Laura and Adam adopted their son and daughter through Adoption Focus. In this blog post, Laura remembers how they instantly knew they'd found their children.
It was a sunny Tuesday afternoon in April, and we had literally read hundreds of profiles on Linkmaker, but none of them seemed perfect for us. That in itself was tough as every profile we looked through felt like we were being too picky. Here we were, desperate to complete our family, yet so willingly scrolling through children’s profiles and writing them off. We just kept telling ourselves that the match had to be right and I can tell you that when you know, you just know!
Out of nowhere we received an email that would change our lives forever! The email caught our attention as it was from a social worker who had clearly read our profile and considered the potential match carefully before contacting us. It felt like it had been written from the heart – she clearly believed our children were very special.
There on this email was a breakdown of all our own characteristics and interests and a consideration as to how and why these would complement our future children’s. Our little girl was said to be looking for a Mum who would ‘save money for her in the bank, take her to school on time, wear makeup and be thin’ and our little boy was looking for a dad who would ‘build things and go to work.’ Well this just seemed perfect, like fate almost…I am a teacher and my husband is an architect. It just felt like it was meant to be. The more we read, the harder we fell for them.
We immediately responded and requested further information which came in the form of a very long CPR (Child Permanence Report). But what really did it was a video that we were sent of our future son and daughter. I can remember the first time we switched it on – we were both fixated at the screen and my husband cried - we had found them! There was something so special about watching 10 minutes of our future children arguing over a board game. I bet when that video was filmed that they had no idea that it would be that scene that would make us fall in love with them! Our daughter was shown to be bossy and competitive, just like me! Our son was warm and funny, just like my husband! As we watched it everything about them just seemed right.
It was the moment we just knew that they were going to be ours! From that point onwards, nothing and no one was going to stop us…That was April … by August, they were home with us and we haven’t looked back.
Once prospective adopters are approved to adopt, they work with their social worker, our Linking & Matching Officer and Local Authorities to find a suitable child or children.