In the weeks leading up to Christmas we have been excited to bring you very some special, festive episodes of our Adopter Stories podcast, in which we asked some of our families about their first Christmas as adoptive parents, those first precious moments as a family.

In this fourth and final episode we had the privilege of sitting down to chat with Shauneen, finding out about their first Christmas as a family.

If you are considering adoption and would like to enquire with Adoption Now, or ask any questions that you may have then please head over to our website which is www.adoptionnow.org.uk. Or, alternatively you can ring our information line on 01204 336096. Our Information line is open 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

Thank you very much for listening and we hope that you have a brilliant Christmas!

In the weeks leading up to Christmas we are excited to bring you very some special, festive episodes of our Adopter Stories podcast. We asked some of our families about their first Christmas as adoptive parents, those first precious moments as a family.

In the third episode we had the privilege of sitting down to chat with Matthew, finding out about their first Christmas as a family.

If you are considering adoption and would like to enquire with Adoption Now, or ask any questions that you may have then please head over to our website which is www.adoptionnow.org.uk. Or, alternatively you can ring our information line on 01204 336096. Our Information line is open 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas we are excited to bring you very some special, festive episodes of our Adopter Stories podcast. We asked some of our families about their first Christmas as adoptive parents, those first precious moments as a family.

In this first episode we had the privilege of sitting down to chat with Tracey, finding out about their first Christmas as a family.

If you are considering adoption and would like to enquire with Adoption Now, or ask any questions that you may have then please head over to our website which is www.adoptionnow.org.uk. Or, alternatively you can ring our information line on 01204 336096. Our Information line is open 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas we are excited to bring you very some special, festive episodes of our Adopter Stories podcast. We asked some of our families about their first Christmas as adoptive parents, those first precious moments as a family.

In this first episode we had the privilege of sitting down to chat with Terry, finding out about their first Christmas as a family.

If you are considering adoption and would like to enquire with Adoption Now, or ask any questions that you may have then please head over to our website which is www.adoptionnow.org.uk. Or, alternatively you can ring our information line on 01204 336096. Our Information line is open 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

At Adoption Now we take great pride in the way we are able to support our families so, with Christmas just on the horizon we thought it would be good to offer some extra support and advice for the holidays.

There is no doubt that Christmas is a magical time of year; what with all the lights, sounds, smells and traditions that are associated with it. However, a lot of children find this time of year hard, with all the sudden changes to routines and all the expectations that come with it along with a sensory overload as the world changes around them. Children in care have often experienced so much trauma in their early lives that Christmas can often be especially hard for them and their families.

We readily acknowledge that this isn't the case for every looked after child but to try and help alleviate some of the pressures for both children and their families, I sat down to chat with Rita, one of our resident Therapeutic Parenting experts to get some hints & tips around making the most of the festive period and creating the best time possible for children and the wider families.

At this moment in time we have more need than ever for anyone who is thinking about adopting to come forward. If you are looking to start your adoption story why not contact our Information Line on 01204 336096, and maybe you could start making some new traditions of your own.

You can also visit www.adoptionnow.org.uk which is packed full of information about adoption and the adoption process.

National Adoption Week (16th – 22nd October) by You Can Adopt, backed by Northwest Regional Adoption Agency, Adoption Now is celebrating the life stories of different generations of adopted people to encourage potential adopters to come forward to change the lives of children who are still waiting for their forever home.

To find out more about the National Adoption Week campaign or to seek information or support, visit www.youcanadopt.co.uk/NAW2023

If you are thinking about adoption we would love you to consider adopting with our agency - you can all our Information Line on 01204 336096 or visit our website www.adoptionnow.org.uk!

#NationalAdoptionWeek

Brothers and sisters, or sibling groups, are often one of the groups of children who often wait the longest for their forever families. These siblings have such a unique, and powerful bond and they have often been through extremely difficult circumstances and in most situations have been the only constant within each other’s lives. So when it comes to our family groups, we always try our best to keep them together and need adopters who can consider adopting siblings.

We always ask our adopters if they could open their minds and consider whether they could adopt siblings, which we know can seem a little daunting, but rest assured that we have the Adoption Support team to help and support both you and the children.

For our current Do you know our children? campaign I sat down to chat with Andrea, who along with her husband adopted their two boys. We not only find out about their story, but we also talk openly about the challenges that they encountered and the fantastic joys too.

. If hearing andrea’s story has got you considering adopting siblings then we would love to hear from you. You can call our Information Line on 01204 336096 or you can visit our website adoptionnow.org.uk to find out more about adoption, the adoption process and how to start your adoption journey.

If you’re ready to take the first steps on your adoption journey but don’t feel ready to call us just yet, why not book on to one of our Online Information Events? 100% live and free to attend, they are hosted by one of our social workers, along with an adopter guest speaker who tells us their adoption story. We go through the adoption process, what it looks like and how it works and we finish the event with a live Q&A. They are the perfect place to start so head over to adoptionnow.org.uk/events to book your free place.

The overwhelming majority of people who contact our agency and are thinking about adopting do so with the intention of adopting a child that is aged 0 to 2 years old. And understandably everyone has their reasons for this.

However, our latest figures show that 40% of our children that have a Placement Order are in fact 3 years old or older, and with this group of children waiting the longest for their forever families we have more need than ever for adopters to consider whether they could adopt an older child.

These are still very young children, and due to the nature of their births there will be some developmental delay, meaning that while these older children may present as older they are in fact still very young and need just as much love and attention.

But how do you officially class a child as older? At what age do YOU consider a child to be classed as old?

The team at Adoption Now hit the road at shopping centres in Bolton, Blackburn and Bury to challenge these preconceptions at our recent July Roadshows!

We took five life-sized, cardboard cut-outs, based on real children, were displayed and passers-by were asked how old they thought they were based on their height. The children ranged from ten months old to seven years old.

100% of the people asked were unable to guess all the children’s ages correctly with 23% guessing only one child’s age right. On average the children were thought to be between one and four years older than they actually were.

In this episode we will here how people across all 3 roadshows reacted to the answers!

If you are thinking about adopting and could now consider adopting a child over the age of 3 we would love to hear from you. You can visit our website which is www.adoptionnow.org.uk or you can call our Information Line on 01204 336096 where a member of the team will be able to answer ANY questions you may have about adoption and the adoption process.

And don’t forget, you can also book your free place at one our upcoming Online information events. 100% live and hosted by one of our social workers with an adopter guest speaker, these are the perfect place to start your adoption journey. You can book your free place by visiting www.adoptionnow.org.uk/events

Did you know that we are the only Regional Adoption Agency in the North West of England that offers a Mentoring Service to adopters?

It’s an invaluable service that we offer to all of our adopters and is designed to be a safe and supportive space where they can share their experiences with their Mentors who are themselves experienced adopters.

Our mentors have been there and done it, and they are fully trained to support our adopters as they progress through their adoption journey. After all, no one like another adopter gets what going through the adoption process is like.

In this episode I sat down to chat with members of our Mentoring service to find out how it all works, when it started and just how much our adopters value the service.

Has this episode got you wanting to find out more about adoption and the adoption process? Why not visit www.adoptionnow.org.uk/events and book yourself on to one of our free Online Information Events. Hosted by one of our social workers, along with an adopter guest speaker our events are 100% live and are the perfect place for you to ask ANY questions that you may have about adoption and the adoption process.

You can also call our Information Line, where a member of our team will be able to get you started on your adoption journey. Open 9am – 5pm Mon – Friday you can call our Information line on 01204 336096.

Throughout April to June we have been focusing on our Every Step campaign. As a fitting end to this campaign and with the brand new national adoption campaign from You Can Adopt starting on the 20th June I thought it would be an ideal time to sit down and reflect on the breadth of support that we offer to our adopters here at Adoption Now.

My guest in this episode is our Head of Service Karen Barrick. She tells us about the support that is available, we cover the Adoption Support Fund and we also find out about the goals of this years You Can Adopt Campaign.

If you would like to find out more about the You Can Adopt national campaign simply visit www.youcanadopt.co.uk or www.adoptionnow.org.uk/youcanadopt

Want to start YOUR adoption journey? You can contact us directly via our online enquiry form at www.adoptionnow.org.uk or you can call our Information Line on 01204 336096