Our fostering blogger talks about the final handover: The LG’s move to her permanent family has been organised really well by the Adoption and Permanency social workers. Today was the day we formally handed her over permanently to her Mum and Dad, and said goodbye to the LG from our lives. She went early in the morning – you don’t want the LG hanging around all day for it, getting frustrated. She had only a little bag containing her toiletries, a book, and her favourite toys to take with her – you don’t want to be spending hours packing a car with lots of belongings in random bags and boxes when all the LG wants to do is get home (as she now thinks of it) with Mummy and Daddy (as she now thinks of them). A final round of photos (to go in the photo album we’re making about her time with us) marked the handover. The LG’s Mum and Dad got a bunch of useful letters from the Adoption and Permanency Team, including one to explain her circumstances to her new GP; I wish I’d had something similar when the LG came to us, as registering such a peripatetic child without paperwork proved rather troublesome. The final handover of the LG from us to her Mum and Dad was overseen by a social worker; again a contrast to the situation when the LG arrived, when she was simply dropped off along with a car-boot-load of belongings by her previous foster carer. In situations like today’s, the social worker stays with the foster carers to make sure they don’t collapse into an immediate emotional breakdown. Again, this is quite different to when foster children move between foster carers. As it was, we’re not upset to see the LG go to such a lovely family and home. We’ve done a good job getting her to the stage where she was ready to move, and we’re proud of that. But back to the final handover. The LG told us she would miss us, and we told her we’d miss her but were so happy she finally had a lovely Mummy and Daddy to look after her. She made a crying noise, but there were no tears. Bless her, she thought we’d be expecting her to cry so she was making the effort, even if the subterfuge was utterly transparent to a grown up. But honestly, she has already transferred her affections to Mum and Dad. And quite right too. She hopped in their car after a brief hug with us, and a remarkable new family drove off down our road to set off on their greatest adventure ever. And the LG never looked back.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Jun 2013 18:34:29 +0000
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