Week 10 - Childhood memories

A week has passed since the last visit from our social worker.

But, we have not been idle, not in the least. I have almost burnt out the PC doing all the work for the form F this week.

I have had to write all about my life from when I was a child, about my home life, schooling, friends at school and since, all up to today, explaining about the sort of person I saw myself as and the work I have done.

Rob has had to do the same, although his is a lot more complicated than mine, as he was in care as a child following the death of his mum at nine years of age, so his took much more time than mine.

I thought it would be hard to have to go back to my childhood (it was 40 years!), but once I started writing, it seemed to all come back to me. I suppose as a child I had only happy memories, luckily, and they were just easy to remember.

Then I had to write about family members we have, any support that would be there for us, any experience of children we may have.

It is quite hard work to think what to say, but once I started, it was OK. So I am really busy at present and that is keeping my mind occupied for the time being.

We have also been talking about whether we tell people we are adopting or not.

At first we thought no, we won't tell anyone in case it all goes wrong.

But have now decided to tell people, because if we are approved and have children, everyone will be asking us who they are.

That would not be nice in front of the children, so we decided that if they already knew we were adopting, it would stop any awkward questions that may arise in front of the children.

So we have started to tell friends this week. They are all so happy for us, really pleased, so I think we made the right choice in telling people.

At least I will now have someone to talk to about it, apart from Rob!

It is nice to hear other people's opinions. Our closest family knew we had started the adoption, but not all our friends knew, so we both feel a lot better now it is out in the open.

I have also subscribed to Be My Parent, a magazine produced by BAAF (British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering), where they are lots of profiles of children waiting to be placed.

It gives us some food for thought for the future.

I have the distinct feeling this is quite a 'positive' diary this week! It seems the bricks of my wall are falling down a lot more lately, which is a good thing.

I feel much happier in myself this week; I feel things will be OK. All we can do is try our best. We cannot do more than that really, can we?

We have our adoption medicals next week. We have been told we have to pay for those ourselves, £33.10 each.

I am a bit wary of my medical as I have asthma. It is controlled, but nevertheless, I do have it. I am hoping the fact that it is controlled will not hold me back. Let's hope so anyway.

E-mail Ann and Rob

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