Wow, what a busy few months we’ve had. Unfortunately going forward I won’t be able to share everything with you, my lovely readers and supporters, but I will be as open as I can.
Following on from our medicals and DBS checks being sent off we had the first part of our adoption training or APT as it is known. This was a two day course which covered everything from our reasons for wanting to adopt to the backgrounds of the children and some of the issues they may have or may face, how we will deal with these issues, stress, trauma, and ‘re-parenting’, and more besides. We even had homework to do and submit post-course!
I have to say neither of us really knew what to expect from the course, and it turned out to be full on; we came away thoroughly shattered but at the same time even more excited about what our future holds. It was lovely to meet other prospective adopters too; there were five other couples and two single adopters (brave or what, I don’t think I could do this alone!). We also got to meet an adoptive parent and hear all about his experiences with his two children. All I can say is wow talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly! He also told us that he and his wife had lost friends along the way; people they considered good friends, lifelong friends…. I didn’t expect to hear that. I understand that people, our family and friends may struggle with certain issues we may face, and potential bad behaviour (which may or may not be trauma related) from our prospective child(ren) but I truly hope they will continue to support us and will recognise that this and what lies ahead of us will be a long, slow, more than likely uphill journey, but one we have faith we’ll successfully complete. To be honest, if we lose friends or family along the way then we’ll be devastated but we’ll also know they weren’t the people we thought they were.
This journey isn’t for the feint hearted and we will be tested to our limits, but we know we will make it through, with or without some bumps along the way.
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