I was absurdly nervous about the Approval Panel, although we had been told that it was a sure thing, because the adoption agency policy was to only take adopters to panel when they are highly confident that they will be approved. It was brilliantly managed, though. When we arrived, we were taken into a small […]
Read More »Stage 2 was a little more intense. We had something like 7 interviews with a new social worker. It seems the adoption agency changes the social workers between stages, perhaps so that more people have met you and evaluated your suitability, so that assessment carries more weight. We were asked about our childhoods, our relationships […]
Read More »Towards the end of Stage 1 of the adoption process, we were invited to go to “prospective adopters training.” This was 3 full days of training with other prospective adopters, plus a “Carousel Evening” to speak to experienced adopters. I was so excited! The training was HARD. Not in the sense that it was difficult […]
Read More »Stage 1 of the adoption process is largely about checking that you’re “alright” to adopt. We had DBS checks done to show that we have no criminal convictions. Strangely, my husband’s check was completed a month quicker than mine, and my form turned up just as I was beginning to panic that perhaps there might […]
Read More »I’ve always been quite house-proud, but there’s no cleaning incentive like knowing a social worker is coming to your home! On the other hand, I didn’t want the house to look sterile and unfriendly to a child! Before every social worker visit, I overthought the tidying, to the extent that I once got some of […]
Read More »When we talked about our plans to adopt, people often asked a lot of questions. The most common were along the lines of “don’t you want a baby of your own?” “Are you sure you can love another child like you love your daughter?” I always found that quite curious. I’m not biologically-related to my […]
Read More »A few days after my daughter’s 1st birthday, my husband and I went to an adoption information event, to find out more about how to adopt a child. We were the only prospective adopters there, so ended up moving to a little office where we sat on arm chairs and spoke to a social worker. […]
Read More »I’ve always found the idea of adoption intriguing. At 17, I had an adventure in Africa with a group of friends and a teacher from school. We went on safari, spent some time climbing mountains, and then built some play equipment for the Light in Africa orphanage. When we weren’t building the play equipment, we […]
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