Next visit

Well we've had a really rough couple of weeks. My auntie died from Alzheimers on Sunday 18th January ,then my Dad was rushed to hospital on Friday 23rd January after he collapsed at home. Thankfully he's fine, but still in hospital.

I saw Sally on my own today. It is one of the rules that she sees both Dan and I on our own for a session. We hadn't been able to print out our homework due to recent events, but I was able to tell Sally I would email it on to her, which I've now done. I'd been able to get hold of my birth certificate - Andover were great, I just rang and asked for it and paid and they sent to me. For Dan to get hold of his, because it was registered in Salisbury, he has to write a letter with various details and send a cheque and an SAE, so we don't have his back yet.

I've managed to track down the address of the final ex-boyfriend. I emailed his sister through FAcebook and she rang him and explained and he was happy to give me the address, so I've emailed that through to Sally.

So, today what did we talk about? We started by Sally asking me to explain how Dan and I got together. So I explained we met a couple of years before we got together then finally got together when we were "set up" by mutual friends. We talked through how our relationship had developed then Sally asked me to describe the dynamics of our relationship. She explained how the dynamics would change once we had our adopted children, and that we should be prepared for that - which we are.

She said we would probably argue more once we have the children, as we may disagree on different issues eg, discipline. I had to describe what difficulties we thought we may face and describe how we would deal with this.

Sally explained we should feel free to contact Social Services for help at any stage once the children have been placed with us, even if it's 10 years later! This is good to know.

We talked about timings - well I asked - and apparantly we are just over halfway through our home study. Sally still hopes to take us to panel for approval in the summer, then once we're approved it's just a matter of waiting for suitable/matched children.

Sally explained she's got no concerns over our energy levels so would be happy to recommend children as young as possible - which is great! We had specified two children under 4, but she said it could even be an 18 month year old and a newborn - even better!

It's getting really exciting now and I just want to move it along and really get things underway.

The next visit is Dan on his own two weeks tomorrow.