Post approval waiting

[Annmarie81]

How do people cope with the waiting after approval? We have been approved for 6 weeks and the waiting is the worse.

I can’t imagine how people can wait a year and over to be matched.

What did you do to distract yourself from obsessing about waiting to me matched?

[Eriskay]

@Annemarie81, it’s not easy. I was approved in November 2019 and I am heading to matching panel on Monday. I was approached about my future wee one 13 months after approval. It was a hellish wait but COVID really put a spanner in the works. I bounced out of panel with every expectation that I’d have a match soon and even bought a cot and pram in the Black Friday Sales. I unfortunately live in a small authority though so the reality was that they just didn’t have any children in my age range so I had to wait for a match on Linkmaker.
I have to admit that Linkmaker is tough and definitely brings you back down to earth with a bump but it’s where I was linked with my (fingers crossed) daughter so it all worked out in the end. 🥰
Good luck! I really hope you get a match soon now that we are returning to some sort of normality.

[Italiangreyhound]

Declutter
Save money
Read about adoptive and therapeutic parenting
Build your support network
Enjoy doing whatever you will find harder to do with s little one

It is very hard but then it is necessary to get the right match for you and little one.

[scully29]

oh the wait is awful!its soo slow!and so emotional!

[Monkeybrains2017]

We found the wait really hard (and we didn’t wait very long!) but in reality the wait for us worked out. We saw the profile of our now son two weeks after approval, they went with a different set of adopters. 4 months later they came back to us and asked if we were still keen. So those 4 months of waiting were worth it! In the interim we were actively approached about several children where we didn’t proceed and in hindsight it all worked out for us and our son. Like previous posters said, do all the things you’ll not be able to do for a while. We had two “last” holidays!

[UnderTheNameOfSanders]

We waited 15 months, though we had 4 'near misses' along the way.
I agree it is hard.
Have a timescale agreed with your SW on how often they will contact you, that means if you don't hear you have the 'permission' to contact them.
Otherwise, declutter, do the jobs around the home, and in normal times the short breaks & trips you won't be able to do later. We went to the theatre quite a lot that year iirc.
We also ended up sat in a marina in Lanzarote dictating the text for our matching panel.

[houseofrabbits]

The waiting is incredibly hard! It took us 16 months just to get to panel due to a situation outside of our control, and then 4 months to be matched with our EP baby. Those 4 months were definitely harder than the order the original 16 months! We joined Linkmaker after about 8 weeks, which helped us feel a bit more in control and a bit more like we were actually contributing to the process. We didn't explore any links on there but it did help.

I'm sitting here holding our beautiful 6 month old son and all the waiting was absolutely worth it for him!

[Adoptodad]

It hard and I feel for you. But in the end its worth the wait as other have said.

Now ask me again at 6am when my little one is wide wake and wanting to play :-)