Week 17 - The long wait for judgement day

The social worker brought the form F back this week. We had to check for mistakes or to see if anything has been omitted or if there is anything we are not happy with.

We should have it in our possession for 28 days, but we decided to check it all over and then if we were happy with it we could sign away the right to keep it. Which we have since done.

Once we were happy with it there was no point in holding on to it, all that would have done was hold up the panel date.

She went over everything in the form with us and told us the panel date, which she hopes will be next month. Then it was just us two. She had gone. That was it. It was officially over. The assessment had finished.

So we sat down with a coffee and began to read. It was funny reading all about us, what the social worker had written and what she had changed from the sections we had filled in.

To be honest, she had not changed much, and what she had changed was for the better!

The police checks, medicals and referees testimonies were taken out before we read it.

So that's it now. It's a case of just waiting. It will be a long month until panel date. A very long month. No one will be in touch, so it may feel like no one is there.

Before she left, she told us that the two little boys she had mentioned to us a while ago, had been matched with another family.

We had fully expected them to be matched before we went to our panel, but it was still sad thinking...what if? If only we had been to panel already. Would we have stood a chance? We will never know I guess.

If all this comes right there will plenty more let-downs I expect. Times when we will be getting our hopes up for a certain child, and then another couple is matched. We have been warned it happens. And we have been warned not to put all our eggs into one basket.

It was an odd feeling knowing this was now the end. There were no more visits. We had done the best we could, if it was not good enough, there was nothing we could do about it now. We have to put our trust in the panel now.

I don't know how I will be on panel day. It will be either the best day of our lives or the worst.

E-mail Ann and Rob

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