quiet

A quiet week adoption-wise but a week of hell work-wise. So much marking and the 28th was the deadline to get it all done. Not helped by the colleague who double marks my stuff not sticking to the deadlines we had agreed 6 weeks ago and so Thursday and Friday were manic days sorting out admin till late. Ah well. I have finished my blanket. I decided to make it child-sized on purpose so here it is:

And this is a close up of the edging I designed for it:

All we need is a finished bedroom to put it in. The bedroom is nearly finished; it is at the stage of nearly being ready to decorate and carpet, just being held up as my BIL builder is off to a family wedding in Ireland over half term and has had a big contract to work on during the week that has kept him away for several weekends. But he's getting there.

Had a wonderful evening last weekend with Minnie and Micky, catching up on all things adoption. The weather was great, the BBQ was great, and even if it did resemble an inferno at times, it meant that the cooking temp kept going till very late!!

a few profiles

This week we have received three profiles from Bonnie that she picked up at a consortium meeting and we asked for information on one child we saw in BMP. She has requested the full report of the child we found. The other one we are waiting for info on she has not mentioned. Of the other three sent through, 2 look ok but don't 'tug' at me like the BMP child does.

We did have some positive news though. Of all the children we have looked at, we have missed out because they have been placed within their local consortia, and actually, bonnie has been getting some favourable feedback regarding our profile. We did get another profile of a child sent through on the basis of ours, but Bonnie had misgivings and so did we when we saw it. Nothing absolute, just an undefinable feeling that the child was not right for us.

This weekend we are meeting up with Mickey and Minnie for a meal and a catch up, hopefully with Donald and Daisy, another couple from prep group who were approved about 6 weeks before we were and who are already linked. It will be great to catch up on their experience of the post approval/pre-matching process.

Am loving the sun but not the fact that I am not seeing any of it due to my marking workload. Most of it is online so I can't take the computer outside as I can't see the screen. Would be made a more pleasant process had the quality of the work been better, but hey ho - some years you get good students and other years you don't.

a little update on our enquiries

Bear with me as I try to get this right. A - still no news. B is matched and C is linked with someone locally, all as we were expecting. D we have heard nothing back about yet but our profile has been sent to the SW. We have asked for details of E and our profile has been sent. We also today asked for details on F and G. Because the limits we have set ourselves and our family finding I think this is pretty good for the first month post approval. Enough to keep us busy but not too much to be overwhelming. Of course the narcissistic/neurotic/paranoid side of me wants to know whether the SWs like our profile or if it is being binned with nary a thought. I am sure we will get some info back on that soon though and it will be one of the questions that we will ask Bonnie in due course.

Had a lovely day out with my sister on Saturday. At first it was just going to be a visit to Costco, but she had an appointment with the fashion advisor at a large store to try to find an outfit for a family wedding. Well, having sat in on the experience of someone else running around the shop finding outfits for you rather than trawling through yourself I think I might have to give it a try. I am beginning to think that a lot of my work clothes are looking tatty so do need to go get some more, but as I hate loath and detest trawling round shops i think i might have found the solution!

dum de dum de dum

Lots of people told me that the first couple of weeks post approval might be a bit anticlimactic and they were right. We are now approved, we have the decision maker's letter confirming the panel recommendation and have put out feelers to a few social workers as per previous post. And nothing else. Is happening. Don't get me wrong, we are in no hurry to take in the first child we are offered, but it is a very strange feeling. No visits with Bonnie on a regular basis. No having to get the house clean and tidy on a regular basis (not that I can get it clean with all the building dust at the mo). And the feeling that all this learning we have done about child development and attachment and trauma etc will slip such that when a child is matched we will have forgotten it all! And the questions have changed from - 'when are you approved' to 'have they found you a child yet'. I am quite glad it is assessment season as the piles of marking are keeping me very busy. talking of which, 24 x 3000word essays await my critical and objective attention!