Reflections. The family story continued. “We have heard of a little boy who is longing for a ‘forever family’ “.

In September 1979 we were approved as would-be adopters for an older child.  I needed a job that I could do with a child-in-tow, so I applied to a local playgroup.  It was mornings only and was in the next road. I got the job and enjoyed it very much indeed.  We were ready!

September came and went.  So did October, November, December etc.  By March we were wondering whether there really were any children out there needing families.  We wondered whether we would EVER find the ‘little brother’ we were waiting for. The children we read about were either part of a sibling group, too young, or were not available to join our family.

Eventually, on March 28^th 1980 we had a long-awaited telephone call from Brenda, our adoption society’s contact.  She sounded quite breathless with excitement on the ‘phone.

“A London local authority social worker has just rung me about a little boy who has been waiting nearly two years for a ‘forever family’,” she said.

Brenda told us as much as she knew and asked whether we would like his social worker to come and tell us about him.  We certainly did.

The little boy was called Jah.  His social worker was called Pat.  She had known him ever since he was eight months old.  He was currently with a short-term foster family.  The foster mother said that he was wanting to call her ‘Mummy’ but she had to keep saying, as gently as she could, that Pat was going to find a ‘forever Mummy and Daddy’ for him. They would be the people he could call ‘Mummy’ and ‘Daddy’.

Pat gave us a very thorough run down of all the events in Jah’s short life.  He had been virtually starved of food, as there were so many other children in the household. He had been in and out of hospital and eventually made a ward of the High Court of the land.  She said that if we proceeded with fostering and applying to adopt him, the local authority would pay all necessary legal fees for a solicitor and barrister.  She thought we might want to add another name and perhaps use that, as Jah is such a srong Rastafarian name.  This would be fine and she would encourage it, as long as the little boy was happy about it.

I imagine that nowadays families would be given videos of any likely child.  All Pat had available to show us was two photos.  They showed two aspects of his character.  The first photo showed a shy, rather sad and vulnerable little boy. The second one showed him ‘being Elton John’.  He was wearing sunglasses and looking enthusiastic.

Jah looked great to us!  We agreed to Pat setting up an occasion for D. and myself to visit him.  If we all got on well, another occasion would be arranged for our three children to meet him and we would see how this went.

THINGS WERE ON THE MOVE AT LAST.