Panel

Day 285

Everything had bene building to this. Day 285 was the day that all the trianing, the self reflection, the interviews, the references, the workbooks and learning had all been building to.

Panel sounds like it will be a scary experience. A call or meeting with a not insignifcant number of people - 7 or 8 members of the panel, plus observers, plus people to take minutes, plsu your social worker - it is enough to make anyone nervous, especially when the outcome of the meeting feels so important.

The great thing about panel though, is they want you to succeed. Ultimately adoption panel want more good adopters, and as long as your social worker has done a good job ahead of time, there should not be anything coming up at panel that will be a cause for concern. The other great thing is they will send you their questions ahead of time, so you have an opportunity to prepare for them and show your best selves.

For Bill and June the experience was fabulous. They were the first form their training group to go to panel and were highly nervous. But the panel were warm and welcoming and they soon felt comfortable chatting with them and answering their questions. The session wasn't long and following the conversaiton, the panel were pleased to provide them a unanimous "Yes" on recommending them to adopt!

Linking would have to wait while Helen took some annual leave, but she did let them know she was working on something.