We have amended and updated our A4 profile and sent it out to seven social workers; we got a reply almost straight away from one of them and they are interested in us! Early days still but at least some movement in the right direction! We feel much more in control now.
Our social worker is on holiday so we are dealing with a two-week enforced break.
We have had various contacts and swapped paperwork on three groups of children, with another one in the pipeline. Again, more movement, albeit sloooooooow!
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Monday, 28 September 2009
22-Sep to 28-Sep
Family finding:
Today (22nd) we received a phone call from our social worker about a sibling group of two that we had identified in one of the publications when Mary was being all proactive! They are interested in swapping paperwork , so our social worker did that on the day. She also asked us if we would be interested in a 9, 6 and 5 year old sibling group, so we said no as they are too old.
Home and cars:
No updates.
Studying:
Mary's courses: Childcare, Learning and Development, NVQ Level 3 - half way through number 6 (of 10). Nutrition and Health of School Aged Children, NVQ Level 2 - sat exam on 16th September, awaiting result. Mungo's courses: M255 (Java Programming) – awaiting the results of the fourth and final assignment; exam date is 14th October. MT264 (Designing Applications With Visual Basic) – course starts 3rd October.
Today (22nd) we received a phone call from our social worker about a sibling group of two that we had identified in one of the publications when Mary was being all proactive! They are interested in swapping paperwork , so our social worker did that on the day. She also asked us if we would be interested in a 9, 6 and 5 year old sibling group, so we said no as they are too old.
Home and cars:
No updates.
Studying:
Mary's courses: Childcare, Learning and Development, NVQ Level 3 - half way through number 6 (of 10). Nutrition and Health of School Aged Children, NVQ Level 2 - sat exam on 16th September, awaiting result. Mungo's courses: M255 (Java Programming) – awaiting the results of the fourth and final assignment; exam date is 14th October. MT264 (Designing Applications With Visual Basic) – course starts 3rd October.
Monday, 21 September 2009
15-Sep to 21-Sep
Family finding:
We are awaiting our social worker to return from holiday to advise us if there has been any movement on four possibilities we are looking at. Mary was almost in the papers and on TV in the last couple of days following requests for people who are adopting. The newspaper reporter didn't ring back and the TV people decided to go with someone who had already adopted. Oh well, maybe another day; it was very exciting at the time though!
Tuesday PM: Last night I had a bit of a wobbler. Three things happened that made me get upset and made me feel like the universe was rubbing my face in it for being childless. 1). After the excitement I had with nearly being famous yesterday, I spent the afternoon thinking that it was flaming typical that a family with children was being chosen over someone without childen. It's hard enough being at the bottom of the 'child pile', but to be turned down for being childless wasn't really very helpful of the TV people, they didn't think that one through. 2). I gave away a book I had been given by my nephews when they were really little. It's called, "Pregnancy, Conception and Childbirth." My sister bought it for me when we were trying to conceive. I had tried to give it away on Freecycle a year ir two before but no-one would take it. This time someone did, and when they came to pick it up they asked me if it had been useful. I found myself lying and saying how great it had been. I couldn't tell her the truth. 3). A few minutes later I found myself dealing with this: I bought something from eBay on 30th August and it hasn't arrived yet, so after repeated attempts to email and phone the seller, I started a case on their resolution centre. Never having done that before, I was nervous that I hadn't given them ample opportunity to respond so I gave them one last call. Lo and behold, they answered. They were not very forthcoming and kept making excuses about it never happening before, etc. Then they said they would ring the Post Office and call me back first thing (which they never did!). As her last remark, she said it had been very hectic because she was due to have a baby in a couple of weeks - red rag to a bull. It was all I could do to stop myself shouting something nasty down the phone at her. I won't type what I was thinking, but I guess anyone in a similar position to me knows darn well what it was! I did't realise being pregnant was on the list of reasons that ebay provides for non-delivery of items. Hmmm... So poor old Mungo got the brunt of it when he got home. I started off by saying I was feeling a bit uneasy, a bit jumpy and when I started to talk I just grabbed him and started crying into his chest. It doesn't help with it being a particular time in the month, so to speak (which always gets me upset) and I have got an exam tomorrow, so it's all got a bit too much for me.
Home and cars:
No updates.
Studying:
Mary's courses: Childcare, Learning and Development, NVQ Level 3 - half way through number 6 (of 10). Nutrition and Health of School Aged Children, NVQ Level 2 - finished studying and half way through revision - exam date is 16th September - tomorrow!! Mungo's courses: M255 (Java Programming) – awaiting the results of the fourth and final assignment; exam date is 14th October. MT264 (Designing Applications With Visual Basic) – course starts 3rd October.
We are awaiting our social worker to return from holiday to advise us if there has been any movement on four possibilities we are looking at. Mary was almost in the papers and on TV in the last couple of days following requests for people who are adopting. The newspaper reporter didn't ring back and the TV people decided to go with someone who had already adopted. Oh well, maybe another day; it was very exciting at the time though!
Tuesday PM: Last night I had a bit of a wobbler. Three things happened that made me get upset and made me feel like the universe was rubbing my face in it for being childless. 1). After the excitement I had with nearly being famous yesterday, I spent the afternoon thinking that it was flaming typical that a family with children was being chosen over someone without childen. It's hard enough being at the bottom of the 'child pile', but to be turned down for being childless wasn't really very helpful of the TV people, they didn't think that one through. 2). I gave away a book I had been given by my nephews when they were really little. It's called, "Pregnancy, Conception and Childbirth." My sister bought it for me when we were trying to conceive. I had tried to give it away on Freecycle a year ir two before but no-one would take it. This time someone did, and when they came to pick it up they asked me if it had been useful. I found myself lying and saying how great it had been. I couldn't tell her the truth. 3). A few minutes later I found myself dealing with this: I bought something from eBay on 30th August and it hasn't arrived yet, so after repeated attempts to email and phone the seller, I started a case on their resolution centre. Never having done that before, I was nervous that I hadn't given them ample opportunity to respond so I gave them one last call. Lo and behold, they answered. They were not very forthcoming and kept making excuses about it never happening before, etc. Then they said they would ring the Post Office and call me back first thing (which they never did!). As her last remark, she said it had been very hectic because she was due to have a baby in a couple of weeks - red rag to a bull. It was all I could do to stop myself shouting something nasty down the phone at her. I won't type what I was thinking, but I guess anyone in a similar position to me knows darn well what it was! I did't realise being pregnant was on the list of reasons that ebay provides for non-delivery of items. Hmmm... So poor old Mungo got the brunt of it when he got home. I started off by saying I was feeling a bit uneasy, a bit jumpy and when I started to talk I just grabbed him and started crying into his chest. It doesn't help with it being a particular time in the month, so to speak (which always gets me upset) and I have got an exam tomorrow, so it's all got a bit too much for me.
Home and cars:
No updates.
Studying:
Mary's courses: Childcare, Learning and Development, NVQ Level 3 - half way through number 6 (of 10). Nutrition and Health of School Aged Children, NVQ Level 2 - finished studying and half way through revision - exam date is 16th September - tomorrow!! Mungo's courses: M255 (Java Programming) – awaiting the results of the fourth and final assignment; exam date is 14th October. MT264 (Designing Applications With Visual Basic) – course starts 3rd October.
Monday, 14 September 2009
08-Sep to 14-Sep
Family finding:
We have amended and updated our A4 profile and sent it out to seven social workers. We had one reply stating that the children have already been linked but he will keep our paperwork. Rang the second social worker, who advised that they are no longer taking enquiries for these children at this point. Two further emails were opened and we got a reply almost straight away from one of them and they are interested in us! Two social workers are on holiday and one email hasn't yet been opened. Early days still but at least some movement in the right direction! We feel much more in control now.
Wednesday: We had a phone call from our social worker, who advises that she has heard from one of the social workers that we hadn't (the one who had opened the email but not responded back to us) and they have swapped paperwork. She has also had some information from the social worker who contacted us, but it's not on the standard template, so she has asked that it be re-sent. She has asked us not to do any more family finding (like that is going to happen!) as she has those two links she is working on; also, she is going on annual leave for two weeks. So the process grinds to a halt again, it's one hold-up after another, we are always waiting for someone else to do something.
Thursday: We spotted a sibling group of three that were just published in the online version of the publication that we have just subscribed to, so I have sent them our profile.
Home and cars:
The cleaner has finished all the spring cleaning in two 3-hour sessions!
Studying:
Mary's courses: Childcare, Learning and Development, NVQ Level 3 - half way through number 6 (of 10). Nutrition and Health of School Aged Children, NVQ Level 2 - exam date is 16th September, half way through the coursework. Mungo's courses: M255 (Java Programming) – awaiting the results of the fourth and final assignment; exam date is 14th October. MT264 (Designing Applications With Visual Basic) – course starts 3rd October.
We have amended and updated our A4 profile and sent it out to seven social workers. We had one reply stating that the children have already been linked but he will keep our paperwork. Rang the second social worker, who advised that they are no longer taking enquiries for these children at this point. Two further emails were opened and we got a reply almost straight away from one of them and they are interested in us! Two social workers are on holiday and one email hasn't yet been opened. Early days still but at least some movement in the right direction! We feel much more in control now.
Wednesday: We had a phone call from our social worker, who advises that she has heard from one of the social workers that we hadn't (the one who had opened the email but not responded back to us) and they have swapped paperwork. She has also had some information from the social worker who contacted us, but it's not on the standard template, so she has asked that it be re-sent. She has asked us not to do any more family finding (like that is going to happen!) as she has those two links she is working on; also, she is going on annual leave for two weeks. So the process grinds to a halt again, it's one hold-up after another, we are always waiting for someone else to do something.
Thursday: We spotted a sibling group of three that were just published in the online version of the publication that we have just subscribed to, so I have sent them our profile.
Home and cars:
The cleaner has finished all the spring cleaning in two 3-hour sessions!
Studying:
Mary's courses: Childcare, Learning and Development, NVQ Level 3 - half way through number 6 (of 10). Nutrition and Health of School Aged Children, NVQ Level 2 - exam date is 16th September, half way through the coursework. Mungo's courses: M255 (Java Programming) – awaiting the results of the fourth and final assignment; exam date is 14th October. MT264 (Designing Applications With Visual Basic) – course starts 3rd October.
Monday, 7 September 2009
01-Sep to 07-Sep
Family finding:
Our annual review was last week. We are waiting for a copy of the profile they send out, to add a couple of up to date photos and jazz it up a bit. Also we will have a copy too so that we are all sending out the same info (we currently don’t send one out). We are booked on an exchange day in October and are on the distribution list for one in December. Our social worker has 3 leads she is working on at the moment and will contact us in a couple of weeks to discuss any potentials. We have identified some potentials in the last magazine and have sent the information through to her.
Tuesday PM: We have received the profile that the social workers sent out and it is wrong! It is an old version we have updated and sent back to them, it has our ages, house size and some other details wrong! Also the photo we sent has been faded out so much it looks awful. We are so glad we are able to refresh it! We have amended and updated it and sent it back. Let's hope it works! Our social worker advised that the three leads she is working on have gone quiet so she is happy for us to contact the social workers direct from those potentials we had identified. So we have sent the new profile out to two social workers (Z from 'W' - group of 3 and L from 'N' - group of 3).
Wednesday: One of the social workers - Z from 'W' (group of 3) - has replied already this morning! The children have already been linked but he will keep our paperwork. This is great because it is unheard of to have contact from a social worker if they are not interested in you for those specific children. Encouraging, but still early days.
Friday: Rang L from 'N' (group of 3), she is on leave until next Wednesday so spoke with the duty social worker. She advised that they are no longer taking enquiries for these children at this point. This means they have some possibles in mind. Back to square one as both we and our social worker have no active potential links. Mary is looking at the online version of the magazine that we get, so see if we can identify children sooner. Not all of the entries in the magazine are online, so we will continue to receive those. We have also just signed up for the other publication from BAAF, too and for their online version too.
Saturday: Received the latest AUK publication and identified some potentials. Sent out emails to five sets of social workers. Yes five! Each of these sibling groups tick all of our boxes so to speak. It's not until you read their profiles and then the full paperwork - their CPRs - that you know if they are the right ones for you. Out of these five we might expect to hear from one or maybe two social workers, if we are lucky. Out of those two, only one group might be children we would consider going onto the next stage with. Of that one, there is a one in four chance that their social workers might be interested in us - based on our previous experience. And that one might fall through for many, many reasons. Even if we do end up being matched there is a one in five chance that the match will be disrupted within the first 6 months of them living with us. Talk about the odds being stacked against us! Waiting patiently until Monday so see if any of our emails will be opened.
Monday: Two of our emails were opened! And we got a reply almost straight away from one of them! And they are interested in us! Quote: "I was very impressed by your profile and experiences with children and would love to share more information with you about the children." Sooo, out of three emails read so far, we have had two responses and one of those is an interest! Again, still early days and at least some movement in the right direction!
Home and cars:
The cleaner is helping to keep the house spick and span and is due to do a spring clean on Thursday. Household safety: items such as cupboard safety catches and stair gates will be attached when we get a match. We will sell Mary's car and purchase a nearly new car.
Work:
Mary is concentrating on her studies and hopes to be finished by the end of the year. Mungo is IT Manager for the UK arm of an international company situated a few minutes from home. His company, and indeed the MD, are very supportive of our plans.
Studying:
Mary's courses: Childcare, Learning and Development, NVQ Level 3 - received an A in her 5th assignment and is still half way through number 6 (of 10). Nutrition and Health of School Aged Children, NVQ Level 2 - exam date is 16th September. Mungo's courses: T175 (Networked Living) – Course finished, PASS! M255 (Java Programming) – the fourth and final assignment (due 17th September) has been submitted; exam date is 14th October. MT264 (Designing Applications With Visual Basic) – registration complete, course starts 3rd October.
Our annual review was last week. We are waiting for a copy of the profile they send out, to add a couple of up to date photos and jazz it up a bit. Also we will have a copy too so that we are all sending out the same info (we currently don’t send one out). We are booked on an exchange day in October and are on the distribution list for one in December. Our social worker has 3 leads she is working on at the moment and will contact us in a couple of weeks to discuss any potentials. We have identified some potentials in the last magazine and have sent the information through to her.
Tuesday PM: We have received the profile that the social workers sent out and it is wrong! It is an old version we have updated and sent back to them, it has our ages, house size and some other details wrong! Also the photo we sent has been faded out so much it looks awful. We are so glad we are able to refresh it! We have amended and updated it and sent it back. Let's hope it works! Our social worker advised that the three leads she is working on have gone quiet so she is happy for us to contact the social workers direct from those potentials we had identified. So we have sent the new profile out to two social workers (Z from 'W' - group of 3 and L from 'N' - group of 3).
Wednesday: One of the social workers - Z from 'W' (group of 3) - has replied already this morning! The children have already been linked but he will keep our paperwork. This is great because it is unheard of to have contact from a social worker if they are not interested in you for those specific children. Encouraging, but still early days.
Friday: Rang L from 'N' (group of 3), she is on leave until next Wednesday so spoke with the duty social worker. She advised that they are no longer taking enquiries for these children at this point. This means they have some possibles in mind. Back to square one as both we and our social worker have no active potential links. Mary is looking at the online version of the magazine that we get, so see if we can identify children sooner. Not all of the entries in the magazine are online, so we will continue to receive those. We have also just signed up for the other publication from BAAF, too and for their online version too.
Saturday: Received the latest AUK publication and identified some potentials. Sent out emails to five sets of social workers. Yes five! Each of these sibling groups tick all of our boxes so to speak. It's not until you read their profiles and then the full paperwork - their CPRs - that you know if they are the right ones for you. Out of these five we might expect to hear from one or maybe two social workers, if we are lucky. Out of those two, only one group might be children we would consider going onto the next stage with. Of that one, there is a one in four chance that their social workers might be interested in us - based on our previous experience. And that one might fall through for many, many reasons. Even if we do end up being matched there is a one in five chance that the match will be disrupted within the first 6 months of them living with us. Talk about the odds being stacked against us! Waiting patiently until Monday so see if any of our emails will be opened.
Monday: Two of our emails were opened! And we got a reply almost straight away from one of them! And they are interested in us! Quote: "I was very impressed by your profile and experiences with children and would love to share more information with you about the children." Sooo, out of three emails read so far, we have had two responses and one of those is an interest! Again, still early days and at least some movement in the right direction!
Home and cars:
The cleaner is helping to keep the house spick and span and is due to do a spring clean on Thursday. Household safety: items such as cupboard safety catches and stair gates will be attached when we get a match. We will sell Mary's car and purchase a nearly new car.
Work:
Mary is concentrating on her studies and hopes to be finished by the end of the year. Mungo is IT Manager for the UK arm of an international company situated a few minutes from home. His company, and indeed the MD, are very supportive of our plans.
Studying:
Mary's courses: Childcare, Learning and Development, NVQ Level 3 - received an A in her 5th assignment and is still half way through number 6 (of 10). Nutrition and Health of School Aged Children, NVQ Level 2 - exam date is 16th September. Mungo's courses: T175 (Networked Living) – Course finished, PASS! M255 (Java Programming) – the fourth and final assignment (due 17th September) has been submitted; exam date is 14th October. MT264 (Designing Applications With Visual Basic) – registration complete, course starts 3rd October.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
