I have been privileged to have been invited to sit on a panel of adopters and those preparing to adopt through the same adoption agency as part of their focus group which will then feed into their audit. I was really surprised to get the invitation especially as it is just a very small group of people.
Today I attended, it was a small group with very different people who have all adopted children at different ages and with different needs but we shared one thing - the system we went through to get to where we are today. It was refreshing to be able to be positive about the good points, constructively critical of the parts that we not so good and to realise that some of the negative parts were shared by other people and with any luck this audit will mean improvements for others going through the process.
My over riding memory of today will be the auditor. An external contractor but one who shared her story with us. It was so similar to my own until one point. She decided not to go ahead with the adoption assessment half way through. At the of the session she commended us for our dedication to the children and, more privately, she advised me that our story (which she has seem from our files) had really touched her as it started so similar to her own.
I can't end at that as we have had a great return to school, potty training for smallest has been a great success and she has decided that she can manage at night without nappies and so far, so good. Today we have also returned to the hairdressers - the first time I have taken them both at the same time, on my own and they were amazingly behaved. It makes me wonder what else I am putting off because I think I can't cope when actually I can. It reminds me that I need to have more faith in them and myself.
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