Wow, my pageviews have zoomed up! How exciting! Hi to everyone reading the blog, and major apologies that my updating has been quite frankly terrible...I will try to rectify that!
So, last time I updated we were about to go on the information evening. We got a LOT of information.
It was run by the local council - as that's who were going through for our adoption - and it's pretty obvious that it's a very different procedure from going through a "private" adoption. Firstly, they were very clear that the kids they place are not given up voluntarily. The kids that come through the council are ones that have had to be removed from their homes due to the parents being unfit. This means that the child automatically comes with a whole load of emotional and mental baggage.
A couple spoke for about 45 minutes on their experiences of adoption, right from the point they decided to go through with the process up until the adoption itself. I knew it was going to be along process, but MY GOD it's a long process...allow me to outline...
- Go to an information evening. Get a whoooole load of information. Express your interest in adopting.
- Get yourself some experience with young children, if you haven't already. This involves volunteering at a children's centre or school, and having children of friends come and stay in your house.
- Have some more conversations with the social worker. Get invited onto the preparation course.
- Attend the three-day preparation course. Apparently, this is an extremely challenging course as it looks at your views on parenting and your own upbringing as well as a whole load of other stuff.
- Be approved to start putting your portfolio together. This includes details of everywhere you've lived, references, personal testimonies, your criminal records checks, your home visits, references from employers, interviews with family members and a reference for your pets.
- Once all that's done, it goes to the adoption panel. They sit and look through your portfolio, and then they interview you. If all goes to plan, then PING! Now you can adopt!
- Then, you wait. And wait. And wait. Your social worker will be looking for children to place with you. Once they find one they think might work, they ask you about it. If you think it might work, the child's social worker contacts you.
- If both social workers and you agree that this would be a good placement, you can start the process. You can meet the foster parent, if appropriate. You can meet the teachers and the social worker. But you can't meet the child. Not yet.
- Back to the adoption panel. If you're lucky, panel says go.
- Now, you can meet the child. First for just a few hours - going round for dinner - then for half a day - going to the zoo - then for a sleepover. The idea is that each time you meet the child you take some of their stuff back to your house. That way by the time the child actually comes to live there, everything is already there and set up. There's no big "moving day".
- Child moves in. And you try it. At this point the child is partially under your care but also still under the care of the state. After ten weeks you can apply for an adoption order.
- Back to the adoption panel. They grant the order. Job done.
Exhausting. Just typing it is exhausting. But first thing's first. J and I need some more child care experience. I work with young people, but they're all of secondary school age. However, there are plenty of Children's Centres around, and we can volunteer there. So that's a start. The first preparation course is in October, but there's no way athat J and I are going to be ready for that in time. Apparently the next one is in May, so that's our aim.
And so it begins.
Coming up on the blog: book reviews!!
So, last time I updated we were about to go on the information evening. We got a LOT of information.
It was run by the local council - as that's who were going through for our adoption - and it's pretty obvious that it's a very different procedure from going through a "private" adoption. Firstly, they were very clear that the kids they place are not given up voluntarily. The kids that come through the council are ones that have had to be removed from their homes due to the parents being unfit. This means that the child automatically comes with a whole load of emotional and mental baggage.
A couple spoke for about 45 minutes on their experiences of adoption, right from the point they decided to go through with the process up until the adoption itself. I knew it was going to be along process, but MY GOD it's a long process...allow me to outline...
- Go to an information evening. Get a whoooole load of information. Express your interest in adopting.
- Get yourself some experience with young children, if you haven't already. This involves volunteering at a children's centre or school, and having children of friends come and stay in your house.
- Have some more conversations with the social worker. Get invited onto the preparation course.
- Attend the three-day preparation course. Apparently, this is an extremely challenging course as it looks at your views on parenting and your own upbringing as well as a whole load of other stuff.
- Be approved to start putting your portfolio together. This includes details of everywhere you've lived, references, personal testimonies, your criminal records checks, your home visits, references from employers, interviews with family members and a reference for your pets.
- Once all that's done, it goes to the adoption panel. They sit and look through your portfolio, and then they interview you. If all goes to plan, then PING! Now you can adopt!
- Then, you wait. And wait. And wait. Your social worker will be looking for children to place with you. Once they find one they think might work, they ask you about it. If you think it might work, the child's social worker contacts you.
- If both social workers and you agree that this would be a good placement, you can start the process. You can meet the foster parent, if appropriate. You can meet the teachers and the social worker. But you can't meet the child. Not yet.
- Back to the adoption panel. If you're lucky, panel says go.
- Now, you can meet the child. First for just a few hours - going round for dinner - then for half a day - going to the zoo - then for a sleepover. The idea is that each time you meet the child you take some of their stuff back to your house. That way by the time the child actually comes to live there, everything is already there and set up. There's no big "moving day".
- Child moves in. And you try it. At this point the child is partially under your care but also still under the care of the state. After ten weeks you can apply for an adoption order.
- Back to the adoption panel. They grant the order. Job done.
Exhausting. Just typing it is exhausting. But first thing's first. J and I need some more child care experience. I work with young people, but they're all of secondary school age. However, there are plenty of Children's Centres around, and we can volunteer there. So that's a start. The first preparation course is in October, but there's no way athat J and I are going to be ready for that in time. Apparently the next one is in May, so that's our aim.
And so it begins.
Coming up on the blog: book reviews!!
