Newbie Here

[R8SKA]

Morning :)

Serial lurker here. Finally after almost 3 years we are heading to matching panel. Waiting the confirmed date!

Can’t thank you all enough for your stories, wisdom and advice, it’s been a huge help the whole time as there’s not much of a resource for us (both M32) in Scotland.

Trying to contain the excitement, will keep you posted :)

Ah congrats guys! Two males here too, but yorkshire based

Best news of the day! Congratulations to you both. Please keep us in the loop.

congratulations!!! Good luck at matching panel and beyond!! 🤗

Thanks everyone, our SW is coming Friday to give us the draft timescales/dates etc so fingers crossed!

looking forward to finally meeting the boys (3y & 2y 6m)

how does anyone manage to get anything done? I’m actively seeking trips away with work right now to make the time go faster 😂

Thats so exciting for you, we took on two too so its such an exciting time!

we found transitions hard, two weeks of almost living in a strangers house it felt like!

id just recommend getting everything done in your house now, with two of em you get double the stuff!

Congratulations. I had two at the same time, but a bit older than yours. Expect the early days, weeks, months to feel chaotic, it’ll take a while to adjust and two are both double the fun and double trouble. Enjoy this time looking forward and planning.

Congratulations. We are coming up to 20 years having also adopted siblings.
The first 3 months was a whirlwind but we settled after that. The oldest has flown the nest but the younger one still needs a fair bit of parenting.

Congratulations, hope all goes smoothly.

Good luck! We are in stage 2 assessment currently, do you mind if I ask what led to it being 3 years to this point ?

I know you didn't ask me, but our timescales were approx:
9 months from training course to approval panel
15 months approval panel to identifying our DC
3 more months to the formal matching
1 month to start introductions
1 month of introductions

Now this was some time ago and I know things have changed.
The length of the finding children part is just luck. We were approached about some the month of our approval panel, then we had 3 other 'near misses' over the 15 months.

Thanks everyone, panel date set for the end of May. A wee bit longer than I was expecting but exciting nonetheless. Little ones should be with us end of July assuming all goes to plan 😌

Our process was delayed from the onset sadly, once it got going it was quick enough.

Initial phone call to the LA took place in around March 2023 and it took nearly 9 months for them to send out the paperwork for the official application.

After application was in it took around 6 months before we were assigned a SW and then a further 3 months before we got a place at prep group so it was almost September 2024 before we even started the home study, visits every 2 weeks and then the inevitable festive holiday period.

LA lost our medicals, then found them which meant we missed our original October 2025 panel date, then we went to panel November 2025.

ADM took until the end of January to ratify the panel decision, so almost 8 weeks. And less than a month later we were approached about the boys.

Its been a long and somewhat stressful process but our SW is lovely, we get on really well and she was as annoyed at the delays as we were!

Thats so exciting and nice you have a bit of breathing space after panel. We had our panel in mid April then transitions started 1st May

we had had three bump intos by then which was nice but from now our agency has stopped doing them until after panel which is a shame

Congratulations, that is super exciting for you both! It seems to have been a long journey for you but the light is in sight!

what LA are you in? My partner (35M) and I (36M) have our panel in June, getting very real and exciting (plus nerve wracking) now.

Exciting for you too! Which panel are you guys going to?

We’re in Ayrshire :)