Our first day out alone with Jah.

We were camping in the garden of Jah’s short-term foster parents, so that we could get to know each other better before he moved in to join our family.

The whole area of our camper van was taken up at night with a double bed.  There were hammock-type beds above, one on each side.  On the first two mornings Jah came and peered through the windows.  He did not ask to come in.  On the third morning, however, he tapped on the van window and said

“Can I come in?”

We were glad that he was beginning to feel more at ease with us and of course we let him in.

Sam was still in the hammock above our bed.  Jah laughed a lot as we helped him to clamber up into the other hammock.  Once installed, he looked very pleased with himself.

We had enjoyed the excitement of the big day out with both families.  Today’s outing was going to be far more low key.  We were edging our way to reality – our life with Jah. I don’t know whether he felt apprehensive but I did.

Our plan for the day was to go for a picnic lunch and then to drive on to a place where we could all do pond-dipping.  Nets were provided.

Anna was always excellent at organising younger children and before we had our picnic, she organised running races.  Sam had a shock.  I think he deliberately ran slowly, so that Jah would not be discouraged.  However, Jah was such a good and keen runner, that Sam had to speed up!

The pond dipping was a fairly low-key activity.

You could see that Jah was desperate to find something big and unusual in his net.  He searched anxiously through the bowl that was provided, where the children could examine their catch.  Being anxious to succeed was going to be a feature of his life. That was evident and understandable.

  We tried to play down any competitive aspect of the activity. I think we were aiming for as calm an atmosphere as possible.  The days ahead would surely be dramatic enough.  I tried to make him laugh when describing my father’s ponds.  I talked about the wonderful insects that skim across the surface of pond water.  And I spoke about dragonflies.  His eyes opened so wide when I mentioned that word, so we had to assure him that they were only small – nothing like a ‘real’ dragon.

Now what lay ahead of us was the day we would all drive back to Leicester, to start our new life as a family of six.