an update on our journey towards formally adopting floreana

Sep 16 2012 9:03AM

Deatials of our daily routine, starting nursery and the initial stages of completing the adoption apllication form.

My little priincess Floreana woke me up this morning at 6am: ‘mummy it’s light’, she said. I opened one eyelid and replied: ‘is it darling come and have a cuddle’. ‘I want to go downstairs’ she whimpered’. So out of bed I ‘bounced’ and came downstairs where she jumped on the sofa for a cuddle. Typical!!!! Oh how my days have changed!!!! I used to wake up in my own time go to the gym and then drive to work. Now that I am on adoption leave I have lost track of time except in so far as my sleep pattern has changed to match Floreana’s and I never get time to go to the gym! My only light at the end of the tunnel is the fact that Floreana has started nursery part time. However, my life is so full of meetings with health and social care professionals: our social worker, Floreana’s social worker, the health visitor, community paediatric nurse, nursery outreach worker and teachers’ all vying for my time that I do not know when I will make it to the gym!! And moreover, I am now seriously concerned as to how I will fit my busy job back into my daily routine when I return after my year’s leave!!!!
Floreana still has times when she misses her foster carer and when she expresses guilt at what has happened. She sits forlornly and says: ‘it’s all my fault’. Bless her. I stick to the same story and say: ‘No. It’s not your fault. Your birth mummy and daddy couldn’t look after you and keep you safe. So you went to live with your foster carer and then you came to mummy and daddy. We will look after you until you are an adult and we will always love you’ just like your nanny and grandma love your daddy and I.’ We usually have a cuddle and then I use a form of diversion to help Floreana move onto something positive, for example we might read or play a game. Hopefully when she is adopted she will feel more secure. Only the future will tell. For the moment whenever I am absent she cries for my return. This hurts as she is ‘suffering’ and fearing another loss but, it is also good as it shows she is attached to me. I am working hard on giving Floreana transitional objects such as a voice recorder picture album and her family book that she can look at when at nursery. Fortunately she likes nursery so, after a wobbly couple of sessions, she came out of her last class skipping, jumping and holding hands with her friend.
My husband and I are in the process of completing the adoption application form. It is very complicated and requires a lot of information. Unfortunately we do not have all the paper work that the court requires so we have yet another delay in the adoption process. I hope that the social worker brings the details when she visits this week. Then we can submit the forms to the court and hopefully get a hearing date for some time this year.
Bye for now
Love Galapagos x

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