In this episode of 'The Adoption Diaries', Mr and Mrs M share their experience of the infamous and very long 'Matching Meeting', the last of their home visits with their social worker.

They also share about a Network Event, a sibling pair that stole their hearts, and the beginning stages of their Family Finding process.

Books (both available on Kindle) mentioned are:

• Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Parenting a child with an invisible disability - Mary Mather, Julia Brown, Liz O'Donnell
• Therapeutic Parenting in a Nutshell: Positives and Pitfalls - Sarah Naish

And the COECT course which Mr M mentions is:

• The Essential Tools of Therapeutic Parenting - sign up here on the NATP website.

Get in touch with your stories, questions and comments at adoptiondiariespodcast@gmail.com

In this episode of the Adoption Diaries, the M's are back from their holiday, and they have finished their Home Visits!

They take the listeners on a deep dive into the content of the following visits:

• Visit 4: Lifestyle, Health and Self-Care (including the Self-Care Plan)
• Visit 5: Neighbourhood, Community & Finances
• Visit 6: Journey/Motivation to Adopt & Early Permanence (including the Early Permanence Workbook)
• Visit 7: Contact

In this episode, Mr and Mrs M mention a series of books by Holly Marlow for talking to children about adoption, we'll post the links below.

Get in touch at adoptiondiariespodcast@gmail.com

Delly Duck: Why A Little Chick Couldn't Stay With His Birth Mother - Holly Marlow, Amazon Link Here

The Adoption Ceremony: When Little Chick Met The Wise Owl - Holly Marlow, Amazon Link Here

Adopting A Little Brother Or Sister - Holly Marlow, Amazon Link Here

Cousins By Adoption - Holly Marlow, Amazon Link Here

In this week's episode, Mr and Mrs M share their thoughts on APT 3 & 4 (their final 2 full days of training before the "on-the-job" type). They also discuss their uncertainties around whether to adopt one, or two children.

This video was mentioned in the podcast, and is highly recommended:

PAC UK "The Missing Piece": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIekzgTRpI8

Please get in touch with us to share your adoption story, questions and comments at adoptiondiairiespodcast@gmail.com

In this episode, Mr and Mrs M discuss how they felt and what happened when they first met their Stage 2 social worker.

They discuss their first 3 home assessment visits which were:

• Visit 1: Initial Home Visit
• Visit 2: Relationships, Support Network & Identity
• Visit 3: One-To-One Meetings

Also, they share the date of their Approval Panel...so get excited!!

Get in touch with Mr & Mrs M to share your comments, questions or stories at adoptiondiariespodcast@gmail.com

In this episode, Mr and Mrs M describe two of the training/support events put on by their local authority for prospective adopters. They also share their journey and reason to adopt and answer their first ever listener question!

Lite Bite Book Club videos:
Drowning in Empathy: The Cost of Vicarious Trauma | Amy Cunningham | TEDxSanAntonio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsaorjIo1Yc

SECONDARY TRAUMA l The difficult parts of adoption l Post placement l UK ADOPTION l mollymamaadopt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feGbVQ6HmUc

If you have any comments, questions or your own story to share, please get in touch with us at adoptiondiariespodcast@gmail.com

In this episode, Mr and Mrs M explain what the Stage 1 Review meeting was like and how they started to share their exciting news more widely with family and friends.

In the episode, Mr M mentions a helpful episode of The Adoption Shared Podcast about executive functions which you can find here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/adoption-shared/id1589808211?i=1000562382965

Please get in touch with us at adoptiondiariespodcast@gmail.com

Mr and Mrs M share their experience of Adoption Preparation Training (days 1 and 2) and Early Permanence Training.

The video that Mr M refers to can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn8j4XRxSck

Email questions and comments to adoptiondiariespodcast@gmail.com - we'd love to hear from you!

In this episode, Mr and Mrs M give you a run through of all the forms and checks that they needed to complete during Stage 1. They also share some of the content from Workbooks 1 and 2 which form the basis of the Stage 1 Report and Prospective Adopters Report further down the line.

Plus, some good news!

Email comments and questions to adoptiondiariespodcast@gmail.com - we'd love to hear from you!