with 5 adults. On Sunday night we took her out for the evening while her parents went off for some romantic alone time. It's a great honour that they feel they can trust us enough to leave her in our company and enjoy themselves. The plan was to go for a Chinese meal and hit the fun fair that Little G had spotted a few days earlier. She was also mega excited because it meant that she could wear her little Chinese dress, and she looked lovely in it. The only problem was that the fun fair was on the way to the restaurant so there was no escape. We gave little G a three ride limit and promised that we could come back after dinner. She managed to wangle at least six out of us. She was brilliant throughout dinner and the promise of going back to the fun fair meant we had an almost clean plate. After dinner and back at the fun fair little G managed another three rides plus 10 minutes on the trampoline. Then on the way home we found another bouncy castle/trampoline combo on which she spent 20 minutes. I'm knackered just thinking about it. Yesterday we all visited the local water park and fun was had by all, however upon return to the villa the smallest of incidents sparked an enormous (what felt like never ending) tantrum/crying episode. It must be hard and quite traumic as a parent to see your child in that much of a state but it left David and I thinking how we would react in such a situation. I know we have our ideas but in the harsh light of reality I wonder how we will behave? I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. On an excited note we get back home in a few days and it's off to IKEA and the prep for little one's new bedroom is due to begin. First step, a wardrobe for our room and then turning the spare room into a child-friendly zone. Ooh, I love a project!

Beach baby

I haven't written in a while mainly due to the fact that there hasn't really been a vast ampunt to write about. We've had more meeting going over not too dissimilar topics so although we are getting closer to the end date not very much seems to be changing for us. I suppose the main things are: 1) We asked my cousin if she would be guardian in the event that anything should happen to the both of us once little on is placed. Luckily (and thankfully) she was more than happy to and excitedly accepted which is great. This all took place at her daughter's third birthday bash on Broadstairs Beach. Little one is going to be so lucky when he/she meets their cousins, on all sides. 2) The interviews have begun with the referees which is also very exciting. The first was David best friend. We had no idea what to expect but he seemed to cope ok and wasn't too scarred by the process 3) We've been given the mission of sorting out Little one's bedroom. At the moment it's mostly used as a massive wardrobe come laundry room come storage. We were informed that before panel we would have a "second opinion" visit form a social worker we haven't meet yet so we have to get things spot on, You may have noticed that there is no picture for this entry, that's because I am typing this beside the pool on holiday in Turkey!! We are holidaying with friends and the gorgeous little 'G' as we did last year. We love spending time with her and babysit ( although she's not really a baby!) while her parents go off and have some time on their own. It's really quite weird to think that the next time we all holiday together we could be looking after our own little one. Weird but a lovely feeling.