We had a meeting at our place to discuss the longer term plan for L and T. We were both in attendance as well as our Supervising Social Worker, the Local Authority Social Worker and the Health Visitor who was there to report on T’s and L’s health issues. Mum had been invited but hadn’t responded. So the Local Authority Social Worker asked if we would be prepared to care for the sibling’s long term. We, of course, agreed to this and everyone seemed to agree that this was the best option for everyone. We were aware, of course, that L had health issues which still had to be resolved and that T was being monitored due to how premature she was. However we felt that none of these issues were serious enough to cause us any problems. Given Mum’s previous behaviour and issues it seemed very likely that the children would be put up for adoption. Now we had previously discussed adoption for a new born baby we had cared for when we fostered for a London Local Authority. We never followed this through and the baby was eventually adopted by a very lovely couple. We decided to put the thoughts of adoption to one side and concentrate on our Foster Care duties. We had a feeling that Mum wouldn’t be happy about this situation and, sure enough, we heard, a couple of weeks later that Mum was ‘raving’ about the decisions that had been made. Anyway we carried on regardless with our care and preparing for the upcoming medical appointments for L. The initial hospital appointment had led to the requirement of a number of other hospital visits to check various other issues. There seemed to be a long list of both physical and mental issues that were to be pursued which meant quite a few visits. We were of the opinion that this was a little ‘over the top’ but went along with it. A lot of what we witnessed was play therapy type tests to see how L reacted to certain puzzles and situations. This mainly involved toys and jigsaw type puzzles. You could sense that he struggled with these tests which the Doctor deemed age appropriate. What didn’t help was that he had a habit of ‘giving up’ and becoming frustrated if he failed at something. When he became frustrated things had a habit of flying as his temper got the better of him. The physical checks appeared easier for him to cope with even though he was poked, prodded and pulled around in all directions. He appeared to us to be a robust young man who was solidly built but the doctors wanted to check him out fully and we respected that. For little T it was more a case of ensuring that her growth continued and that she was catching up after being so small at birth. Like her brother she was a robust child and she was certainly growing, physically, very quickly.
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