We woke at 5am today to arrive for 9am with instructions to wait outside of the house until our sons Social Worker was present. The plan is that there should be no waiting around, no big goodbye's, not stopping for coffee - just pick up the baby and his final bag of things and leave. I can totally understand why the team want to play it this way to avoid four sobbing adults confusing such a small child given the hard work we have all done so far to make introductions as warm and seamless as possible.
However, in reality the handover was not quite as cold. When we arrived the FC's had two balloons, cards and a big bunch of flowers for us and we also had a heartfelt letter and gift to leave for them. We went into the house briefly with the SW who took a few photos to complete the final chapters of our sons life story book and without much fuss Pappa picked the little man up, we put him into his car seat and reversed out of the driveway.
I was trying to give my full attention to the baby to avoid eye contact with the FC's as we left, because I knew I would become tearful if I looked at them. Pappa was driving but became quite emotional as we were leaving and did shed a few tears - likewise both FC's were teary, understandably so as we drove off with the little boy they had raised since he was just 8 hours old.
So 18 months after starting our adoption journey (plus 40 hours on the road during introductions!) we were finally driving home with our son - just amazing!
We were both nervous to finally have him at home and not be returning him to anyone that night but luckily he slept right through, only waking once in the night for a bottle as he usually does anyway.
... Let family life begin!
... Let family life begin!
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