SO, the lady just left, and it didn't go as horribly as I'd convinced myself it would! She recommended speaking to the office that's dealing with the little girl, as they can tell me first of all if they're not actually looking for a placement for her, and if they are, they may wanna do the assessment process themselves, as they're more familiar with her. So that'll be my first call tomorrow, and it'll be good to finally speak to the case worker. I haven't actually spoken to the one involved because I didn't wanna step on any toes, but now I can

RE the homeschooling, she said it's not normally something they would approve, because one of the ways they check on the kids is through the teachers. However, if there were an actual reason, such as bullying, they would consider it on a case by case basis.

She was also quite knowledgeable about JW's, she asked about how we would deal with the blood issue, which we explained would be absolutely fine with us, we realise that DCP remains the legal guardian, and we would never EVER treat a child differently if they had a transfusion. Funnily enough she asked that question directly, about how we would treat a child that got a blood transfusion. I understand why they would, but I was surprised to get that additional question.

We were upfront about my mental state, our financial state, and our recent separation. She asked when my last suicide attempt was, and said that if this little girl didn't come to us and we ended up applying to be general carers, it would probably be better to wait 12 months, because saying my last attempt was 2 years ago is much better than 1 year ago, totally understandable. However, she said that it wouldn't automatically exclude us.

So that's where we are now, under a mountain of paperwork, but I've gotta speak to the other office first. I can't wait to actually speak directly to the case worker