Hi all,
back from Christmas holidays, away with family abroad. It was a bit weird, I wanted to shout at everyone that 'btw we won't be coming for Christmas next year, as we will have a new LO and reasons for not travelling (the least one being, potentially no passport yet)' but couldn't really, as a) who knows if we will have a new LO with us at all yet by next year, and b) thought I'd better focus on THIS Christmas rather than waffling about potential NEXT Christmas all the time.. ;)
Anyway, we will be starting to push our LA a bit from next week, it's been nearly two months and we still don't seem to have been assigned a SW! I don't really mind as long as they let us progress to stage 2 soon. I just hope they won't suddenly come up with stuff we ought to have been doing in stage one, but haven't, because, well, nobody told us…
Hi to the Newbies here at Newbie central! rose and potato!
rose, as to how we chose our LA, we agonised for ages! Where we live, there were lots and lots of options - I'd say about 20 within distance. So to start with, we looked at the adoption maps (just google, easy to find); and so we narrowed down to those who have high numbers of children waiting for adoption, per approved adopters. You can also review the adoption scorecards (another google-able term), and for instance, choose those where there is least time between children entering care and being placed for adoption (this is good for the children and indicates efficient working on behalf of the LA), or, the least time for adopters to wait between approval and matching. However, these are all statistics, and averages, so bear in mind that your own situation may be different.
We then got in touch (e-mail/web forms) with a number of LAs and a couple of VA. Some never got back to us, some gave us a quick call/e-mail to say that they weren't interested in us at the moment. Three who are in the same consortium (we hadn't realised) invited us to the same information evening, which we went to, and we liked the people running it, so out of that consortium, we narrowed it down to that one LA, and they came to our house for an initial visit, where we liked them again, so they were on our 'short' shortlist. However in the end we went with another LA, who at times reacted swiftly and efficiently to our enquires, but at times appeared totally disorganised and chaotic. But we chose them as they have some experience with concurrent planning, which is something we are strongly considering. So although we 'like' them less than the others, we have decided to compromise regarding accepting some avoidable delays and disorganisation, in favour of that experience.
I can't say yet if this was the right decision! But as you asked about the 'science' behind it… ;) if anyone was going to base this choice on 'science', it's us, so there you go :) (tbh I think it is much easier and more efficient to do what your gut tells you)
potato I was insanely excited about that first information evening too! Re: questions to ask, depends on what/how much you know already. Re: what to expect: Ours was quite a large crowd, and apparently all kinds of people; some people who really knew very little about it all, and some who knew lots (purely judging from the questions they asked). During the evening, the two SWs told us lots about the process, and a little bit about the backgrounds and accordingly possible difficulties the children have who are waiting for adoption. They also told us numbers, such as, how many children placed in the last year, average age, sex, things like that. It was mainly just them talking, but occasionally they did some brainstorming-type activities with the crowd. But not really any interacting within the crowd. There was a break with biscuits and tea and coffee. There were information leaflets to take home, and 'Be my parent' and 'Children who wait' lying about to peruse. After the break, a dad who had adopted recently came to speak about his experiences. (IMO that was the best part, as it made it all seem 'real', and I already knew lots of the 'theory'). Afterwards (it was about 3 intense hours in total) the SWs were approachable for additional questions and we were able to arrange a home visit right then and there, so take your diaries! However, to my surprise, hardly anyone actually wanted to keep chatting with the SW, most people left immediately.
inthebeginning, how exciting! Ooohhh I'm keeping everything crossed for you! (and am a teensy bit jealous ;) ) Do let us know when you know more, ok?
italian hmmm it sounds as if there may be something cooking over at the greyhound house as well? Hope it works out!
pru, choccy, everyone: Happy New Year! I have a feeling that 2014 will be good :)
(sorry for epic post. lots of catching up to do!)