Hi! Sorry I’ve been AWOL, it’s just been an insanely hectic week! I completed my stage 1 training and I was offered a new job - hurrah!
The job is just another role at my current employer, but it’s something I really wanted/needed (too long to get into why). Essentially I’ve been interviewing and stressing about it for weeks, so it’s a HUGE relief (still waiting for final approval on the offer though, so fingers crossed for avoiding last minute wrinkles).
Exercise - how frustrating! I’m relieved to hear they don’t anticipate any problems with the match, but you must be disappointed that the timeline has been extended. Extra time for those last few childfree 🍷 at least! Why exactly did they suggest informal meetings? Is that typical? I thought there wasn’t any contact with the child pre intros (i.e. post matching panel) unless you met at an Open Day? Is this a new policy?
Flowers - that sounds exciting! Good luck to you! I must confess I’m very intrigued, what does it take to get fasttracked?! I’ve been in Stage 1 since March and I’m only starting Stage 2 this week. (My LA have carefully manipulated the paperwork to make it seem like they’ve completed everything in 2 months though 🙄). How are you finding the process so far? Any wobbles?
The Stage 1 training course I attended was as depressing as expected. I’m trying to take it all in and really listen though, which meant I had a bit of a wobble afterwards. Between looking after DD, working full-time, and going through the last stages of getting a new role, I had a few moments of “argh how would I do this with a potentially high-needs second child?!”. Just yesterday I heard another casual mention of an adoption that was going really well though, which was heartening.
I feel as though if I was having another BC I would expect it to be incredibly difficult, but I would be confident I could handle it. With adoption there’s a huge focus on potential additional needs, but no real stats on how frequently they occur. As a person who (sadly) isn’t in a position to take on a child already identified as having higher needs, does that mean the first year will be roughly as difficult as looking after a newborn (not exactly a walk in the park!) or harder?! Of course I get that the answer is specific to the child you match with, but there’s just so much negativity around the adoption process, and so few people (who are actually part of the process) saying anything positive.
Anyway, I’ll keep going for now. I’m desperately hoping one day I’ll look back on this process and just think it was all a psychological test, and that adopting is just as hard as all the other means of expanding your family, but not the forgotten 13th labour of hercules!