The first set of adoption papers have been completed online and the next day, we received already a phone call from our local council.

I was not sure which timing to expect but it was definitely much quicker as we anticipated. The council asked a lot of extra questions to identify whether we were clear about the process, and to clarify some of our feedback so that things could be taken forward if we still wanted too.

One of the questions was related to our nationality. We are Belgians living in the UK for the past 10 years but the council wanted to understand whether we have the intention to stay and for how long. However, luckily, my husband has an UK employment contract which was a good enough proof for the council showing that we are committed to staying in the UK for the foreseeable future.

Other questions related to religion and which religion we would practice, to the age of the child we wanted, our health, etc.

The conversation about age was interesting as I was made aware that if we wanted a baby that the waiting list for babies is long as there are not a lot of babies who are put up for adoption. Usually, babies are taken away from the parents by the state and in most of the cases it apparently relates to parents taking drugs. This means that you need to be aware of the possible long term impact of drugs on the health of the child.

Discussing religion was another subject as we explained that although we are Catholics, it’s not important for us to have the child baptised but rather to raise the child within the values of the religion.

It’s a reality that the more open you are, the easier it will be to match an adoption child to us as a family.

As a last subject of our phone conversation, the councillor also explained and clarified the process which is the following:

• More information will be sent by post
• Information to be completed by us and sent back
•  Process starts involving several visits over an 8-week period which includes conversations with us together, individually and friends who act as references
•  Health check
• After the investigation, our case will be submitted to a board which recommends to go  forward or not after which we are invited to a 3-day course
• After the course, we need to participate in children’s activities and our interactions will be observed so that the council will be re-assured that we can’t only interact with children from friends and family but can also easily interact with children we have never seen before
• The last phase is a match with a child.

So, as you can see, the process is quite lengthy and intensive but it will be all worth it and we are really looking forward to each of the phases, however, I am also sure that we will need a lot of support during the process.