Adoption, Fostering & Tea: The New Family Social Podcast

66 - Stuart and Simon return having adopted siblings.

Stuart and Simon adopted siblings in lockdown. They featured in an earlier episode of this podcast called "We've just adopted siblings" and now they're back to tell us about support services, school and how they celebrated the adoption with a sand ceremony.

65 - Fostering babies

Alex and Terry specialise in fostering babies and two of those babies joined us for the podcast! The couple discussed their journey to fostering, their first placement and the first baby who moved on from them to a permanent home. There's a desperate need for more foster carers and this episode might help you decide whether you could consider fostering.

64 - When a match falls through

Darren and his partner were approved as adopters and linked to a child but the courts ruled that the child should not be adopted. Darren talks about their emotional journeys and their excitement now they're about to go to matching panel with a new child.  He shares some tips for resilience during the process.

63 - Losing your partner after adoption

James and his husband adopted their son eight years ago but shortly afterwards, James's husband died suddenly. James talks about getting through the early days, with support from friends and family, and about how he helped his young son understand what had happened. He also talks about meeting and falling in love with a new partner and how, together, they keep the memory of his late husband alive for their son.

 

Here is a link to the book "No Matter What" - https://www.littleparachutes.com/books/no-matter-what/

62 - Adoption introductions with two toddlers

Josh and his partner did introductions with their boys just six weeks ago. He talks in detail about the introductions process and the very early days of placement, while Tor says it's ten years today since she began intros with her son. They chat about the gradual transition for children from their foster carers' care to their adopters' care and discuss whether life is too short to make fish fingers from scratch!

61 - Waiting two years to start stage one

Brandon and Pier have been stuck at pre-stage-one for two years due to their immigration status, wedding and house move. They're finally ready to start. They've been to all the information sessions, made a spreadsheet and chosen an agency. Brandon talks about their families back in Italy, their support network and how they're building their childcare experience while trying to decide what kind of needs they can cope with in the children they hope to adopt.

60 - We were both adopted and now we’re adopting siblings

Ash and John talk about adoption journey, having both been adopted themselves.  Ash explains how he was adopted and has no details of his birth family.  John tells how he was given up for adoption after his birth mother was sexually assaulted.  John and his older half-brother were adopted together.  John tells how his foster family made introductions difficult, but his mother was determined to adopt him and his brother.  Ash shares how in the culture he was raised, adoption wasn’t spoken about, but his extended family all knew that he and his sister were adopted. 

59 - Counting down to panel

Aaron and Adam are counting down to their panel.  They share how their experience has been smooth, thanks to their social worker.  Aaron explains that big life events, which had happen to both of them, were positives when it came to assessment because they showed their resilience and demonstrated that the couple knew how to deal with traumatic events.  They talk about how the process helped them to better understand each other's approach to the adoption and how it highlighted each other’s strengths. 

58 - Things are still hard but they’re improving

Myfanwy and Jay return to update us on their journey.  They share how supportive their son's school as been, putting in to place a number of provisions to help him.  One the of the scheme, called "thrive", worked well but has come to an end.  The school is continuing to put other provisions in place to help.  They share how sometimes it’s still difficult, but they have more strategies in place to help defuse difficult situations.  Jay explains the importance of picking the “right” school. 

Their previous episodes are 44 - The honeymoon period is over and 34 - When introductions go wrong...

57 - We’re open to adopt a large sibling group

Lucy and Marie are in stage two with panel coming up soon.  They share how there have been some delays in stage one.  Marie was sure right from the start that she wanted siblings, being an only child, and because they felt that adopting siblings at the same time would help the children and mean they wouldn't have to go through the assessment process more than once.  They know they would like to adopt at least two but are open to adopting a bigger sibling group.  They have built a network of people that have adopted siblings and that has helped cement their decision.