“Adopting has changed my life for the better”
Lizzy is Lillybelle’s adoptive mum. She and her husband are also mum and dad to their two other adopted children.
11 year old Lillybelle says: “I’ve got three families in total, but it’s like one big family. I’ve got my birth family, which I still write letters to. I’ve got a foster family, which mummy’s still in contact with. And I’ve got my adoptive family, which I’m living with now.
Lizzy says: “It’s life-changing, and has changed my life for the better. And it’s opened my eyes to a world that I didn’t know existed.”
Lizzy shares her family’s adoption story:
“Hi I’m Lizzy – adoptive mum to three awesome small people. My husband and I have both always been quite interested in adoption. We each have friends who are adopted so we knew a little bit about the process. Then we ran into some fertility issues and rather than go down the IVF route we decided there’s already children in the world that need a home. And we went to an information session and the rest is history. The first time we got to meet our children – incredible! We always have wonderful memories of Easter – our first Easter as a family because we had just met the children and we just had the best time. It’s life-changing definitely and has changed my life for the better, and opens my eyes to a world that I didn’t know existed.
“We wanted everything to happen faster than it did, but when it eventually did happen it was the right time. Each time, we’ve had lots of training we’ve asked them (Adopt South West) to throw any training at us that they can. And Adopt South West have been great. I highly recommend getting onto a therapeutic parenting course if you’re thinking of becoming an adoptive parent – we’ve learned lots of things about ourselves and each other, so the process itself was positive for
“I think ‘contact’ in the right circumstances is really important for the children to be able to keep in touch with people that are important to them, and to be able to ask any questions they might have that we might not be able to answer. We keep in touch with the foster family of our older children – we are just like one big family really.”
11 year old Lillybelle adds:
“I’ve got three families in total, but it’s like one big family. So I’ve got my birth family which I still write letters to; I’ve got a foster family which mummy’s still in contact with; and then I’ve got my adoptive family which I’m living with now. It’s nice because I don’t actually live with an massive family so it’s not too overwhelming, with so many people.
“But they’re still in my heart, they’re still in my mind. I still think of them lots.
“I’ve got loads of memories of them. It has been difficult sometimes, it’s been emotional sometimes but most of the time it’s been great. I think that’s a good way of summing it up – emotional but great!”