start of prep course

Today we started prep course, which has made it a busy week as I had my individual homestudy appointment yesterday as well. I will start with that one first. We went into my childhood in a lot of detail; talking about my earliest memories, what sort of parents had mum & dad been, what sort of things they did with me and my sisters. We talked about how that has influenced the adult I am today and what impact some of the losses in my life had had. It got quite emotional at times, but apparently that is a good thing, becuase it shows that you can let your emotions out, rather than hold them in, which could be quite damaging if, when a child is placed with you you start to internalise the emotions they bring out in you.

The 1st day of prep course today was starting to learn about the issues that affect the adopted child. We covered attachment theory, family dynamics, child development stages and the highlight of the day was when an adoptive mum came in to talk about her experience of the adoption journey. This was particularly useful for Flash - he said that taught him more than the rest of the day put together. We have both come away buzzing with ideas, thoughts, fears, emotions - you name it I think we have felt it today. So we rounded off the day with a bit of retail therapy to calm us down, of course in the toy department of our local big store. Whether it was as a result of today I don't know but I think our nieces and nephews are going to find that Santa has been very generous this year!!

Between this post and the last we have also been busy with our 'homework'. we have now done our family tree and I have done my individual career and education histories, and my family networks as a child. Not that it stops there. We now also have homework from prep group, all of which goes toward the prospective adopters report (PAR).

The other adopters on our prep course are fantastic people, all with different backgrounds and reasons for wanting to adopt, and yet we all felt like we recognised each other from somewhere. I actually think we recognise the same place in each other, something in the background that binds us together on this journey towards parenthood, but who knows? We are all looking forward to next week!

So the packers lost last weekend, but then so did Flash and Flip's teams so we commiserated together! Tonight we are staying in out of the rain and tomorrow will be a day in the garden followed by an evening with fireworks. At least this year I have convinced flash that we don't need to do our own, so it's off to an organised display in big wellies and woolly hats!

TTFN!