In the week before Christmas, the little boy Charlotte Ellison adopted with her husband called her Mummy for the first time.

It could not have been a more perfect gift and made all the hassle and let downs of their adoption assessment, all worthwhile.

She wanted to share her story with visitors to Adoption-net who may be wondering if adoption is for them.

My husband and I decided that enough was enough. We had been trying to have children naturally for nearly four years.

We had all the tests which told us that we could not have children naturally. I have a severe hormone imbalance and my husband has an extremely low sperm count.

We decided that we could not go through all the prodding and poking of IVF and decided to try for adoption.

We had already spoken about it at length. I made the call and social services sent us an application form.

We heard nothing until January 1999 when a social worker came to visit to see if we were suitable.

Two months later, we had a call to advise us that we would be assesed and were appointed a social worker.

It was hard talking about things that you don't talk about to strangers. But we got through it and were told that we would be going to panel in August.

We were so excited. But then our social worker told us our panel hearing had been put off until September.

Again we got excited only to be told again that we were not going to panel.

By this time, frustration had got the better of me and I telephoned our social worker's manager who arranged a meeting.

Things went well at that meeting and we all agreed that we had lost all confidence in our social worker.

We were appointed a new social worker in late November who turned out to be our original assessor.

Things definitely got moving and with three or four visits we were ready for panel on March 9 2000.

That day was a mixture of every emotion possible. At 6.30pm our social worker visited to tell us that not only had we been approved for adoption but they had a 17-month-old boy in mind for us.

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I had never been so happy in all my life. The smile on my husband's face was a picture. Our lives would now be complete.

There was one small detail of the child being freed for adoption which would take place on April 12. That few weeks were the longest of our lives but it all went well.

We first saw our son on April 24 2000. The bond was immediate. We visited him every day for the rest of the week and had him at home for the day on the Saturday. It was fantastic.

On May 1, he came home to live with us for good.

He is everything to us.

The change from being a care-free couple to parents was a shock to the system to say the least.

A year later, the adoption hasn't actually gone through yet but our son knows who his Mummy and Daddy are. He first said Mummy a week before Christmas and no present could match that.

I hope this may help someone. If anyone has any doubts about adopting, don't be scared. If you want a child, it is the most rewarding thing in the world that anyone can do