Sunday 18 October 2015

It's all about family....

So this week we broke up for half term. Exciting stuff, except that it also marked for me my first few weeks as being not only back in full time employment but also as the first few weeks as being a teacher at the same school at which both my boys attend.

What has also compounded the pressure over these past few weeks is that my mother (granny) was diagnosed with a pretty hideous illness and, whilst the operation has been successful (thank goodness) she does require constant supervision. My sister has been 'working from home' for five days a week and I have been taking the long journey north in order to take my turn in looking after mum for the weekends. And, to add to it all, this week I started back on my open university course, where I'm currently in my fourth year of a psychology degree. I don't want to complain, not when mum is so ill, but it's been a nightmare.

That said, this week sees National Adoption Week coming around again, albeit this time under the leadership of the great team behind First for Adoption, whom I met with last year, after the sudden and shocking demise of BAAF. Surprisingly, that loss has barely been acknowledged.

Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to go this year as the children and I have had to travel north to take care of Granny but hopefully, Papa will attend. He does a lot of work with his company in promoting adoption and fostering, he's much more practical than I.

So we are with granny for the next couple of weeks and, to be honest, I hadn't realised just how much she means to the boys. KC will barely leave her side and TJ is obviously concerned. He even helped me with the weekly shop constantly asking, "Would Granny like these?" Or "Will these make Granny better?".

I think we often forget how much adoptive grandparents mean to our children. In our case Granny is probably the most constant female family member in their lives.

So the strain on my new job and on family life has been much harder than we ever thought it would be... But we keep going and we keep fighting, as a family...


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