Wigan families share their experiences for National Adoption Week

The initiative comes as part of a national awareness week, promoted by Wigan Council, which aims to celebrate modern adoption, by highlighting some of the many different families who have been brought together through the adoption process.

Cabinet Member for Children and Families, Coun Jenny Bullen, said: “Many people might have a set idea about what adoption is, who is eligible to adopt, what the process involves, and what sorts of children are waiting to be adopted, but the reality is that every adoption is as unique as the children and families themselves.”

Steven and Matt were married in 2015 and always knew that they wanted to adopt children.

The couple have adopted twice and chose the "fostering for adoption" route with their second adoption, which means first fostering a child who is very likely to soon become eligible for adoption.

“The two adoption processes weren’t massively different.

“There are some advantages to the fostering for adoption route as you’re more likely to be able to adopt a baby or young child, if that’s what you want to do, and the process can often be quicker than a standard adoption.”

The couple had a two-year gap in between each of their adoptions.

“We’d always planned to adopt more than one child and after two years we knew we were ready to adopt again.

“We worked hard to prepare our first little boy for the arrival of our second, but that is something that can be challenging when adopting a second child as there wasn’t the option of involving him in the pregnancy as there could have been with a biological child.

“We often spoken about the fact that he would soon have a new brother, but it still must have been surprising to him when our younger little boy arrived.

“Our younger one was also 13 months old when we adopted him, so he was interested in playing with our older little boy’s toys, which is an issue you wouldn’t have with the arrival of a new baby.

“Now they’ve very much bonded and think of each other and refer to each other as brothers. They have similar interests, they both love being outdoors and being active.”

Rosie and Dave adopted two little girls with additional needs two years ago. They will be sharing their story on video through Wigan Council’s social media channels during National Adoption Week which runs from October 18 to October 24.

Rosie said: “We’d always imagined we would adopt younger children, so we were surprised to be drawn to the girls as they were both over 4 years old. We knew we needed to take our time, because this was something different to what we’d planned, but there was something special about them.

“Adopting children with additional needs isn’t as scary as you might think. You do have to adapt to challenges, but all parents do, and ‘normal’ is just whatever is normal for you.”

The theme for National Adoption Week this year is Modern Adoption.

Steven added: “For me, modern adoption means everyone being open to different types of families, both parents and children.

“As a family, we don’t necessarily look like everyone else’s expectation of what a family might be, so that could be called modern, but it’s also really good.

“Throughout the adoption process, the fact that we were two men wasn’t really spoken about, we were never made to feel different, the focus is all about matching the right child with the right family.

“If you’re considering adoption, be open to the different possibilities and then just go for it and approach an organisation like Together for Adoption and find out more.”

In the UK, anyone who is 21 or above can be considered as an adopter.

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