Tuesday 28 August 2012

Just beginning ..

I'm starting this blog as we are soon to be joined by a Little One and we want to a) keep a diary of our life from Day 1 as a family and b) share our rollercoaster ride with our friends, family and, perhaps more importantly, with other adopters and prospective adopters.

We have been linked with a little girl and are waiting for Matching Panel in October when we will be officially matched with her.  We can then organise introductions and welcome her to our/her home.

So how did we get to this point?   After a few years of trying and not falling, and with little help from GPs other than a few blood tests that showed nothing out of the ordinary (I think the fact I was over 40 meant they didn't really want to help), we decided to try IVF.  Due to my age we had to go private and I can't say it was the best experience of my life.  I'll spare you the details  but hearing the nurse say 'oh dear' whilst looking at the scan when my legs are akimbo is not really what I wanted to hear.  In fact as I didn't respond to the drugs, we only really got half way through the protocol and even that wiped out my savings, so we very quickly decided to look at adoption.  

We attended an open evening in July 2011 where they talked about what it involved, the process, the type of children involved, and what would be expected from us.  I remember being surprised at how full the room was.  Afterwards there was no hesitation and we applied to attend an Introduction Day on 1st September.  What i remember most about this day was a talk from an adopter about her experience and the love that just poured out from her. I thought, that is me, I can do that.

Then we went on holiday.  We didn't talk much about it whilst away but we certainly weren't not going to go forward.  Back home the harder work started; we had forms to fill and lots of words to write about ourselves.  I'm not sure why but we took a while over this, perhaps because it was because more real, we were actually applying to be adopters.  Finally in November, with paperwork submitted, we got an invitation to attend a two day Adoptive Parent Training in January 2012.  

Since January, after much more paperwork, 10,000 word essays and many meetings with our social worker, we got to the point of being approved as Adopters.  Hurrah!   The process was long, yes, but not nearly as life churning as we had expected.  Our meetings with the social worker were like long (3 hour) chats but we figured as long as we were honest about things and how we felt, it would all be fine, and it was.

So we were approved on 31st July 2012.  Just over a year after starting the process.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...