Nothing like leaving things til the last minute. For any prospective adopters reading this, I recommend getting everything in order at least a month before your introductions.
Bathroom. Yes, still working on it. Just had a 24 hour paint-fest (am I the only person who manages to get as much paint on them as on the walls?). The fitter overran by a week! Looks lovely though - well, it will when all is finished.
Accounts - erm ....
We had to do a DVD and book introducing ourselves to our new daughter. Well, much hilarity. How on earth do TV people stop themselves from giggling. I couldn't even get as far as hello without falling about, tears streaming. Honestly, you'd think we were producing an epic film rather than a 2 minute DVD. We managed it in the end though although no awards will be given for lighting direction. I decided at the very last minute I didn't like the plain book I'd bought in which to stick our photos, so I headed out to Boots and Tescos and then the local craft shop where luckily, with 5 mins to closing, they had the perfect scrap book. I quite enjoyed doing it actually, sticking, putting captions by our photos, and it's given me some ideas on what we can do with Little One.
I've shown the photo of our daughter to-be to a few people now, including our neighbour this morning. "Oh my word!" they say, open-mouthed. "Doesn't she look like you!!?", they say in amazement. Yep, she does. This is what grabbed our very first attention before finding out about her. It's uncanny really. We've also told a few people her name, which for obvious reasons I won't mention on this blog. At first it felt 'odd' using her name and referring to the spare bedroom as "[name]'s bedroom" but it's become much easier this week since Matching Panel.
Technically, I'm now on Adoption Leave. I had my last client last week. I say Adoption Leave - nothing formal though, just me deciding when to stop seeing clients. It's not like I'm getting any maternity pay or adoption pay or adoption allowance. Oh no, self-employed adopters get zilcho, nothing, zero. My local benefits office didn't know anything about adoption pay and my local MP's response was taken straight off the direct.gov website. I just hope this is one of the issues the Government looks at when looking at the whole issue of adoption. I suspect it won't be but I'm quite sure it will put other people off from adopting if they won't be in a good financial position to do so. Luckily we've got some savings that will tide us over til I go back to work. But we shouldn't have to dig into savings. Why am I any different from someone who is employed and who adopts or gives birth, or someone self-employed who gives birth? Frustrating.
Right, hopefully the undercoat is dry by now so it's back to the painting.
Four days til we meet her.
Yes, as a (was) self employed single adopter the lack of financial help was a strain.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with it all - I bet you can't wait!