Approval Panel

So, today was the day - Approval panel day. It seems to have come round so quickly in the last couple of weeks but we were really prepared for it. After agonising over the little details (what to wear, how early to be etc) we arrived in plenty of time and feeling nervous but ready.

The actual panel was 10 people sat in a horse shoe formation with us sat with our social worker facing them all. I can't remember every being that nervous of that intimidated by a group of people. They did introduce themselves and luckily they have kindly provided name tags in front of themselves to help. Then the questions started. We reckon that is lasted about 25 minutes before we were asked to wait in another room whilst they discussed our references and other confidential information. Our questions were as we expected - our finances, our re-enactment hobby and my experiences from when my parents fostered and I think, based on nerves we answered ok.

It felt like we were waiting for ages - in hindsight only about 20 minutes when our social worker came back with the panel chair and the decision makers advisor (or at least that is who I thought he was) to tell us that the panel was making a positive recommendation.

My heart skipped a beat as it does come with a but. Not a big but however one big enough to have deflated me a little bit. One comment was regarding our re-enactment, more to do with how costumes and mainly weapons are stored and kept safe and away from children so I reckon more detail in our report will cover that without problems. The other set me thinking. It was commented on that the panel thought our finances would be tight if we were to adopt a sibling group so have asked us to reconsider and just take on one at a time. At the end of the day we have we have and we thought we had enough. As did our social worker. I guess we have some more work to.

The next step is to wait for the confirmation of the approval from the adoption agency decision maker in the next 7 - 10 days. Whilst we know it is just a formality it is still another nervous wait.