Our adoption journey

“We decided to start our journey in January 2015 as we lost our two-year-old German Shepherd through cancer at the end of December 2014. Dave (the dog) was our baby and best mate but probably was a bit over friendly with children so although adoption was something we always wanted to do, felt we couldn’t whilst we had Dave in our lives. As hard as it was losing him, the situation did present us with an opportunity to start a family.

In the first week of January, we contacted Nugent amongst some other agencies to inquire about how to get started. Nugent was the first to get back in touch with us and was positive and proactive from day one, so we decided to start our journey with Nugent.

The team at Nugent were fantastic; they were a close-knit team who were all there to support us and answer our many questions. We had many meetings with our Social Worker (Paul Hewitt) who came out to see us and walk us through the process. It was the start of what seemed like a very long road but with a huge pot of gold at the end of it.

After weekly meetings, groups and medical checks, we finally made it to Panel after about eight months. At Panel, it highlighted a few health issues so we were advised to come back in a further six months time and try at Panel again. This was heartbreaking and our dream seemed further away than ever but we understood that their decision was made with both our and any prospective children’s future in mind. We must say, however, that the support we received through Paul was brilliant; he felt our pain, supported us through the upset and with his help, we did everything in our power to make sure the next Panel date would go through without a hitch. Although a further six months felt like a lifetime away, the wait for what could potentially mean a family for us, soon passed by quickly. Co-incidentally the children we were matched with had also had their adoption deferred for six months around the same time – perhaps everything happens for a reason?

The second time around, Paul had helped us through all the Panel’s recommendations and we were unanimously approved as adopters in April 2016.

From then on we were sent a few profiles via email and had viewed a few sibling groups on some of the available online forums. We enquired about two children, a 3-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy who were full siblings but as we understood there are a lot of adopters looking for younger children, we put their profile to one side but continued looking at others not thinking for a moment that we would be matched with the first children we enquired about.

Over the next few days we were kept up to date with our progression and it almost seemed like every day we were a step closer to meeting the children as more and more social workers, family finders and the foster carer came to meet us and were in agreement that we could be a good potential match.

We were given a pack on the children’s history, their medical backgrounds and although some issues were flagged up for our attention, we discussed these with social workers and the children’s foster carer and felt strongly enough about these two children to progress.

As our children were adopted through a Local Authority who offer chemistry days (a chance for you to meet the children under an alias of a friend of the foster carer, to see if a rapport or chemistry could be built without causing confusion to the children) we were soon planning our first meeting. After an hour playing in a park, blowing bubbles and enjoying ice cream with the children and the foster carer, we felt strongly that these were the ones for us.

We attended the Local Authority matching panel and were blessed by another unanimous vote to match us with these children and the rest is history. We are now proud as punch of our clever princess and our cute little man; both have settled in well, are thriving in school and are literally the light of our whole family and circle of friends.

What felt like an impossible journey full of hurdles, is now history and by far the best thing we have ever done. We now have a lifetime of memories to make as a family of four and we’re loving every minute of it.

Huge thanks to Nugent, for all they have done and special thanks to Paul Hewitt, who certainly went the extra mile to get us where we are today.”

Laura and Glenn