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….