Week 13 diary

.... and things are still going well! It's the matching panel next week and boy are we nervous!! That said, we've had a lot to keep us occupied with!

After a wonderful weekend with our friends, during which time we cuddled a couple of newborn little girls and played with their older brothers, I had the big hurdle to face - telling my boss!

I was absolutely dreading it, but it turned out to be absolutely fine. I managed to get her to sit down for five minutes for a chat, which was a feat in itself - she's normally a complete whirlwind.

Anyway, she was fantastic - very understanding and absolutely fascinated about the process. Mind you, I must admit that we do tend to get that - if people have never been touched by adoption in their lives, then they always want to know absolutely everything about it.

I, of course, who could talk to people about adoption until the cows come home, am always pleased to oblige. Anyway, like I said, she was great, and from that day since has kept asking me "When is the matching panel date?" and "Oh, I don't think I can wait that long - I'm so excited for you". She's a gem!

The Adoption Policy is still being finalised and in the approval process, so I'm hoping to get a copy of it really soon. Mind you, sometimes the wheels of the organisation I work for turn very slowly!!

We managed to fit in a last bowling trip with our friends too. We've been bowling about once every couple of months with them for the last three years now - and thought we'd have a last "Rock 'n' Bowl" night out with them. We're hopeful that the next time we go bowling, it will probably be on a Saturday afternoon during the family sessions!

By the way, don't think that because we go bowling we're experts - three years has done nothing to improve our game! It's just a good excuse for a good night out, a few drinks and great company!

This last week, we've also been to a support group meeting arranged by our social worker and a colleague of hers. I must admit, it was an excellent night. As always, its great to be in the company of people who've "been there, done that", so the amount of experience in that room was amazing.

It's likely that they will be arranging a calendar of meetings now, so we're looking forward to those. We got introduced to some people who live locally who've recently adopted children of a similar age as our prospective "little one", which was lovely, and we're really hoping that we can keep in touch with them.

Susan managed to catch us at the meeting and asked whether we'd done anything on the book yet which we needed to prepare to pass to "little one" - she was hoping that we could perhaps get it ready for next week, so she could take it to the matching panel with her and pass it on to "little one's" social worker if everything went well.

We'd kind of started thinking of what we wanted to do, and had got a few "supplies", so the next few nights and this weekend we're spending putting it together. I can't tell you how strange it is writing "This is Mummy and Daddy" below a picture of yourselves - it starts to bring it all home a bit. We've used a scrap book and have put pictures of us in, our house, our family and our friends (not forgetting the cat!) and have put pictures in for him to colour, and stickers too. There's never much guidance on how to put these things together, so we're really hoping that we've done it right!!

We went to see Harry Hill this week too. It's the fourth time we've seen him and we always end up sitting there in tears laughing. He's not to everyone's taste, but we think he's great. We managed to have a lucky escape when he invited the girl sitting in front of us on to the stage to dress up in a hamster costume and dance at the end of the show. Thank goodness!

When we booked the tickets, we were laughing saying that we could need babysitters by the time the night came around. We never knew at that time, how close we were to being in that situation! Anyway, that was our last real good night out - so we're pulling our belts in now in preparation that all goes well!

It's going to be a bit of a long seven days, but this time next week we'll know whether we're going to be parents to this cute little boy. It doesn't get more exciting and nerve-racking than this!!

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