We feel so privileged to be their parents
Earlier this year, Rachel and her husband were matched with their two adoptive daughters, whom she had seen on the Be My Parent website some months previously. She tells her story…
My husband and I made our initial adoption enquiry in 2007 and we were approved for a sibling group in Summer 2008. While our adoption agency started looking for possible matches, we wondered if there was anything we could do ourselves. We subscribed to the Be My Parent website shortly after approval and made a few tentative enquiries.
It felt a little surreal at first, looking at children’s profiles on a website. So many children, all looking for a ‘forever family’. We wondered if our future children would be among them. We found the video clips particularly helpful in trying to imagine what children’s personalities were like. Reading the profiles made us more aware of some adoption-related issues and how we might prepare for them. We enquired about several sibling groups and heard back from most social workers fairly quickly. Sometimes children had already been linked, other times it just wasn’t the right match.
One day in December of last year, I spotted these two gorgeous girls on the Be My Parent website. Their smiling faces totally engaged me and I just had to view their video clip right away. While I was watching them, I noticed myself laughing at their antics and I felt a strong instant attraction to them. I read their profiles, which made me even more interested, and I just had to find out more about them! When my husband arrived home from work that night, I asked him to have a look at their profiles too. Trying very hard not to show my enthusiasm, I calmly asked him what his thoughts were. Luckily, he was just as excited as I was, and so we made an enquiry.
The girls’ family finder phoned us a few days later and she was very interested in meeting with us. We were visited at home and had an anxious wait before we heard we could go to matching panel! When the panel told us the match had been approved, we just cried! We couldn’t wait to meet our daughters. We were so excited, but very nervous too. We kept looking at their photos and the video clip, wondering what they would really be like. When we finally met our girls, we felt that instant attraction all over again, only even stronger this time. Introductions followed, which were very hectic but lovely. Then we finally brought our girls home!
Finding our daughters has been a long and very emotional process. But we feel so very privileged to be their parents: I still can’t quite believe how lucky we are. We can’t thank Be My Parent enough, as, without them, we would never have found our wonderful girls.
To all prospective adopters out there, I know how difficult and emotional the waiting can be. But all the stress is so worth it when you bring your child home! Wishing you all the very best on your adoption journey…
Rachel
Rachel’s name has been changed to protect her confidentiality
Originally published in the Be My Parent newspaper in January 2010.
This article is published with the kind permission of the people involved. You may download it for your own reference but if you wish to use it for any other purpose, please contact Be My Parent for authorisation: Be My Parent, BAAF, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Telephone: 020 7421 2666.
Last updated: 24 December 09
