2023 – the start of a new year and my 40^th
Birthday year. This year I decided that I would set myself 3 challenges rather
than a New Year’s Resolution that I would break before January was over. Here I
am now registered and training to run The Edinburgh Marathon in May – I feel anxious
that I wont finish, but excited and motivated to be taking this on, this HUGE
26.2 mile challenge.

As I think about challenges, I think about things that I
have achieved most recently. How did I get through them and the resilience
needed to cross that finish line.

One of the biggest and hardest challenges I have over come
was starting a family, this was certainly a marathon and not a sprint to cross
that finish line. It certainly wasn’t something I achieved alone, but I needed
the support of my amazing husband Carl, our wonderful family and friends and
The Concurrent Planning Adoption Service through Caritas Care. 

Our adoption journey began back in December 2019 where we
attended our first meeting with the Concurrent Planning Team. I was ready to
sign up there and then secretly hoping we’d then get a call the next day to say
they had a baby match for us (but realistically knowing that we had many hoops
to jump through before that day arrived)!

Concurrent Planning is a service for very young children who enter
care and are likely to need adoption, but who also still have a chance of being
reunited with their birth family.

Come January 2020 and our Expression of Interest was
submitted and an initial interview date was booked. This seemed so scary, this
random lady would come to our home would make a decision if we would even be
suitable to start the application. It felt at the time that our life going
forwards would be in her hands. After hours of cleaning and cake baking, to
ensure we gave the right first impression, it was Social Worker Helen who knocked
at our door. I don’t know if it was just the cake – but thankfully Helen made
the recommendation that our application progress.

Adoption Application Part 1 was in full flow then came the
news, Covid – 19 officially hit and along came lockdown 1. I thought with the
whole world at a stand still our application progression would also stop – but Covid
-19 didn’t stop Caritas Care and the Concurrent Planning Service. Amazingly,
everything quickly and smoothly transitioned to virtual appointments and
training and thankfully we went to Fostering and Adoption panel right on
schedule in August 2020 and YES we were approved.

December 2020 Finally the call we had waited for…   Baby M. We collected Baby M from hospital at
3 days old – from that moment we were all completely smitten and we would do
anything for this precious tiny baby in our care.

Due to various reasons including backlogs in courts due to
Covid -19 we had a prolonged fostering period of 11 months. I called Helen our
social worker on what felt like a weekly basis for advice and support. Helen
was truly amazing and so supportive – she showed compassion, so much
understanding and empathised with our frustration towards what felt like
running up hill and getting nowhere.

Our happy ending, Baby M now 2 years old was finally
officially adopted by us in April 2021. Helen, Caritas Care and the Concurrent
Planning Team were there every step of the way for us with their invaluable
support and expertise.

Although I feel like we’ve already completed multiple
marathons to achieve our goal of becoming a family this marathon challenge is
one I am set to do alone – but still with the support of my wonderful husband,
baby M and our family and friends cheering on from the side lines.

Hopefully with my fundraising I would be able to give back
just a little bit of something and to show our appreciation for what is such an
invaluable service with amazing people. 
We know even post adoption we still have Helen, The Concurrent Planning
Team and Caritas Care to call up on for any further advice and support that we
need.

Thank you for reading my/our story and a huge thank you if
you are able to donate.