It's been several months since our last update and we've both been busy with the second stage of the process. We're currently nearing the half way point with only two more meetings before our Social Worker spends a month or so collating her report for panel.
Our most recent meeting with our SW was an eye-opener! Nearly four hours of discussing adoption in granular detail. Talking about real life cases and the effects trauma has on children and what we should expect. We've also had access to the main database of children awaiting adoption to get ourselves familiar with seeing the information available to us. In addition there are lots more forms and information we are to provide in order to finalise all information our agency seek to provide at our adoption panel.
Oh yes - how could we forget - our panel date has been set for October! Yikes! There's plenty of time to go between now and then but as we know, time is flying by and what with the meetings and our own personal lives being busy, some weeks just whizz by without even realising it.
Our adoption Instagram is giving us both the opportunity to speak to other adopters and we've been busy getting to know others that have adopted and who are also going through initial stages.
What else is in the pipeline? We have an event this weekend with our agency who are organising a fun day for adopters. It will be a chance to speak to others and to meet lots of lovey children. We also have two mandatory training days coming up which will be our final training days and which we anticipate will provide us with lots more information and what to expect.
So there we have it - it's been a year since starting the adoption process (with our own four month gap) and we're starting to realise our lives will soon change forever more - but it'll be the most exciting journey ahead.
J&S