Prep Group - Day 2

Well I had the 2nd day of Prep Group on Wednesday and it was great!

Everyone is so relaxed around each other which is amazing after just one day. Perhaps because we already know something relatively personal about each other - that for some reason we are on this same road at this point together.

We looked a lot at the types of "abuse" children can suffer and the affects they can each have. 

We talked about a lot about Theraplay, which the VA and others believe can make a big difference in helping children with attachment issues. 

Prep Group - Day 1

I had my first Prep Group “training” day last week. It was.. amazing. Overwhelming. Emotional. Exhausting actually. I was fast asleep by about 9.30pm!

It was a full day and there were about 19 of us. It was run by the Practice Manager (S) with help from a lady (J) that had adopted several years ago and was training with the agency. I think I may have been the only single person there. I say “think” because there was a man there that had been invited to do the course because they are adopting a child already in their care. I don’t think his wife was with him, in which case there was another single lady there. Either way.. although I thought it would, it made absolutely no difference. I met some WONDERFUL people. 2 couples actually in my town and 2 others in neighbouring towns. We’re already talking about creating our own version of an NCT group J

Saying "No" To Hypocrisy!

In the spirit of "change", I've also become obsessed with how much I will have to change. Well.. how much I should change before a child materialises.

Did your mother (or parent) ever say to you... "because I said so"? Or "do as I say and not as I do"? What did you learn from it? Did you learn not to do it again because of the consequence of not doing as you were told, or because you understood why you should/shouldn't do something? I know this is dependent on the child’s age and their ability to understand reason but what I learnt initially was that my mother thought I was too stupid to understand and later that she was simply too lazy to bother helping me to.

Getting Ready for Change!

I read an article in Adoption Today (a magazine I get sent as a member of Adoption UK - well worth visiting the website if you haven't already) about Post-Adoption Depression.

It's a real thing apparently. A bit like post-natal I guess, as a result of the massive shock to the system suddenly finding yourself with a child despite all of the training and preparation, etc. that you undergo. And the fact that despite having to cope with being a new parent, you and your child don't necessarily "fit together" straight away, as you don't have that biological connection.

I think it's the one thing I am most afraid of. Though I imagine, it's something all new mothers worry about - realising at the end of it all, that you've bitten off more than you can chew! That all the preparation in the world, can't prepare me for exactly how I'm going to feel when I've driven home with "my" child, we've climbed the steps to my house and shut the door on the world behind us.