two country dads

Last session was a funny one. Ben and I both woke up in a grump, tired and stressed about work, and then had to talk about our ex's and our relationship and the stresses and strains. After SW left we were both wiped out. We tend to meet first thing on a Monday morning and generally the sessions seem to knock us for six for the rest of the day. I would advise anyone to make sure they don't "squeeze" their sessions in between work and give themselves enough time to process what has been talked about. I'm actually really looking forward to the break in meetings over Christmas. It will be nice to have a breather from it. I can't however stop thinking about how different next Christmas might be. I have to say that I unashamedly love Christmas and the whole ritual of presents, trees and pigging out. Some of my fondest memories of my family are from Christmas. Also thinking about the boy we saw at the prep group and imagining him with us next Christmas. I know I sh

Had a nice meeting yesterday. Finished off my education and employment sections. Found out we are the slowest couple our SW has ever had! We talk too much about others stuff. Had an interesting conversation about sexuality and gender today, also an in depth talk about the acting profession. Nothing really to do with the assessment just nice general chats. Think we may have to get on with it from now on. We have one more session booked next week then it will be 2013 when we meet again. I have a feeling that next year is going to take off suddenly and not stop til we reach 2014!

Slightly unusual session today as we had Ben's mum staying with us so our SW met her and interviewed her. Firstly we fed back to SW about the prep group and what we had gained from it. Also had to explain that we have come to the conclusion we want to go to panel as planned and that we have even seen a child we are interested in. She listened to everything we had to say and I think understands here we are coming to. I got the sense she wasn't saying everything she thought in as much detail because Ben's mum was there. Have a feeling we'll revisit some of it next week. She did say we shouldn't get our hopes up too much about this boy as we have very little info on him and he may not even be a match for us. It is hard though as he has really to into our heads. Trying to be sensible but it is very hard to get  emotionally involved. Interview with Ben's mum was done in front of us, although I think it usually is done in private, we had a very open chat and it wa

After the weekend "off" (we both worked both days so not really off) it was really nice to get back to the group. We both felt that we were learning lots and really enjoying the experience. We did an interesting session on loss and changes. Amazing to think about all that a child will loose and  the amount of changes they go through. But also how much we will go through too. Then there was a great talk by two adoptive parents both at different stages. Really good to hear about the future and realities. Lovely people with great stories. We then had a talk from an adopted person. This was really powerful, with some really inspiring stories. It is great to hear about how adoption was such a positive experience for her. The thing that she said that was really emotive was that we "should be proud of ourselves" I found it a really powerful statement. We are proud of ourselves and having taken part int he prep group it all now seems more real and the children seem mo