Overwhelmed

Hello,

So, first day of prep' course on Friday.  It was really tiring!  I'm not sure why so tiring...because we have already done the foster carer one and read quite a lot of books it wasn't so much of an information overload as it might have been.  I think the tiredness came from a combination of it finally all being real and properly starting, as well as sitting in a dark room for a whole day!  The social workers running the course were very friendly and approachable so everyone felt like they could ask questions and the atmosphere was very relaxed.  On the course there were two single adopters, two straight couples, a gay male couple and us so we weren't a minority group.  There was a bit of a funny moment when my little case study group said that an issue for our case study child was a lack of a male role model in the home.  I probably should have said something but I didn't.  Silly.  What I did do was write a question mark next to where I wrote the comment.  How lame!  I must man up and tackle these things tomorrow.  I don't think they meant anything by it, but when you are in a group with a lesbian and a single, female adopter I think you should probably be a bit more open minded!

So...I will let you know how tomorrow and Tuesday go.  We are finding out our attachment style tomorrow which should be interesting.  I think me and my other half are at opposite ends of the spectrum!  If I have a problem I talk (rant) to as many people as possible (hence the blog!!), if she does she's much more likely to hide in a corner and eat a biscuit!  But I think that's part of why we work.  I'm sure I couldn't be married to someone like me; we would never get anything done!

The title of this post is "overwhelmed", not by the prep' course necessarily, just a whole bunch of other stuff which has all lumped together to make a big lump in my throat.  You know that feeling where you just feel rather uneasy and like it won't take much to tip you into meltdown?  It's not a good place for a teacher to be as in normal circumstances the kids don't get to me at all but lately I've been slightly less robust with them!  Nightmare!  Hopefully after this week things will start to settle down a bit.  A combination of the house extension, the adoption finally becoming real, the prospect of a new head of department at school, and my Grandma being unwell as finally taken its toll.  I have taken some time out today to have a bath and eat some chocolate and we have stocked up on easy dinners like pizza and fish fingers (most out of character for us!).  I think we just need to be careful to take care of ourselves as all of the above are having quite a big impact on my wellbeing!  Am currently sitting in my pyjamas in front of the fire and drinking a cup of tea.  This combined with the blogging therapy is definitely helping!  Thank you, free therapists!

So apparently the Friday part of the adoption training was the most wordy, hopefully Monday and Tuesday will be more hands on and really get me thinking.  I will let you know!  Take care, everyone x