Dave’s 100 Voices Story

I had never heard about Scottish Adoption until I applied for a job as a marketing assistant back in 2012. In fact, I didn’t know the first thing about adoption so I presumed I wouldn’t be successful in being offered the role. Fortunately, luck was on my side, and I was offered the 6-month temporary role. The marketing role was a new post at Scottish Adoption, and I was tasked with establishing the marketing department, creating a social media presence for the agency and updating the website. This is a marketer’s dream, to create all this from scratch. The only downside was that I had no experience of adoption and didn’t know what anyone was talking about.

This is where the team here at Scottish Adoption shone through. Everyone was so knowledgeable, helpful, and patient with me. It wasn’t long before I was getting to grips with different terms and knew about the adoption Process. It also want long before the 6 months was nearly up!  The placement was extended, which was a relief as it meant I was doing something right, and it want long after that that I was made a permanent member of the Scottish Adoption team.

This is where my own adoption story begins.  I remember one day sitting at my desk on the top floor of the office when Kathryn came in with details of this girl looking for a home. This child sounded adorable but none of the Senior Practitioners had any suitable families at that time. It got me thinking that I wish could’ve adopted her.  I spoke about this with the team at work and by the end of the day I had called another adoption agency and they were sending out some forms. All before I had even discussed this with my partner!

My partner and I had discussed children before and it was something that we wanted and saw as part of our future. We had always discussed surrogacy, due to the fact I knew little about adoption. Now I was working for an adoption agency I knew so much more about the children needing homes and I knew adoption was the route we wanted to go down.

We had a meeting in our home with the adoption agency I had got in touch with and at the end of the meeting the worker pulled out a letter from her bag offering us a place at their next preparation group. Something about this made me uneasy. They had preempted their decision before meeting us, and as an LGBTQ+ couple we felt that they were only interested in us so they could tick a box.

I discussed this at work the next day and Alex suggested I speak to East Lothian council as they were having an open session that week. My partner and I went along and met Ian. The difference was huge. It felt right and we submitted our forms. Ian came to the house to meet us properly and discuss why we wanted to adopt, what we could offer and so much more. It still felt like the right option for us and we were offered a preparation group with them.

10 years later and we have gone through the adoption process twice and have two beautiful children. This would not have happened it Margaret hadn’t offered me the role, if Kathryn hadn’t come into the office with the child’s profile that day, if Alex hadn’t told me about a drop in session East Lothian council were running, or if the staff at Scottish Adoption hadn’t been so supportive throughout the process. It really was great to have them on tap whenever I had questions during home-study, family finding and over the last 9 years of being a parent.

So it thanks to Scottish Adoption that I have a job I absolutely love and a family I love even more! I really hope that in another 100 years people are still writing about the impact this wee adoption agency has had on them!

Happy 100th Birthday Scottish Adoption and Fostering!