Back on track and some dates for the diary

Oops, my last post created a bit of a stir - quite a few phone calls from friends to check we were okay! Sorry, didn't mean to panic anyone! We both feel back on track with things now, and excited once more. I think to have a bit of a wobble is probably quite healthy, the truth is, no adoption is going to be a bed of roses, children aren't removed from their birth families for anything less than a really major issue, so every placement will present its own challenges, and I think if we were blindly going into this full of excitement and fluffy thoughts, we would be setting ourselves up to fail. So I am taking our reality strike this week as a  positive thing!

Had an email from our social worker with a whole list of dates of events that we need to fit in between now and January. We've already got our meeting with the foster parents a week today, after that we have to book in a day to read the boy's records - our local authority are really good in that they let you have full access not only to all the social work notes ever written about the children, but also their medical records and those of their birth parents. Having had that joyous read, we will then get an appointment with the agency's medical officer - a paediatrician who will answer any questions we may have as a result of reading the files.

We've fitted in an extra day in January to run through any last minute additions to our PAR (prospective adopters report) as our social worker has discovered that if she's going to get us to panel at the end of February, our paperwork has to be all completed by the end of January. She's also selected three of our referees that she would like to meet face to face, both mine and G's sisters and then one of our mutual friends.

It has to be said, despite all the media attention on the inefficiencies of the process of late, we absolutely cannot complain!

I'm heading up to London on the train now, and taking my Jo Frost Super Nanny book to read on the way...........

As an aside, my blog has hit 2000 readers today - I am amazed - I really only started it as a way to keep the family updated, I am very honoured that so many people want to listen to my ramblings!!