Back to reality and our Leicester home

I counted recently and I reckon that In my long lifetime I have moved home eleven times, but always with family members,  except when I was in my first job.   In Jah’s short lifetime of only four years, I reckon he had already changed homes about six times.  That is counting protracted stays in hospital and always the change had involved living with people he had never met before.

After the first holiday away from my new home, I always really appreciated coming back and looking all round the house, garden and neighbourhood.  It was like “nesting” or rather feeling that the current “nest” was still fine and acceptable. We were relieved to see that in his way Jah was happy to return to the Leicester house after our holiday away.

It was lovely seeing  him walk solemnly round the house and garden, checking that everything was as he had remembered it.  The sunflower plant that he had brought with him was now as tall as D.  Jah was very impressed.

“I gave you a lovely present, didn’t I?” he said.

The weather was still warm and the boys carried on with games they had invented.  All our children have enjoyed making make-shift tents.  Anna and Sam used to make a cosy tent-home, but I see that Sam and Jah played more outside their tent.

When he had been with us for the required length of time, we were given permission to set the adoption process in motion.  The Local Authority’s Social Services Department assured us that although the process was going to be lengthy and complicated, they would pay all legal fees.  They would have to use a barrister, as the case was not straightforward.

One of the main reasons for the problem was that Jah’s birth mother had moved and nobody knew how to contact her.  The Local Authority would at the end of the day apply to have the adoption legalised without her written permission, but this would be the very last resort.  They said that it would be so much better for him to know that his birth parents had agreed willingly to the adoption.  It would not mean so much to him now, but it might when he grew older.

Jah would still accompany me to the Playgroup during the winter and spring terms, but he was due to start school in the following summer term. He was already beginning to ask aloud when he would be “properly ‘dopted” and have our family surname.

That was a question he would ask again and again: and as time passed, so would we.