We have met the foster carer, met the medical advisor, met the children’s new social worker and have had written confirmation of our matching panel date through the post. All systems are go for leaping that final hurdle and on to the final straight.
The foster carer is clearly a very lovely person who is very caring towards the children we are trying to adopt. In fact, the whole foster family seems absolutely brilliant, which means that there are some very large shoes to fill! The foster carer whisked us away from the social workers during our meeting, stealing my pad which had a list of questions on it so she could answer them as best she could. I’m sure she hugged us at least 5 times each during the time we were at her house. She didn’t say anything that she couldn’t have said in front of the SWs but it was nice to get away from them and just chat.
The medical advisor was very matter-of-fact telling us about possible health concerns (all of which we had already assumed anyway given what we know about the family history, so there weren’t any surprises). There are usually a lot of unknowns when adopting a child so they always try to prepare prospective adopters for the worst case scenario, which can be quite scary but is understandable.
So what’s next? Well, we’ve been shopping again and got a few toys and things as we need to do a video which will be delivered to the children to watch before we meet them so that they are at least slightly familiar with us when we arrive. We’ve seen an example video done by the adoption agency and it basically involves us playing with some toys, doing some activities and talking to the children. That seems easy enough! We also need to take some photos of the house, ourselves and our close family to include in a little photo album for the children to have.
We are intending to do a little story book too with the photos in and (if I’m feeling creative) some age appropriate rhyming text which the foster carer can read to them. That’s the aim, it’s not something we’ve been asked to do, but I think it’ll be a nice addition and something for them to keep going forward (assuming it survives, but we can always get another printed, they aren’t that expensive).
Matching Panel is the beginning of June. After that we have a ‘Family Networking Meeting’ arranged for our close relatives and friends to attend where the SWs talk to them about the children, giving them a little background on them.
We also exerted a little authority for the first time in the matching process, rather than doing everything we were asked as usual, involving OH’s brother’s wedding day which is to occur shortly after our scheduled placement date (the day the children come to our home permanently). As a consequence the SWs seem to have taken on board our request and have moved introductions forward so that hopefully the children will have had longer to settle and get used to my parents who will be able to look after them while we do what we need to do. We are hoping that the children might attend a small part of the wedding, but that probably isn’t feasible or fair on them so early on in their placement, we’ll have to play it by ear. Nanny and Grandad are on hand if required 🙂
So, I say again… Watch this space.