Ann and Rob are a couple from north Wales who have been trying for a family for 18 years. They have had various medical interventions including four cycles of IVF treatment, all to no avail.

So they have decided to try for adoption. Ann has decided to keep a diary about their journey through the adoption process and the emotional rollercoaster it takes them on. Adoption-net is carrying a weekly update on their progress.

Week 24 - A special time

These last two weeks since I last wrote my diary have been quite eventful to say the least!

First of all our SW told us that she was putting us forward for the child she had mentioned before to us. And she went on then to tell us who that child was.

She is a little girl almost two years of age, with blonde hair, brown eyes, and a smile to melt your heart.

She said she had always considered us for this little girl, but as the case was so complicated, had not told us just how close we were to being matched with her.

We had her form E, and had to read all about her, before deciding we wanted to go ahead. We took our time, and re read everything, but after a lot of discussion, we both decided we wanted her.

We had the feeling as we were reading the form, that this was our child, our daughter. It felt like it was 'meant to be'. We were told panel was in the near future, but not exactly when. So, we carried on, as per normal, with the waiting game.

The phone rang this week. I answered it. It was our SW. She said the matching panel for the little girl was this week, and , ....this is the best bit......we were the ONLY couple being considered for her!

Well.....We were on cloud nine to say the least, but then after talking about it, decided to try to stay calm, after all, just because our SW thought we were suited to her, it did not mean the panel thought the same.

So we tried to stay neutral.....Tried being the word here.......but try as we may, it did not work, we were so convinced they would match us, absolutely certain. And we knew if it failed we would be in for a huge blow.

So, matching panel day came. We had our 15 yr old niece with us. We thought if she stayed she would make us stay calm and try to keep our minds occupied while we waited (again) for the phone call of phone calls.

Mid afternoon, the phone rang. It was planned for Rob to answer it. But I decided last minute, I would and ran like mad to the phone.

In a very silent voice I said "Hello"

Then there was a silence. I thought we had been refused. Silence to me means something bad. Then, a very happy voice simply said "You have a little GIRL"

We just cried, and hugged and cried. It was something I never thought we would ever hear. It had seemed it always happened to other people, not to me, but it had, it really had.

We were parents, I am a Mummy and Rob is a Daddy.

We have a Daughter. We are a family. We are COMPLETE.

I suppose it will take time to sink in. At the time of writing this, it still feels as if I am writing about someone else, not me! We are both in a whirl here.

We are to meet her on Tuesday, with the sw in her Foster home, then we will take it from there it seems. We have to allow time for her to get used to us, to accept us, and attach to us, so that will involve daily visits to the foster home, and days out with Ruth. That is our daughter's name. Ruth. We like it, a lot.

Now comes the fun bit, we have approx. a week to get EVERYTHING a small child needs.....And we have a week to spend our hard earned cash too !!

It is amazing the amount of things she will need, it never really occurred to me how much all this will cost...but the cost is not important to us, what is important is we have Ruth...our Daughter.

The next step is the first visit...........

E-mail Ann and Rob

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