The theme for this year’s National Adoption Week is “The Journey” sharing and reflecting on the adoption journey and those who support adopters going through the process. I’m very grateful to be able to share some reader’s stories over the next week or so, as well as re-publishing some of the most-read interviews from the last few years that highlight what the process is like and the kind of support people found invaluable throughout their adoption journey.
First up is an interview with Jodie who shares her adoption journey; you can follow more of her story on Instagram.
Introduce yourself and your family
I am Jodie, and my husband Darrell and I adopted our son in 2020. We live in the Cotswolds.
Tell us a bit about your adoption journey
We started the adoption process in August 2018. When we had our first meeting with a social worker she felt that I hadn’t grieved my grandmother’s death properly so we were put on hold until January of 2019 which is when we officially started Stage 1.
Stage 1 took a long time as our local authority didn’t have any courses with spaces available until June and July. Stage 2 didn’t start until August and we had our approval panel in November 2019 so the assessment took just less than a year.
We then went into family finding and initially got linked with a little girl in January 2020 but that link wasn’t right for us or the child. We found our son in March of 2020, however, due to COVID things became very slow as many social workers were working from home and we weren’t officially linked with him until June 2020.
Our matching panel was in September 2020 and at the end of that month, we began introductions! Our son moved in on the 5th of October 2020 and in March 2021 he became legally ours. So in total, from start to finish it took just over two and a half years and we have now been a family for four years.
The process felt very long; we had tried for a biological child for 10 years before we realised that biology doesn’t make a family so the extra two years seemed like forever But it was worth every minute. Parts of it felt quite intrusive but now we’ve done all of the training and we’ve been parenting an adopted child, we understand why they have to be so thorough and get quite deep.
How did matching work?
We had decided we weren’t going to look at the photos or videos of the children during the matching process until we’d read all of their profiles and knew that we could look after them and manage any medical issues. We lived in a flat at the time so, for example, we wouldn’t have been a good match for a child with physical disabilities as there wasn’t a lift or other access to our home.
This worked until we saw a six-month-old little boy with a big grin on his face. I turned to my husband and said “That’s our son”. We read his profile and it was love; we didn’t worry about any unknowns on his profile (he had quite a few at the time)
What was your biggest source of support during your journey through the assessment and matching?
Our family were the best support during the journey. We told our immediate family from the moment we started the process because we wanted to be able to talk to them about it and get them on board. We also had the best social worker who was such a support through the whole process. We also made a Whatsapp group with our fellow adopters on the courses and kept in touch throughout the process.

What were introductions/transitions like? Do you keep in touch with foster carers now?
Introductions were amazing and honestly, his foster carers are the most incredible people, I don’t actually have enough words to describe what wonderful people they are. They made us so welcome when we went to their home. Our son was their first from-birth baby placement as they had previously been foster carers for teenagers. He had been with them from four days old and by the time we met him they had been his carers for nine months.
I had really bad anxiety throughout the introductions and made myself ill, but they were so accommodating, kept me calm and reassured me that I could do this. We spent a lot of time with them at their home and although we did take our son out for days out, we were limited in what we could do due to the pandemic restrictions.
They live fur hours away from us so we stayed in an Air BnB. After nine days down where they live, they came and stayed in a hotel near us. The original plan was that our son would go back to them at the hotel each night for five days before his first sleepover, and then the 6th day would be move-in/placement day. However, our son was not coping with going back to the hotel so his first sleepover was the second night that they were in our area, they just visited a couple of times a day until placement day.
Placement day was such a bittersweet day. It was great for us as we finally had our son home but for them, it was a happy day tinged with the sadness of leaving the baby they raised for nine months. I honestly don’t know how foster carers do their job! We are still in contact with them regularly and see them a couple of times a year. The four-hour drive to see them is the only thing stopping us from seeing them more often.
Have you needed post-adoption support since your child came home? If so, did you get the support you needed? Was it timely or were there waiting lists?
We accessed post-adoption support recently as our son had a hard time with the transition from nursery to the summer holidays before he started school. Initially, I emailed and within a few days, we had a phone call from a social worker who talked through all of the techniques we had been using to help our son. We were told we were doing everything right and that they were there if we needed more help, and haven’t needed any since then but we know where they are if we need them.
What’s been the hardest part of your adoption journey?
For us, it was the waiting and the turning down of the profiles because we felt very guilty saying no to children who needed loving homes. But you have to realise that you can’t help every child. The matching process is about finding the child that you are perfect for and that will fit perfectly into your family.
The best part?
Completing our family. He is the most perfect little boy. And yes, I am biased!
What advice would you give yourself knowing what you do now, if you were just starting your adoption journey?
Make time for yourself. Things will go very fast once you start introductions so look after yourself as you can’t pour from an empty cup. Read up on the signs of post-adoption depression and get help if you get any symptoms.

Head to the adoption section to read more interviews with adopters, adoptees, foster carers and birth parents.