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The day of the panel I was absolutely petrified, it was horrendous. I thought I was sitting
a driving test, it was just a nightmare. The thought of going into a room with 12 people
all firing questions at us, I was in a right state!
And then after it, we were only in there 5 or 10 minutes if you're lucky. We went out
and then back in again and they said "you've been successful, we'd like to take you on
as foster carers". And I thought, what was I worried about! It was fine, it wasn't that
bad after all.
Vanessa: To prepare for the panel we discussed with each other what we thought was going
to happen and how we would feel. I was a bit apprehensive about a lot of people sitting
there and I thought I'd be under the microscope a bit. I found that having David with me was
a big support because we were able to discuss things together about how we felt about it
and some of your concerns were totally different to mine. I thought they would look at our
family and the way we brought up our own children, but it wasn't really like that, we were made
to be a lot more relaxed.
David: Yeah, I think because you can bounce off each other with different things, so we
were both supportive of each other. It's like going for an interview but you've got somebody
else with who can obviously help you along.
On the day of the panel our social worker came with us, which is what they do but it
was good for moral support. If you had any reservations just before you went in, she
put your mind at ease.