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P.S - we are so pleased to have found this site full of friendly people, advice and help!! Thought we'd better introduce ourselves also...we are a female couple, both primary school teachers. I am in my late twenties and my partner is 30. Planning a CP in the near future. Very much looking forward to getting the ball rolling with regards to adopting, and hopefully meeting some other people who have already adopted/ are in the process of!

Hi EllieandRachMost LAs will ask for you to commit yourself to them for up to six months after approval before you become more proactive and look elsewhere. This does differ between authorities and if the LA does not have any potential matches for you they might be more willing for you to look elsewhere earlier.As far as I am aware (and I'm willing to be corrected on this) your approving authority should place your details on the national adoption register three months after approval. They may also share your profile with other LAs in a local consortium. You are also free to look at profiles with CWW (Children Who Wait) and Be My Parent but, again, you LA may ask you not to make any enquiries in the first few months after approval if they believe they may have children coming through the system that you would be suitable for.The best way to gauge an agency's attitude on this is to ask them what their position would be when you make your initial enquiries. You will find it beneficial to speak with as many LAs and VAs at this stage to find one you will be comfortable working with.Best wshes.upnorth

Hi EllieandRachI live in London but my LA were not at all interested in my application so I wrote round 30 or so LAs giving very bare details (single/couple, no kids already/ages of kids, ethnicity, hoping to aopt 1/2 children age between x and y etc) and asking if they'd be interested. I went with one of the very few who replied positively. You don't have to go with nearest LA. You need to be prepared to travel to the LA for preparation course but that's often offered at the weekend as well as evenings.by the way, people generally don't use their real names on the board as it's completely public. You can ask the Adoption UK administrators to remove your post and re-post under something more anonymous if you want. It could be intrusive further down the line to think you could be identified while venting on here about social workers or your adopted children !best wishesducks

Hi Ladies

not sure what happened!We went with our la in the midalnds and we had to committ to three months after our approval, which took around 18 months after our initial call, and 1 year after our preperation course for info.In our research we found some of the other agencies not so forth coming on providing us with information when we said about being a same sex couple!We are now just after the 3 month stage (but after a major hicup in the middle) and our la have started to talk to us about going tri counties (we live on the boarder of 3 counties and they have an agreemnet in place).Hope this helps, and good luck.GTR

Thanks very much for your replies. We have taken your advice and re-registered with a more anonymous username. We couldn't log on with our previous name anyway so here we are .....enfys (welsh for rainbow)So back to our agency research we go!!!!

Hi I've sent you a PM :O)