So, been thinking for a while about sharing our story of adoption in the hope that it might help other families and because it is such an incredible journey, it feels somehow important to document. Maybe one day it will also be important for our daughter who shall remain anonymous as this is her story too and she may not want to share it. I’ll call her Angel as we called her our ‘angel child’ for the first six months of her time with us, knowing full well that as soon as she felt safe enough, a more fully rounded two-year old would emerge. She was also referred to as an ‘angel child’ by her birth mum and dad who had lost a previous pregnancy and so were very grateful when they fell pregnant with her. Angel is 9 and will be 10 in July. Right now we are what I call ‘in the cut’. We have just come out of our longest spell of equilibrium (about 3 months) and I felt a new baseline of her self-worth had been reached. It probably has but when the wound opens up, it’s incredible how deep it g
Never mind ‘lean in’ parenting, how about some lean out time! This might be common to a lot of parents having taken a straw poll among friends; the summer holidays are bloody hard! The difference in having an adopted kid is that it's often even harder. I look on jealously as neighbours and friends pack their kids off to camp, cousins and grandparents. We know that Angel wouldn’t manage more than a night away from us. In fact, she doesn't even weather an activity day camp very well. Too many other personalities to navigate. The reality is that even school is tough for Angel and if she could, she would like to be with both me and hubby all day, every day and recently that’s just what she’s had. We got back from a week in Weymouth a few days ago. We stayed with my Mum, which Angel loves and my Aunty came on the last night too, whom Angel also loves. We went to the beach every day, despite some windy weather, braved the sand storms, went to the arcade, the fair, shopping and the