Feeling strange

We spoke with the FH's son tonight and let him know that we are prepared to enter the arena on the discussion about custody of his son.  I felt that I had to talk to him about not wanting to take his son away from him, but that if we wanted to keep the child cared for by family members, we had to act soon, as I was told yesterday by a contact I know who is a social worker, that if they do not consider that either of the parents will be suitable carers in the long run, they may begin to look for adoptive parents.  He cried when I spoke with him, and said that he was very grateful that we would do that for his son.

It is a strange feeling here tonight for me; it is strangely reminiscent of those days all those years ago when I was wanting to get pregnant, taking the test, and then not daring to look, knowing that if it was a positive line, then my life would change for ever.  It is that sense of uncertainty tonight - like I might be [metaphorically] pregnant, but not quite sure!  We are perched on the edge of something big now.  I am going to speak with the social worker assigned to the baby tomorrow, I hope.  I have hardly ever had any dealings with social services before, so I am not really sure what to expect.  We did have a pretty major cleaning session today, though!  When I was a childminder 14 years ago, I cared for a child for social services who helped a dad look after his 7 children when their mother was in hospital with PND after the birth of number eight.  I had the youngest one, who was not at school, during the day, and the dad managed overnight.  That's the limit of my knowledge.....

If you are so inclined, please pray for the right outcome for this.