Month 9
Well so much has happened!!!!
We were visited by two social workers as we told you about last month and the meeting was very positive!! Chris arrived first and told us not to be nervous and just be ourselves and we went through the questions all three of us had.
The two workers arrived – Sarah is a Family Finder and Betty is a Social Worker who is doing work with the children in their current foster home. They were so nice and put us at ease straight away. They talked about the children and their various issues and also about our Form F and we answered the questions as best we could. It felt like a really nice chat rather than an interrogation and Chris really clicked with them too – which we felt was a good thing.
We stopped for lunch and made some sandwiches and produced the cakes we made at the weekend with our friends children. These cakes were covered in pink and yellow icing – dread to think how many ‘E’ numbers were in each one!!!
After lunch we had another chat and they had a look around the house and saw the garden.
It was agreed that Chris would call us the next day and Sarah would call Chris and we would all then know if we wanted to proceed and if they thought we would be suitable parents for the children.
We were shattered and just had to go out for an Indian to clear our heads!! We had a long talk and Jeremy’s brother came with us and we told him all that was said. We both knew that we definitely wanted to be chosen as ideal candidates so we had to wait and see what happened the next day!!!
Chris called in the afternoon and wanted to know how we felt and we told her that we were very keen and excited and really hoped Sarah and Betty felt the same. Chris then asked us some more questions including why we had come to our decision. After a good chat with Chris, she finally confessed that Sarah had called her first thing and wanted to meet up with us again as they were really positive about us!!!! We can totally understand why Chris said that, otherwise we could have got totally swept away without thinking of the consequences!!!!
Chris then said she needed to check with Graham that he was OK with us proceeding further so we waited for her call. Graham is obviously aware of the all the children’s issues and needs and also those of all the agency’s adoptive parents waiting to be matched. Chris called back and Graham is happy for it to go further.
Chris was on holiday then so she said that we would hear from Sarah with a convenient date for our next meeting. In the meantime, our November issues of ‘Be My Parent’ and ‘Children Who Wait’ had arrived and we were unsure whether we should look at anymore children or put the magazines away in the cupboard!
Sarah called the next day and told us that she had spoken to her manager and she was very positive with their report and wanted to come and see us as soon as possible. Chris had already given Sarah her free dates in her diary and it was agreed that our next visit would be Tuesday 6 th December. We asked Sarah if we were the only couple being considered but she would only say that they had received a huge number of enquiries but their short list was very short!! She also advised us to put our other magazines away as they would prefer us to be totally focused on the two children. We accepted her words and did just this.
Graham then called to say that he had been speaking to Sarah about our meetings and told us that our enquiry was no longer tentative but a strong possibility!!! He also advised us to not look at anymore children until we knew the outcome of these two.
We have been very busy since, selling beds and looking at children’s beds and furniture for our house, looking at Ofsted reports of local schools and visiting a nursery close by. It’s such a strange situation to be in as we dare not actually buy anything as we really need to wait until the 6 th.
We spoke to Sarah again and she told us just to be ourselves when they arrived and we would find out on the day what the next steps are. The children are in a temporary foster home and need to be placed quite quickly. We just really hope that it all goes to plan and Sarah’s Manager loves us and feels we can nurture and look after the children as they so desperately need.
I have a meeting on Thursday this week regarding the Dinner Dance for next year, so I am looking forward to that.
Unfortunately I did not make my appearance on GMTV – I came down with a cold and sore throat so would not have been very popular answering the phones and passing on my germs – maybe next year….
Happy Christmas everyone and all best wishes for the New Year!!!!!!!!
Clare and Jeremy
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