Hi to all who read this.
Myself & my husband have been foster carers for the past 9 years, & have for the past 2 years 4 months have had the ultimate pleasure of looking after a gorgeous little boy since he was 6 1/2 months old. We have been given the fabulous chance of Adopting him which we are sooo happy about as we can't have our own children & have been going through the Adoption Assessment for the past 6 months.
In Nov 2011 (Little Man) was diagnosed as Autistic which to be totally open with you wasn't a shock or surprise to myself or my husband due to earlier signs of something not being quite right with him. We got asked very recently about how we felt now that he has been diagnosed & we said we feel exactly the same before diagnosis, we adore every single bit of him 100%, which was met with a smile from the person asking.
We have however encountered some resistance from certain professionals who have stated to the Adoption Assessor that they feel myself & my husband (Mainly myself though) aren't taking the Autism very seriously & that the older he gets we wouldn't be able to cope with him !!! This silly idea has come about due to myself cancelling appointments due to being Ill & not wanting to spread any germs being the kind-hearted person that I am, but obviously that has come to bite me BIG TIME. We are absolutely furious at this notion as we do everything above & beyond for him as though he is our actual Biological child. It has now come to light that because of this it is looking negative for us to Adopt him, just because I cancelled appointments which I was under no impression at all were of any matter of urgency that they should be attended, due to the person who was visiting was the Early Years Learning Person & they themselves NEVER mentioned that although I was ill they needed to attend, we just arranged it for another time.
We have now got to send a report of everything that we do for him, routines, food, sleep, naps, entertaining him, appointments EVERYTHING, so that the adoption assessor can take that to panel to evidence to them that we are going to be appropriate adopters & will be able to meet his needs long-term.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated as we are sooo very down in the dumps about it, due to certain people PRESUMING that we wouldn't be able to manage him.
I hope the above makes sense :/