Sunday, 11 January 2009

First visit of 2009

Well, Sally (our social worker) came round on Tuesday night. We weren't able to print off our "homework" as our printer's on the blink, but basically we'd written out a description of each other's personality (without consulting with each other) and also written a pen picture of our ideal adopted children.
We weren't able to give these to Sally but arranged to email them to her.
We still need to get hold of copies of both our birth certificates, and we also had to provide our driving license numbers. Dan gave his but I haven't seen my driving license for years - will need to get that sorted!
We talked about our lifestyle - diet and fitness really. I explained I am a vegetarian and Dan explained he isn't. Sally asked if our children would be vegetarian and I stated no, I wouldn't make that choice for them, they would have meat and veggie meals, then be able to choose for themselves in later life whether or not they wanted to continue to eat meat.
We explained we're both very health-minded, ie, we go to a personal trainer once a week and also like to keep active and go for long walks and bike rides too in the summer.
Sally has had nearly all of our references back now - the one from my ex-husband and the one for one of my ex-boyfriends. She wouldn't tell me what they said but she said they were fine, no problems. She's also had back the other 7 references - there are two outstanding - one from my boss Ashley and one from Natalie - the mother of my ex-Stepchildren, Destini and Camio. I know Ashley posted his before Christmas so it must have gone astray. I hope he's kept a copy! Natalie had told me she couldn't find her forms - she'd put them in a safe place and forgotten where that was, so Sally will send her out another set.
I still have to track down one of my ex-boyfriends, Destini and Camio's Dad, Paul. Natalie doesn't know where he is since he doesn't see Destini and Camio anymore and I've tried looking on the internet but there are lots of people with the same name. However, Sally's told us it's our responsibility to get an address for him so we will need to find another way - I could perhaps contact Paul's sisters and explain and ask for his address?
Sally informed us the next session would be just me on my own. They do a session with each of us on our own, I guess in case there are things we don't want to discuss in front of each other, although there is nothing Dan doesn't know about me. They also may want to ensure we are both equally committed to the adoption, and it isn't one person persuading the other. So I have a visit on my own on 26th January, then Dan has a visit on his own a few weeks after that.

2 comments:

  1. What an exhausting and detailed process. I never knew it was quite like that although I completely understand why. What happens if an ex-partner is simply untraceable or doesn't co-operate?
    Good luck for the 26th!
    Mx

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