Meeting the Birth Parents

After much tooing and frowing, we have managed to set a date to meet Raina's Birth Parents.  It proved  to be like a military operation getting us, the Birth Parents, Raina's Social Worker and our Link Worker together in the same room at the same time.  But; it has been done and the meeting is about a month away. We made a list of questions and they have been passed onto the Birth Parents.  We have also received a list of questions from them.   Being given this opportunity to meet them feels like it will allow us to get closer to Raina too and understand her even more, which we feel lucky about. However, we are both feeling quite nervous at the propsect of meeting and we really hope that it goes as well as can be expected.

Hannah x x

Royal Parks Half Marathon

On Sunday I will be running the Royal Parks Half Marathon,

http://royalparkshalf.com/

I am running to raise money for New Family Social (NFS) who have been (and continue to be!) a huge source of support, guidance and encouragement throughout this whole process for us both.  

http://newfamilysocial.co.uk/

Hannah x x

Coming up for air...

It's been a really nice weekend, Raina has been well behaved and this last week she has been really fun to spend time with.  She's got her own quirky sense of humour which is serving to make us both fall in love with her even more.  As we lay in bed on Saturday morning listening to Raina reading her nursery rhymes out loud, we remarked how much calmer she has been lately.  Momma recalled Raina's CPR, which outlined that her adoptive parents would need "strong boundaries and regular, predictable routine and structure".  We agreed that the social workers account of her needs were spot on and furthermore; Raina was starting to thrive because of it.

She's had her fair share of tantrums - the worst week was a while back when Momma's blog entry summed up our despair nicely.  Raina had a 2 weeks long melt-down; completely unable to control her emotions and regulate herself.  She was violent, towards us both and herself (she still has the scars to prove it) she wouldn't sleep, destroyed everything in her bedroom and at her lowest point stood at the top of the stairs rattling the stair gate and swore at us for half an hour like a crazed animal. Not cute. Not nice. Not something we want to experience again.

But we have all forgiven and moved on.

Raina celebrated her 3rd birthday with us last weekend and it was a wonderful day.  Obviously our thoughts were with the birth parents and wider family on this bittersweet occasion.  We are hoping to meet the birth parents soon - within the next week or so and have been planning some questions to ask them.  This is quite daunting but we are also looking forward to it so we can look back in later years and tell Raina about the day we met her birth parents.