# The begining of the rest of our lifes..Hopefully :-)



## Unconditional-love (Jan 19, 2010)

2ND AUGUST 2012 I made the first phone call toady which lasted over an hour to my LA (wakefield), It was very interesting and a lot of things were asked, regarding our familys, jobs, savings, experience with children and relationship history etc. I was happy with everything we discussed and the duty social worker i spoke to was lovely. She said based on the information given she had no reason not to put us forward for the next step which is the information evening on 27th september, (i will be counting down the days). 
After coming off the phone i burst into tears and texted dh at work. I feel so happy to be starting this all new chapter in our lifes, hopefully we will be getting an amazing outcome as we are now on the road to becoming mummy and daddy. I cant actually believe i am saying that..  I know from researching and reading other peoples storys that this is going to be a very difficult journey with many highs and lows but i am going to try to take it one step at a time as i know there is lots to get through. Any advice would be great.

Thanks for reading
xxx


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## Emma-is-a-mummy (Jan 16, 2012)

Hi honey, 

Welcome to your new journey. We're about half way through home study and starting to get very excited. 

If there's any questions you have please ask im happy to answer. 

Take care
Hugs xx


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## flickJ (Feb 9, 2012)

Good luck on your journey, I hope it all goes smoothly for you      

I am not to far from you (in Hull) and I believe there are a couple more Yorkshire people on this site. I'll be following your progress with interest. Good luck!!!


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## Billybeans (Jun 16, 2012)

Congratiulations unconditional love for making that first step. Have you had any news since?
I havn't taken that first step as yet but I hope to one day not to far away from now.
Good luck with your journey to becoming a mummy.


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## Unconditional-love (Jan 19, 2010)

Hi shining star,
First of all thank you its always good to get meassages on here.
We had our info evening a few weeks ago, there were 3 social workers present, and they just talked about the process and whats involved. They spoke about some of the children waiting for families, some very sad storys. I was supprised to hear there are over 100 children waiting in foster care for there forever families in my district (wakefield). It was all very basic and over in an hour, there were around ten couples there.
Just received a voice mail today from the LA and we have our initial home visit on wednesday 17th october. I'm very scared as i may forget something so i may roughly write my life story out so i get it right.
When do you think you might start the process yourself?
xxx


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## Billybeans (Jun 16, 2012)

Hi unconditional love,
Gosh not long before the home visit starts! 6 days!!
If it was up to me and I knew we would be accepted I would be making that phone call now but we have a few issues to sort out first. Dh isn't quite ready I don't think for a start and we have finances we need to sort out too. Also our house needs work to it as well. I would imagine it's going to be at least another 12mths possibly even longer 
Keep us updated with your Journey and experiences


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## Unconditional-love (Jan 19, 2010)

RE-initial home visit....17th october 2012

Well i really was worrying for nothing regarding this initial visit, i finished work at 3pm as i didn't want to be sat around all day worrying until 4pm. I was pacing my living room for an hour shaking 

As soon as i answered the door and introduced myself to the sw i was instantly at ease. She was really lovely. She asked about our upbringings, ex partners, what we could bring to adoption, our support network, our jobs, our home, child experience, how many children we would like to adopt and at what ages, our views on disability and racism, our family, health and medication. Basically all the things i expected and i was happy to answer every question asked, infact dh couldn't get a word in i had to stop myself going on and on and let dh and sw speak 

The sw told us she would put everyhing into a report and send it to her manager, then we would receive a letter to let us know if we got to the next stage being the prep course.

Anyway after patiently waiting we received the letter today. We have got on the prep course and we have 2 full days training 20th and 21st november which is brilliant as we were told to expect to be on the feb prep course. We will also have 3 subsequent teatime sessions (4pm-6pm) one being december 4th and the other 2 will be after the new year.

In the meantime we will receive;
Application form
Expression of interest form
Criminal records bureau check form
medical forms
Not sure when the medical will be but in advance today i rang my gp regarding costs. £97.81 per person.  Ridiculous..

Oh well i'm prepared to take the rough with the smooth...After all this is the most important thing in our lives..

xxx


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## -x-Lolly-x- (Feb 3, 2012)

Congratulations on getting on to prep course!  We have finished our 3 days today (exhausted but happy  ) and have a final day 31st on January, by which time you are nearer panel and matching, so this is what they focus on here.  You will enjoy it, and I must say, I have totally changed my opinions on some things, it really opens your eyes.  Especially today when we had a Q&A session with 4 adopters!

Masses of luck in your journey   You must be excited


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## Emma-is-a-mummy (Jan 16, 2012)

Congratulations honey you'll really enjoy prep we did, it really opens your eyes. 

Check you have to pay for medicals? We didn't out la paid for ours. 

Good luck with your journey 

Hugs 
Emma xxx


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## Unconditional-love (Jan 19, 2010)

Prep training..

Just coming to terms with the past 2 days of preperation training, which i have to say, despite the feeling of being emotionaly drained and shattered we have really enjoyed it.

The 1st day we got all the introductions out of the way and had to have our photo's taken for our files and so the sw's get to know who we are.

There were 8 couples on the training including us, all of which were very nice people. Topics we covered are as follows;

*Day 1*

Hopes and fears, Legal definition of adoption.
Legal process.
Who are the children. Relinquished babies, small children and older children.
Attatchment.
The role of the foster carer.
Adoption triangle. Birth parent, adoptive parent and child. Small group exersize.
PAR.
homework
*Day 2*

Discussed homework.
Catergories and effects. (emotional, physical, sexual, neglect)
small group discusion regarding the above.
Child development, LAC nurse was present
Taking care of yourself, post adoption
Identity and life story work.
Social networking.
An adopted persons perspective.
Small group exersize on what we have learned.
what happens next?
We now await 3 more prep evenings, we were told the 1st one has changed from 4tg december to 29th january. So thats when that is and in the meantime we wait for a letter regarding our social worker who will be doing our homestudy. So home study will start dec/jan.

If anyone has any questions please do ask away..


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## -x-Lolly-x- (Feb 3, 2012)

Yay, that is great news!!  It is very draining isn't it, and you wonder how after when you are essentially just sitting there listening!!    Sounds very similar, but then again, I'm sure they all are!  I hope HS starts asap, nice to feel the wheels keep turning!

(I'm just sneaking a peak on here as SW is downstairs now with DF and i'm waiting for my turn - yikes!!)


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## DiDi2012 (Mar 16, 2012)

You must be so exciting! It's great to be well on the way, isn't it! Also, we felt it was great to be prepared like this, it's such an eye-opener!
Keep going! Enjoy it as much as you can!


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## mrsm06 (Dec 31, 2009)

Hello 
DH and I are going to prep course day 1 tomorrow and I am full of nerves, excitement and questions... your post was exactly what I was looking for, so thank you so much for sharing!! (We're in Wales but I am assuming it will follow a similar set up to yours)
I notice your post is from before Christmas: may I ask how things are progessing?
Sending lots of love, luck and appreciation Xx


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## Frangipanii (Nov 21, 2011)

Hi UNconditional.love
I am thinking we are at a similar stage so will be interesting to read more from your experience!! I hope all is well with you. 
love f x


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## Unconditional-love (Jan 19, 2010)

mrsm06, Really pleased my post has helped you. so how did prep go?, i loved prep even though it was very draining. we still have 3 more prep days, the 1st one is on tuesday then the other 2 next month. We begun our homestudy 3rd january and have had 4 meetings so far, we will be having weekly meetings with our social worker, and have already been given a panel date for may. Its all moving very fast and its great we are enjoying every moment. Home study is great a lot of people seem to find it too intrusive, bet i enjoy talking about my childhood and growing up. We are still waiting for our CRB's to come back these seem to take ages. I have just had my medical and my gp let me see it to put my mind at rest. So far so good i just keep waiting for something to go wrong as it's going very well.

Frangipanii, Hi yes i think we are, you will see from the above how far we are, how are you getting along ? i do also go on the adoption thread but find it hard to keep up on there sometimes especially with eveyone at different stages x


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