Can I join in now?

[jenny60]

I was here years ago, grilling you about adoption. We finally did it and our wonderful daughter is home! So far, so good, though early days and lots of muddling through.

Congratulations

Fantastic news! Of course you can join in and please stick around :)

How old is your DD (yep, YOUR daughter, at last!)?

Congratulations!

Did it all go smoothly?

We are about to go to panel so love hearing positive stories!!

Thanks . She is 4 and we have a bs of 9. We have waited a long time for the right match. I'm still convinced it will all go terribly wrong as I've read all the books and know that most people struggle. But this little sausage will be loved and will have a better life at least than she would have had with birth family. Ds is doing well but overwhelmed by the pink which the foster career really encouraged. We are all getting to know each other but so far she accepts help, makes good eye contact, eats and sleeps really well. Hooray!

jenny that is fab news. Our DD is 7 and will be around 8 or 9 before we get anywhere with the process and we would probably be looking at adopting the sort of age you did so would love to hear how things went for you and also how you worked out your matching criteria. Please do message me or reply if you feel able to share but now worries if not.

All best wishes, Italian.

Congratulations. Enjoy your family.

Congratulations! I also have an older bc (6) and a younger adopted daughter (2). She honestly is the most perfect little girl

Hang around and join in - I look forward to hearing more about your family

Many, many Congratulations to you :)

MaryZ - RIGHT ON SISTER!! LOL
sick of reading so many awful stories about adopted children, I am now believing for every 1 family having a rough time there must be 10 families just getting on with life and feel no need to be on website bragging about how good life is!!

Jenny60 - like italian greyhound I would be really pleased if you could share how you came to your matching criteria, I am going to panel next month for approval and I have been through the mill with my sw about my choices.
Congratulations I wish you and your family all the luck and love in the world.

Brilliant news, congratulations!

Another birth child / adopted child family here. So far, so good. Please don't be overwhelmed by the bad stories - agree it's just that those ones that get told, not the boring, everything is just normal ones.

Thanks for the welcome. It's nice to be in the club. Italian, feel free to ask away. I really do hope all will be well but who knows? I'm a bit of a glass half-empty person but so far, so good. She's a lovely little girl, very sweet natured and kind. Her fc was wonderful. I will stick around this board for sure! If I read adoption uk I will get too pessimistic, even by my standards.

Sorry, didn't answer funny chic. Do you have any specific questions? If so, ask away.

Congratulations, jenny60, that's wonderful news. We're home 5 months with our little girl and also have an older ds. He's adapted really well to the pink invasion, has even been known to give dd's dolly her bottle just not while his mates are around How's your ds finding having to share mum and dad? It's a huge adjustment for him too.

Oh lovely. I'm not usually on this topic but popped in to say congrats!

Jenny, so pleased for you, I have just ask adoption Uk to deactivate my account as I cant take anymore of the scary stuff. I am not digging my head into the sand but I just cannot let myself believe that things are going to be that bad! Naive? maybe, rose tinted glasses? maybe, but coming on here is a breath of fresh air.
My question really was how flexible were you in your matching? and was it largely based on the fact you had another child?
I dont have any other children but I have had quite a few debates with my sw and have moved on a few issues in order not to be to inflexible and to achieve the best possible match, but as a single adopter I suppose I have been fairly strict in my criteria.

Funny: will pm

Thanks Mary I certainly get your point and I agree.

Congratulations. I posted prolifically before DS arrived so you're way overdue waiting until now!

Congratulations!

It's true I also post way more about my girls (especially DD2) than DS. I just don't need to ask much advice or anything about him. I do like posting his achievements when I remember. Actually, I generally like posting positive updates when I remember (like New year update threads) :) It's great hearing how everyone is getting on

I will say this though - although DD2 does have significant problems, and although I do probably post way more about her, I don't see our adoption story as a negative one. I know I sometimes have shit days/weeks and my posts reflect that (and maybe my posts are scary for a prospective adopter), and although we've had dire months and events (which are too diffucult to post about so I don't) OVERALL the picture is a good one for me. Positive. We have each other, we are a family. That's the bottom line. A family is what I wanted, and that's what I have :) and it's still the best decision I've ever made. I don't think I'm articulating this very well, but what I'm trying to say is that my story is a VERY positive one. It's just as positive as someone who adopts a child and sails away into the sunset with no difficulty (and yes, that happens). Just as positive. I guess I want people to know that parenting a child like my DD2 can be very very (very) hard, but it isn't always negative, and it can be positive. I think there's a difference in the meaning of those two words

That's my contributing ramble, which probably didn't make any sense

:) I'm glad someone understood!

If someone came here and said they only heard negative stories and asked whether there were any positive stories out there, I would put myself VERY firmly in the positive box. I just thought suddenly that maybe people read my posts (which are admittedly often about shit days and problems) and class me as a negative story. Which makes me feel a bit sad, because despite our problems, our story is such a positive one

Anyway, I'll stop hijacking now

Whoop :) big congratulations!!