Setback and a Sign!

I guess it was inevitable when you think about our journey thus far with Pip's adoption.  Our whole process has been about delays.  Our panel date was delayed; Pip's court report was delayed and now our adoption hearing has been delayed whilst the courts make another attempt to find his Birth Mother using a Tracing Order.  If Pip's Birth Mother cannot be traced after this then the judge will dispense of the need for her consent to the adoption.  Not that she will give her consent even if they do find her.

It's hopefully only a delay of 4-6 weeks.  I'm disappointed because, with less than a week to go before our hearing, I was finally starting to relax and feel excited that we would finally be a formal family.  No less than one hour after I posted exactly feeling this to my adoption group than I get an email from Pip's Social Worker giving me the news of the delay.  I feel like I should be jumping up and down, getting angry and shouting the odds, but I feel too tired and worn out really.  I'm also being pragmatic.  What good will jumping up and down actually do?  All it will achieve is me having even less energy than I currently do so why use my energy on a fruitless cause?  Actually I'd much rather the delay than Pip's Birth Mother potentially make a case in the future that not enough effort was made to find her and the risk that might pose to Pip's adoption.

Ironically there is another story tied up to this story that is another reason why I'm not getting too stressed about it all.  It's a story about a dress.

A few weeks ago, whilst shopping with a dear friend, I tried on two jumper dresses in
Monsoon.  They were both in the sale.  As is often the case for me when trying on dresses in Monsoon I loved them both.  I decided though that, in the spirit of saving money, I should only buy one so I chose the black and white striped dress to match my lovely new knee high black boots.  Once I got home though I kept thinking about the lovely brown dress and how lovely it would look with my other new pair of brown boots for Pip's Adoption Day in court.  About 10 days later these thoughts got the better of me and I returned to the shop to see if the dress was still there.  It wasn't.  I tried online but it was the same story. Sold out everywhere.

It clearly wasn't meant to be and I started to put my mind to thinking about what else I might wear to court.

After I got the news of the delay in Pip's court case my engagement ring snapped and I had to take the ring into the jewellers in our local town.  After dropping the ring off the thought came to me to pop into Monsoon and just see if there were any other dresses still in the sale in need of a new home.  As I was looking the dress I tried on caught my eye.  I remembered that they had the dress but not in my size but something made me slide my fingers along the rail to have a little look anyway.

I'm sure you know where this story is going........

There on the clothes rail was my dress, in my size.  I actually let out a little squeal of excitement and rushed to the changing room to try it on again.  It fitted beautifully and I knew it would be coming home with me.  I told the Sales Assistant how excited I was to find the dress and she said that they had literally that day had a delivery of the dresses from another shop.  Not only that but it was reduced by another £10 to a bargain at £20 (reduced from £60).  I almost skipped home.  Well I would have if I wasn't pushing a pushchair.

I took finding this dress as a sign.  A sign that I will wear my dress at Pip's Adoption Court Day and that it will be soon because it is a jumper dress and you can't wear a winter dress in the summer can you? 

And that is why I'm not worrying about it all at all.