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.