Adoption Prep Course Pt 1.

Arrived before T as expected given he was coming straight from work. Was met by one social worker who took me down to where we were meeting and introduced me to the other 2 involved in running the course – 2 from the adoption team and 1 from adoption support team. Several people were already in the room and in the end it turned out to be 14 of us. Variety of background – two couples with birth children, and at least two who had attempted IVF as I found out talking to them. Two other couples from the same place as us – and indeed one couple who live a stone’s throw away.

We started off (after toilets, fire exit and introduction to what the course was about) being asked to split into pairs and talk to someone we didn’t know and to find out 4 facts about them. The guy I talked to was a different background from me – married 4 years, been through 3 failed IVF attempts, worked in his family used car business and his wife was a beautician. Then it was onto a short quiz – some of which T & I could answer and some we got wrong – like the number of children in care in England (hadn’t spotted the key word England), and how many were adopted from care last year which we overestimated. Then we went on to talk about our hopes and fears for the course – lots of hopes and a smaller set of fears – many of which we had in common which was reassuring. Things like isolation, finding ourselves at different points as a couple, being rejected.

Continue reading “Adoption Prep Course Pt 1.”

Thoughts as the first evening draws near

Well it is National Adoption Week so seeing some stuff around about adoption – as well as from my sister who is posting parts of her blog that she kept as she & M went through the process. Today’s post was appropriately about the preparation course so I have a little idea about what to expect although things could have changed in the nearly 3 years since they did theirs.

We start ours in under 3 hours as I write this – still at work but will be heading home shortly as got a couple of things I want to do before I head out to the unit for 6.30pm. T is of course coming straight from work – and has promised me he will get away as quickly as he can – his shop shuts at 6pm. I suspect he has talked to the social worker already as he was the one to sort out our feedback session  -which was awkward given the fact that I stopped one day due to a PhD viva and the second day could only make afternoon as I am lecturing in morning. November has turned into a hectic month what with the prep course, the usual MSc board of examiners for me to chair (that’s tomorrow), 2 PhD vivas where I am internal examiner and a placement student to visit. On top of my usual increased workload due to 2 modules being block taught in weeks 7 – 12. Such is life – hence one of the reasons I was semi-hoping for a prep course after Christmas. But as we said at the time if we were offered November we would make it work so we shall.

Will probably post again tomorrow after first evening. H is arriving tomorrow as well I believe given the alumni event on Friday which is good as T will have company on Thursday while I am other end of the country on visit.

P.S. Got that official application form in soon after we got it – and I took CRB forms + relevant documents to the unit last Friday plus booked our medicals. So that clock has started ticking…..

Start of things

Well to be accurate it all started in December 2011 when we attended the Information evening at our LA. My sister & brother-in-law adopted through them and we decided it was the route for us once it had been confirmed that all the professionals could do for us was offer IVF which is not a route we wanted to take. T (my husband) is not a believer in it in circumstances like ours, and also hormonal medication messes with me something badly.

So off we went to the evening and expressed an interest which led to the first social worker meeting. There was an immediate setback (delay really) at that point when it turned out I had not dealt as well with some lingering issues due to childhood as well as I thought I had. Luckily I can get free counselling through work so went down that route and finally we got recommended to go forward earlier this month. The delay was very good as where T works got sold to another company at end of April so he has had a stressful few months.  Expected to be on prep course in the new year although SW did say she would ask for next months. I got a phone call last Thursday ( after fire drill) from Adoption & Fostering from the adminstrator to say we had places on the course. Got the dates & times from her (3 full days & 2 evenings at either end plus feedback) then immediately rang T before I went haring off round work to sort out my end. Last full day not too bad (just project meetings to move & lecture to cancel). Other 2 days involve re-scheduling lecture (only person) and asking colleagues nicely to stand in for me as I should be running poster assessments. All sorted and informed the relevant people as well. Things moved a bit quicker than I expected.

Now sorting out children experience – hopefully going back to my original Brownie unit & possibly volunteering at local school. Plus more reading around and reminding myself why we went into this in first place. Asked our referees who are all happy to be so, so just photos to do and then official application goes in. The clock starts from there….Scary….