17-Apr 2010

We had an email, a phone call and a letter in the last two day advising us of the Decision Maker's decision - which was a YES!  So, all social worker boxes are ticked and there is nothing stopping us going ahead with this match - yippeee!  Which is good really because we have S H O P P E D!

So who is the decision maker?  The DM is a senior person within the Local Authority or Voluntary Agency.  As with approval panel, the panel makes a recommendation to the Decision Maker who then has seven working days in which to make the final decision.  The recommendation / decision may be 'no', 'deferred' or 'yes'.  The DM may make a different decision to the panel's recommendation, which is rare but can and does happen.  I know two couples who had a different decision from the DM compared with the panel when they were being approved to be adopters.  With both of them, the 'no' and 'deferred' decisions by panel were overturned into a yes!

Our friends G&F have been having intros with their little on for the last couple of weeks and he has now moved home for good.  We are sooooo excited for them and pleased that everything is going well.

It has been a year since our friends R&A met their little one and that year has just flown by.  She is so settled and just adorable, big hugs xxx

So now we have just 10 sleeps until the Inter-agency meeting on the 27th, where we will be planning for introductions that will start the same afternoon.  Mary picks up her new car on Monday and is spending the week picking up clothes, books and outdoor toys that she has asked for from Freecycle and friends.  We realised that we couldn't afford to buy everything that we needed so we are buying brand new safety and hygiene items, like mattresses, car seats, nappy bins and so on.  Everything else we are asking for donations from people.  We have been inundated with offers, everyone has been so generous, it is overwhelming!