The day our son came home!

30th March was the day you came to live with us. We were now a family.

The last eight days of introductions had gone better than expected. We drove to collect our son from the foster carers flat one last time. It felt horrible taking him away from a lady I'm sure he thought was his mummy, but knew this would be the start of a new and wonderful life with us as his family. It would be difficult for his foster carer as our son had been her first placement and she had had him since he has been born. We gave the foster carer a card with a special message to say thank you. We knew she loved him dearly. It was heart breaking to see her say her final goodbyes. There were lots of hugs and tears, we promised to look after him and keep contact as long as was needed.

We had a lot of things to pack into the car. For such a little person he seemed to own a lot of things already. We put him in his car seat and looked at each other. Wow! This was a special moment. We both looked excited and stunned at the same time. It is really hard to describe how bizarre it feels when you go to someones house and take home a baby. We had read a few books and of course had attended adoption workshops, but in all honesty we had no clue how to be parents. All we knew was we wanted to make sure we gave him the best life possible.

We drove home and took our son into the living room where a ball pit and some new toys were waiting to be played with. We set up his jungle mat from the foster carers flat and laid him down on the floor. We made sure all the cats were out so they weren't all looking at him at once. He had already seen the house a few times through introductions and had a tour of the many rooms and more importantly his bedroom. We sat down with you on the floor. You looked happy enough, making noises and kicking your feet in the air, interested in the many new colourful toys.

We had written a list of things to put into our routine. He had started to be weaned by the foster carer but was still being bottle fed so we needed to etch it into a heads how many times a day he needed to be fed or have a snack. Nappy changing would be every few hours, but I am sure we would notice anyway! LOL! And his sleep routine was already mastered well so we need to stick to what the foster carer had started. We had bought a Mickey Mouse travel cot that we had put in our bedroom, so until he was settled and old enough he would sleep with us. He had slept in the travel cot a few times through introductions and seemed content enough so that was a good sign.  

We had played together for a few hours and fed him some lunch, so decided to go out for a walk and have some coffee and cake at our local coffee shop. This was a surreal moment, strapping our son into a buggy and taking him outside in our local community where we knew lots of people, who we had to try and avoid for the first two weeks. We did bump into an excited neighbour and also my best friend did happen to peep outside her flat and come and say a quick hello. 

Going to a coffee shop actually made everything feel normal which is what we needed. We didn't really want to hide indoors for two weeks, but understood it was important for you to connect with us and not have too many new faces to meet, otherwise that could be overwhelming.

The day had gone well...now we needed to see if you would sleep in your new home at night...!!