Could you help me with a gift idea please?

[SandunesAndRainclouds]

Someone very dear to me has just recently gone through to stage 2 of the adoption journey.

I’d love to get the parents-to-be a gift, and something for the new arrival too. I want to show them how proud we are of them and something for the new baby / child to have to show we were excited about their arrival too.

Any ideas of gifts that would’ve been meaningful and useful would be fab, thank you!

Whilst its lovely that you are excited for them and kind of you to think about presents, to be honest I would wait.

Stage 2 is still very early in the process, it could take the rest of the year. Family finding and matching could take many months. You, and they, have no idea yet whether this child is a boy or girl, how old, any disabilties or medical issues, maybe it will be siblings.
At this stage I think I would have been a bit puzzled to get presents for a child that didnt exist yet. If a friend told you that they were trying to get pregnant would you be buying presents before an actual birth?
I think what I appreciated most at this point were friends who were supportive, who let me sound off when it got stressful, left me alone when I needed to be left, and didnt overwhelm me with questions about how it was going.
You sound like a lovely friend or relative, I'm sure you will be a great support. But I'd probably leave it as no more than a bunch of flowers and a bottle of wine for now. Save the presents for when there is an actual child

It’s a lovely thought OP. Ted is right that the journey may take more months (though things move super fast in my area where everyone now seems to matched almost straight after stage 2). However, I think a gift is a lovely idea. You could buy them a lovely memory book which they can use once a child arrives. Not on the high street has some lovely ones or you could go for something like this www.amazon.co.uk/My-Family-Journey-Adoptive-Families/dp/0811857379/ref=nodl_?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Someone gave us something like this after approval panel and we loved it.

Thank you for the advice.

I must’ve misunderstood about the time frame so I’ll hold off for now and maybe have a few things in mind for nearer the time.

Your friends may well ask you not to buy anything depending on the age of the child and circumstances they are matched with. The local authority we adopted through runs a course for friends and family to help them better understand the process and issues around modern adoption. Our LO was a year old when they came home, they were scared and overwhelmed in spite of the introduction process. Moving in with us meant loosing their home and everyone they knew and enthusiastic and well meaning visits with friends and family would've made them feel worse.

I must’ve misunderstood about the time frame so I’ll hold off for now

It's very variable- there could be a child lined up now and they might be placed within weeks, or they might be looking for a long time.

Our friends organised a baby shower with all our family and friends, once our match had been approved. It was probably the nicest thing anyone has ever done for us.

I’ve decided - a lunch out for the two of us where there’s time and space to talk about everything and anything and not necessarily adoption. If it comes up I’ll be able to be sure of timeframe etc.

That sounds perfect !

When the time comes, I'd recommend something for the mum, or for them as a couple. I think going through the adoption process, you miss out on all the 'ooh, you must take care of yourself, have you thought about a massage?' stuff that goes with pregnancy. You have a gruelling time of it in other ways - just look at some of the threads on here about matching, approval, panels etc - but friends and family don't massively seem to get that, IMHO. Best present we got was a bottle of champagne for us. (I MASSIVELY appreciated all the lovely gifts we got for DC, too, of course. I'm just in favour of a bit of balance in the circs!)

Great idea OP.