Have you seen this guardian article?

[EricNorthmansMistress]

the last line made me melt a bit

Very, very moving. What a couple!

How on earth do they do it?

I'll be watching the program tomorrow night. It was a good article

It was a great documentary. I was moved to tears a few times. What amazing resilience the parents had to have ... and poor Maisie fighting her demons.

I saw the Guardian article and like everyone else who saw it I could barely believe what I was reading. There truly are some wonderful unsung heroes out there. Might start a thread on unsung heroes come to think of it but would quite know where to put it. I'm not that good on IT and only go on a few MN sites. Any ideas?

Taped Maisie so will watch it soon

The only thing I didnt like that keep on saying masie had lots of mums as a foster carer a short term at that we do make it very clear to the children that we are not tier mums and that we are looking for a mum for them so to keep referring to her short term carer as her last mum was a bit off really But other than that really good

It's a shame as a foster carer I am not allowed to go more into the childs background with them

What struck me (apart from the clearly excellent job this couple are doing with their kids) was the lack of consistency in adoption assessment.

I admit I am biassed - a prospective adopter trying to interest an agency in me. I have been told variously that:

-as a single adopter I would be very unlikely to be approved for 2 sibs as adopted children need one to one attention - but this couple were placed with 9 adopted children, including Maisie who clearly needs lots of attention.

-Adopted children must have a bedroom each - but Maisie was shown sharing with an older sister and I'm assuming at least some of the other children were sharing rooms too, unless it is a very big house.

-It would be better if I lost a bit of weight - I am a size 12.

It seems these hard and fast rules are hard and fast, until the LA have a child they can't place. Then they'll shift the goal posts.

the agency that featured in the article and the documentary - family futures - doesnt do that from what i can see. google them or see the link i put in the maisie thread on telly addicts....

they spend more on the after care and making the adoption work than looking for squeaky clean parents of a size 10.

i watched the programme and it was amazing. DH and i have been talking about adopting an older child when our youngest is a bit older. id be very tempted to get in touch with family futures i think.

I thought that the really astonishing thing was that this was the first time they'd been given any outside help. She was the 9th seriously traumatized child they'd adopted and none of the others had been offered any therapy or other outside support?? Wow, stupid, naive old me was thinking there'd be help for parents doing this.