This is it. The final (pre-arranged) session of Stage Two!

This was the first session in a while when we didn’t have any specific questions to go over.

We discussed our ‘Financial’ form again, as a couple of items have changed, so we were able to provide our s/w with an updated copy. The final copy that will go into our PAR in just a few weeks. 🙂

We also talked in depth about all of the Exchange students that lived with us in 2005/06 and 2006/07, as well as other kids (mostly teenagers) who have been a significant part of our life. We talked about interactions with them, and particularly about lessons learned!

Our s/w asked us if we were going to a ‘Friends and Family Training Day’ that is arranged for the 12th. We confirmed that we are going, and bringing four (the maximum allowed) friends with us. We would have liked Hubby’s daughter to come, but she had to work, unfortunately.

The meeting was a bit shorter than the others. I suppose, on average our meetings have been around two hours. This was only about an hour and a half.

It’s surprising how much information has gone back and forth between us and our social worker over the past few months. We’ve told her, of course, lots about us. But she’s also given lots of practical information that relates to parenting a child who has been in care. She needs to know, I suppose, that we really understand (intellectually, at least) what it means to parent therapeutically as opposed to parenting a child who is not suffering from attachment difficulties.

We do have two tasks to complete as a result of this meeting. First, we need to write a paragraph about the training we’ve received — this will go into the PAR. Second, we need to write up a profile which will be used for ‘family finding’ purposes. Oh, and I guess third, we need to come up with a good photo of us. That is the worst task, I think, because I haven’t been focused on my eating and I’ve gained 10 pounds over the past 6 months. Ick. I feel unhappy about my body. Right now I’m just trying to keep from gaining more. Maybe after panel I can focus on taking a bit of the weight off? We’ll see..

Tomorrow, Thursday the 10th, will be exactly 4 weeks to panel. Wow this has gone fast.