It's amazing how quickly things can develop after such a long period of, well, nothing really.
Prior to our Approvel Panel we'd been to Northamptonshire's (excellent) Parents for Children evening and identified a child there that we thought would be a potential match. We mentioned this child to our social worker and forgot all about it, focussing on panel.
Two days after approval he called to say that he's spoken to said child's social worker and they'd agreed that we should all meet at our place. A date was arranged and the meeting took place. We had a good old chat, asked a load of questions, did the 'Through The Keyhole' tour of the house and generally had a good time.
We were left with a (slightly outdated - 2009) version of the child's permanance report and, of course, the moment everyone left we had 101 questions that we'd forgotten to ask, this being the first child we've ever discussed in detail. Our social worker said he'd call in a few days to get some feedback and we'd take it from there.
That call came two hours after they left our house and he asked what we thought. We said we'd call back in a few days once we've had some time to absorb the info etc. We had that chat and raised a few questions and concerns over a number of issues. The child's social worker called back and most of the issues were resolved with newer information than that contained in the report.
Since then we've seen three DVDs of the child at six monthly intervals since removal. That's an amazingly strong tool to help you get a true picture of what the child's like.
The child's social worker suggested we should contact all three of our local schools and suggested one in particular that she knew was similar to the child's current school in terms of structure and size.
We're meeting his foster carers next Wednesday to discuss him in more detail and to get a real overview of his issues. Meanwhile (thank you, lord) we've been told that they have friends who are a gay male couple and they are regular visitors to the home. The child seems to be very comfortable with them and the concept is being introduced to conversations more and more within the home.
We've got school visits next week. We both discussed this at length, including with our respective parents to get their input. Everyone seems very positive. We've decided that, pending the outcome of next week's meeting we will agree to proceed to Matching Panel.
Everything seems right about this child. He's at the upper end of our desired age range, 7 years old, but having reflected on this a lot it feels appropriate to us and our situation.
So, looks like we're going to be parents before we're 40 after all. Who'd have thought.
We'll post again after next week's meetings. It's all getting a bit scary now.
M&M (not Eminem!)
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