the beginning of the rest....

today was a big day on our adoption journey and to be honest the only part i have been nervous about.....today was... Panel Day........ Panel had some delays which meant a long wait for us before we would be invited in to answer some questions.....meanwhile we had our own waiting room to hang out in ..stocked with tea and coffee....bookshelves packed with kids books of which we read most of ..lol....this penguin one was our favourite...























..as the wait continued we resorted to playing that old family favourite.....i spy with my little eye something beginning with................to distract ourselves.....i'm not sure how it always seemed to be stuart's turn ..gave me a flasback into my childhood....:-)





























Eventually we were invited into the board to room to meet everyone and answer a couple of questions.........thankfully we got a unanimous YES from panel and as of today are approved to adopt...hooray.....our papers will make their way to Stormont shortly......

Two years and counting...

just looking at our blog and realsied we have been on this journey for two years......can't believe time has gone so quickly ...but at the same time in my naive thinking in the early days i thought we would be galloping over the finish line any day soon..but in reality we are only half way there........

book recommendation....

i must admit i find the technical almost medical journel books on our list to read pretty hard going......i am much more of a practical learner and like to learn through hearing from others and experiencing things...our social worker recommended this book to us...and we both love it...it has been so helpful and such an easy read..highly recommended...

update.......

oh my goodness i cant believe it is october and my last post was at the end of june...scary...we have been so busy with work..life and the adoption trail.......we officially finished our homestudy on 27th July .... eight sessions in all ....when we closed the door to our social worker we went out into our back garden and popped open a bottle of champagne to mark yet another milestone on this journey...



our social worker has beavered away writing up our report into a nice thick document all about the life of the Browns.......and we are going to face panel very soon......we have had two further prep meeting this week to get all the final loose ends tied up..i must admit this is the only part of the process that has produced butterflies in my tummy.....we are trusting that God has brought us this far and he will continue to led us on......

approaching part 6..

i have been so bad about blogging lately...the weeks seem to fly by and are full of ...life.......we have done a couple of homestudy sessions since i last blogged and i have got to say...we are still very much enjoying the process..maybe its just us or else our social worker helps to make it an enjoyable experience...it really is an enriching experience.....i love everything about adoption and am so glad we are on this journey.........i must admit i have been thinking very much this week about being a mixed race family living in N.I..after the appalling attacks on the romanian people seeking a better life here...but just need to trust God is in control and will be entwined in every detail of the journey............we received some lovely news this week that friends of ours had been matched with their new daughter in thailand.......makes it all real when you see people you know making it to the end of the journey...............so roll on homestudy so we can get onto the next stage of bringing us closer to meeting our little one face to face instead of just our hearts....

part three.....

well part three is completed and we are galloping towards part four......we have really enjoyed this process so far....its actually so good to talk through things and continually confirm in our hearts that this is totally the right move for us..........excited to keep going.............we chatted a little about the timeline......and as we expected it will be 2011 before we meet our little one......unless a miracle takes place...just as well be believe in those....:-)

part two......

second session in homestudy completed today...next one in two weeks time........again both really enjoyed the time.......looking forward to next one....every step we take confirms again and again that we are on the right track and adoption is so right for us......