“Getting to know you” – before Jah moves in.

So far Jah had made one visit to our house and met all the family.  The next time he would be moving in as the little brother we had been waiting for and we would be his ‘forever family’.

D. and I discussed the handover from the foster family to ours.  We all decided that the Half Term holiday would be the best time. We would be able to spend a few days together.  We hoped that would give enough time for this little three-year-old to get more used to us.

We would camp in the foster family’s garden in our small camper van with Lucy and Anna sleeping in an adjoining tent.

After spending the first couple of days getting to know each other, both families would go out together on an outing.

On the next day, D. Sam, Lucy, Anna and I would take Jah out with us.  This would be our first time with him alone.  We hoped everything would go well and that we could drive back home with Jah on the following day.

The joint outing to an adventure park was a great success.  Jah’s eyes lit up at a giant helter-skelter.  The other children climbed the steps with alacrity and to my surprise he saw no reason why he shouldn’t do the same. I went down with him on the first occasion.  After that he went up and down several times on his own, dragging the mat up the steps each time.  He was triumphant!

One can just see him in the middle of the picture.

 Another attraction was a bathing pool.  When he began to feel cold, we encouraged him to come out of the water and something very touching happened.  He allowed me, rather than his foster mother, to wrap him up in a soft dry towel and give him a hug.  It was a moving moment for me.  It was the very first time I had been able to do anything for him.

Things seemed to be going well and so we made plans for our first day out together as a family with four children.   (See next blog post.)