Post by emster on Dec 24, 2008 17:34:19 GMT 10
Thanks all for your well wishes. Yes it is very exciting (and trepidatious) for us. The transition starts on 8 January and all going well we will have the girls home by 15 January. We look at the 3 photos we have of them every day and try to imagine what it will be like when we meet them.
You cannot imagine the pleasure it has been telling our relatives and friends who have been waiting with us for something to happen for the last 3 years. Interesting though that not everyone has been that accepting, but we were warned during the eduction sessions that there would be a range of reactions. I realise that not everyone "gets it" the same way that we do. To answer a query raised by some one: we were approved for male/female children aged 1-6 including sibling groups and we are with the connections agency.
Before we applied we had never heard of "permanent care" and we thought that hundreds of kids were adopted in Victoria annually. I think also that most people assume that the children are from overseas until we tell them their local. Some people want to know where the parents are and we just tell them they weren't able to look after them and leave it at that. I am loathed to tell them the whole story about the girls being neglected, as I read in one of my books on adoption that if you tell people 10 good things about an adopted child's background and 1 bad thing - guess which thing they are likely to remember? I am also concerned that if you divulge their background at this stage then you do not know which well meaning (or not well meaning) friend or relative might tell one or both of the girls before we have an opportunity to talk to them (if it is ever appropriate to do so).
I work in the legal field and I would like to recommend to those who are interested some useful and interesting materials I found on the Victorian children's court website. As you may know, the children's court has jurisdiction in relation to making orders about child protection under the relevant Victorian Acts, including permanent care orders.
Adoption is different and has its own Act (the Adoption Act) and orders are made in the County or Supreme Court instead.
A children's court Magistrate (Peter Power) has written comprehensive materials in relation to the operation of the relevant legislation about child protection and permanent care and the Children's Court. The material are 465 pages long(!) but are broken down into chapters, and only 2 or 3 chapters are relevant to permanent care or child protection. You don't have to be a lawyer to benefit from them.
I recommend chapters 4 and 5, and chapter 2 and 3 might interest those who want some general background. The materials are kept up to date and are current to 12 December 2008.
Here is the link to the research materials page. You can download the chapters as pdfs. A comprehensive discussion of permanent care orders can be found at chapter 5.22. Note that revocation of such orders is rare and the only example referred to was because of the actions of one of the permanent carers.
I am interested to hear if people find them useful. If people have any legal queries then I am happy to try and answer them if I can but I do not currently practice in this area.
If clicking on the link doesn't work then cut and paste the address into your browser.
www.childrenscourt.vic.gov.au/CA256CA800011129/page/Research+Materials?OpenDocument&1=60-Research+Materials~&2=~&3=~
regards
Emster
You cannot imagine the pleasure it has been telling our relatives and friends who have been waiting with us for something to happen for the last 3 years. Interesting though that not everyone has been that accepting, but we were warned during the eduction sessions that there would be a range of reactions. I realise that not everyone "gets it" the same way that we do. To answer a query raised by some one: we were approved for male/female children aged 1-6 including sibling groups and we are with the connections agency.
Before we applied we had never heard of "permanent care" and we thought that hundreds of kids were adopted in Victoria annually. I think also that most people assume that the children are from overseas until we tell them their local. Some people want to know where the parents are and we just tell them they weren't able to look after them and leave it at that. I am loathed to tell them the whole story about the girls being neglected, as I read in one of my books on adoption that if you tell people 10 good things about an adopted child's background and 1 bad thing - guess which thing they are likely to remember? I am also concerned that if you divulge their background at this stage then you do not know which well meaning (or not well meaning) friend or relative might tell one or both of the girls before we have an opportunity to talk to them (if it is ever appropriate to do so).
I work in the legal field and I would like to recommend to those who are interested some useful and interesting materials I found on the Victorian children's court website. As you may know, the children's court has jurisdiction in relation to making orders about child protection under the relevant Victorian Acts, including permanent care orders.
Adoption is different and has its own Act (the Adoption Act) and orders are made in the County or Supreme Court instead.
A children's court Magistrate (Peter Power) has written comprehensive materials in relation to the operation of the relevant legislation about child protection and permanent care and the Children's Court. The material are 465 pages long(!) but are broken down into chapters, and only 2 or 3 chapters are relevant to permanent care or child protection. You don't have to be a lawyer to benefit from them.
I recommend chapters 4 and 5, and chapter 2 and 3 might interest those who want some general background. The materials are kept up to date and are current to 12 December 2008.
Here is the link to the research materials page. You can download the chapters as pdfs. A comprehensive discussion of permanent care orders can be found at chapter 5.22. Note that revocation of such orders is rare and the only example referred to was because of the actions of one of the permanent carers.
I am interested to hear if people find them useful. If people have any legal queries then I am happy to try and answer them if I can but I do not currently practice in this area.
If clicking on the link doesn't work then cut and paste the address into your browser.
www.childrenscourt.vic.gov.au/CA256CA800011129/page/Research+Materials?OpenDocument&1=60-Research+Materials~&2=~&3=~
regards
Emster