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Hi Tag-Tacg, congratulations! It's an exciting time, but can also be overwhelming. The sw/ff will want to get a sense of you as a potential family, see where the child would be living, meet any pets, talk in detail to you about the child, their needs and how you might be able to meet those specific needs. They will probably show you photos/video. It's an opportunity for you to ask all the questions on your minds. I'll leave it to users who've had recent linking meetings to tell you how theirs went - mine was many years ago! Good luck - I hope it goes really well.

Hi AlisonAUK. It sure is, we are a little nervous!. Thank you for this comment this has really helped us get ready for what to expect when they come .

Thank you so much 😊

Hi Tag-Tacg,

it is just like Alison says. It depends a bit if it is a competitive match or if you are the only ones interested. I remember our first meeting with the sw really well. For a few reasons they were really keen on us and told us lots of things about the children and also showed us a short video. The meeting really brought the kids to live. We could ask questions, talked a bit about ourselves and showed them our flat. We all got on really well and it was clear that this was our match. 4 months later we went to matching panel and two weeks after that we met our children for the first time. Write stuff down, so you remember everything and you can tell your kids. Also if anything particularly lovely is said about the child, make sure to write it down.

Hi chestnuttree

Thank you, I believe we are the only couple the sw is looking into, it sounds like a really good experience I really hope have the same kind of experience as you did. we will make sure we take notes and ask all the questions we feel we need to.

Thank you again

I think with us the first visit (before the matching panel) they told us lots of information but also there were things they wanted to clarify about us. It was a good chance to ask questions (for us) about ordinary everyday life. You could mention the continuation of support you asked about in your previous post for example. With us they were visiting a couple of other families but sounded really positive about us and after they left told our SW to speed up the assessment (it was quite early in the process) They also wanted a quick look around the house. The second visit was post matching and they brought an album of photos and video clip which they left with us. It gave us a really good picture of our daughter which they also brought to life with stories. They spoke a lot more about the arrangements for introductions and the daily routine and making sure we had a chance to experience different aspects of it

Hi

Tag-Tacg, Congratulations its really exiting times, I hope your meeting went well.

Can I ask at this stage of them coming to meet you and look around your home did you have anything ready for little ones room or is it really just about showing them the space and what you envisige doing with it once things are confirmed ? We are in a similar place, due to distance we have had an online meeting and are waiting for our in person linking meeting.

Hi EHOPE

we have our face to face meeting tomorrow, at the moment all we have in the potential childs room is a wardrobe. We have been told not to get anything until after panel.

I'll message you tomorrow with any updates

Good luck with your face to face when you get your date for it

HI Tag-Tacg

Hope your meeting went well! Things happened a lot faster than we thought and we have had our face to face and just been advised we have a panel date! We are so excited, 3months feels like a long way off however we are hoping to do a bump into before the end of the year and have a chat with the foster carers before then so im sure with all the work that needs to be done it will pass fast! :)

Hi Ehopes our meeting went amazing it was nothing to worry about at all, we did our bump into a couple of weeks ago and now have meeting after meeting, our panel date is in December. Trust me the months go by so quick when you get given date and you have so many meeting going on around you