Laura and Graeme’s Story

Laura and Graeme wanted to grow their family after they settled into their new home.

They explored the different options available, but they decided that IVF wasn’t for them and researched into adoption.

The more they discussed it, the more they realised it was the right route. They knew that could offer a loving home and wanted to help a child thrive and grow.

They attended an information session and asked questions before progressing on.

Laura said “We looked at different adoption agencies, but we knew that AiM was part of the local authority and had a good connection to the children’s teams. This means they can see younger children and babies coming through at an early stage”.

Laura and Graeme realised that the process would be in-depth, they had friends who had already been through the process.

“We are private people, so we were a little anxious about the process. However, our social worker made us feel so at ease that even contacting significant ex-partners turned out to be easier than expected.

It can be an emotional time, and it allows you to understand the children and their past.

The training days were informative. It allowed us to be more empathetic towards the birth family and we were even open to meeting the birth family.

Our son’s foster carer was incredible. As soon as we met her, we knew this person would be in our son’s life forever. She had such a positive impact on his life and she is now part of our family.

We were a little worried about the attachment and how that would happen. The social workers and foster carers had a great plan that worked great. The foster carer put our photos up in our son’s room so he would recognise us more. It was all done with the child at the centre of the process, and the transition was seamless.

Our son has five birth siblings, we do letterbox contact with all of them plus birth Mum and Nan.

He is aware that he is adopted, but he is still too young to fully understand his story.

We have started talking about families and how they are all different. He also has a life storybook which we read to him, and he can access it whenever he wants.

The most magical family moment was spending our first Christmas in Disneyland Paris. We were surrounded by our loved ones; it was a moment we will never forget.

Having a big support team is extremely important and we would recommend anyone to build that support. The grandparents find any excuse to come around now and visit.

We can’t leave the house without packing 10 bags of essentials now, but being a parent has changed our lives for the better.