We're a legal family! ***Balloons***Streamers*** Just a couple of questions for you lovely people

[Rainatnight]

The judge said yes! Our darling daughter is ours for ever more. I hadn't realised how much this was weighing on me till it wasn't, if you see what I mean.

Two questions...

Who did you invite to your celebration day in court and what did you do afterwards (sorry, I'm sure this has been done a million times.) DP thinks court should/can only be just us, but I think it'd be nice to invite people?

And are social workers allowed to accept presents? We'd really like to get our SW a gift to say thanks for being fab though we won't get anything for DD's SW because we can't afford a personality transplant for her

Congratulations! 💐💐💐💐💐💐

We invited whole family (GPs, aunts, uncles, cousins) so there were about 15 of us in court. Had nice lunch afterwards and a lovely big party the following day with a handful of other friends.

All this means we have great photos to show DC that it was intentional, wanted and we are not an accidental family.

But our LOs are older than yours - they were old enough to enjoy the party/attention.

No idea re presents for SWs.

Congrats again! 💕

Congratulations!!!!
We're not there yet but your post made me smile (especially the last bit about your DD SW!)
We recently went to my friends celebration party, which was at a local village hall and had a DJ and balloon man! Was fab!

Oh many congratulations. We had family , friends , all sw etc. We ended up with 30 odd! We booked a local bistro for food afterwards and treated everyone to thank them for their support. It was lovely !

SW can accept a small gift of low monetary value. So a book, plant, flowers, photos frame etc and a personal card or letter saying how much you have appreciated her support.

Don't give vouchers or alcohol.

Also send a formal letter to SWers manager and copy to the director of the department . They will like that a lot.

And of course congratulations

🍸🍷🥂🍹⭐️🌟💥💫

I have no answers for you. But congratulations

Huge congratulations.

Anyone can go to the celebration event. We went as far a grandparents but I know some people who've done a huge family party. I think a big party to welcome adopted kids is a great idea. We did it at baptism, just because it can then be a weekend.

The time in court is usually very brief and simple. Judge says a few words and you sit in his chair for photos.

Yes SWs can accept gifts. You can also invite them to the court.

we only had grandparents - then went out for lunch...

our adoption party was the day of the christening, big party time for us and wider friends/family.

we bought bouquets of flowers for SW and card

CONGRADULATIONS too you all, had our celebration's a few week's ago, invited direct family had a evening celebration for more family and
friends as well.
Invited SW too celebrations as well.
Again wish you all the best XXX

Many Congratulations!
We haven't got that far yet but hoping it will be soon.
Enjoy your celebration day, however you choose to do it.

We only had GPs present in court.
Then we went out to lunch and to a playground.
Later, a couple of DDs friends came round with cake.

3 months after, we had a celebration barn dance for 100 people.

Just us, me, hubby, birth dd and new adopted son. Our social worker and his scowl worker also attended.

We had our photo taken, went to lunch and painted pots.

We had a big party 6 months later.

Social not scowl!

Congratulations!

We had our parents, DS plus DD's SW and our SW in court. I think the hearings are usually always first thing so we had an early lunch to celebrate.

I think we gave the SW a bunch of flowers each

Congrats!

We had my parents and invited social workers, mine turned up DS' cried off the hour before.

I invited SW to join us for lunch after and paid for her meal and prosecco and put the world to rights for a couple of hours sipping our bubbles and all agreeing how perfect DS is 😁 It was a lovely goodbye and surprisingly emotional as I didn't actually expect to get to the end of all this and like her.... I blame the day time drinking 😂

Thank you everyone, and sorry for the delayed response!

We had an absolutely lovely day earlier this week. In the end, we decided to keep it to just us and our SW at court. My DF hasn't been behaving very well recently, and it didn't feel like the right thing to invite him, so it was more straightforward to have no GPs.

The judge was lovely and said DD was very advanced (!😍). We had our photos, a teddy bear and a certificate. Then the three of of went out for a very fun lunch (SW had to zoom off). Then early that evening we took DD and some close friends, who were all referees, out for dinner and had just the loveliest, most celebratory evening. Felt very lucky, and it was just right for us.

We'll probably do a big party for baptism, which will be a combined adoption/welcome party too.

Thanks so much for all your advice, it really helped to think it through.