Full steam ahead!

The last time we had to wait for news from Boy H’s local authority they got in touch first thing in the morning to say yes. Because of this, we were expecting to get an early response from them (via Miranda). By 2 pm we still hadn’t heard anything, so we were feeling really down and almost convinced ourselves that they’d decided not to go ahead with us after all. We rang Miranda at 2.15 and she said she’d been waiting for their call and heard nothing, but given the time of day she was happy to contact them. She called back 5 minutes later to say that the foster carer and the social workers had had a really positive impression of this second visit and all is going ahead. We were so relieved that we had a little cry after we put the phone down.

Miranda has told us to start preparing photographs for an introduction book and that will include a picture of his room, so we need to get some furniture. The next steps are for Boy H’s social worker to write a placement plan and an adoption support plan, which Miranda will then complete and we will be asked to comment on. After that there will be a planning meeting mid-February, when all the social workers, the foster carers and we will get together and plan the introductions. If all goes to plan we would go to panel in early March and hopefully begin introductions after Easter!

We are over the moon. I can’t find words to describe the feeling (always a little tempered by the fact that we still have the last hurdle of panel looming). All the months of decisions, preparation, approval, and waiting seem completely worth it to get to where we are. We are ecstatic, and we can’t wait for all these things to happen so we can meet him soon. We’ve had phone calls and texts from lots of friends and family all afternoon and are quite overwhelmed by their support and how happy everyone is for us.