After the Boys of Summer Have Gone....

That seemed too fast didn’t it? It has in London – I feel like we went from a reasonable summer to the shortest autumn on record straight into the early days of winter. Ah well, we mustn’t complain, no-one moved to London for the weather, and the end of July, beginning of August is a nice time of year for husband and I – our anniversary.???

This was the first anniversary of our marriage, and ninth of our relationship, so celebrations took a little time to settle on. Should we give each other paper? Should we do a long weekend away? Should we do what we always do, and go for an amazing dinner somewhere? So many decisions reader, and it may not surprise you to learn that we didn’t make any, and so did all three. To mark our first anniversary, we’ve hung a copy of the front page of the Irish Times from the date of our nuptials on the wall of our study, so we’ll always be able to read the news of the day from the land of the day that we were married.?? Unfortunately, the news of the day was about Ireland mourning the loss of Sinead O’Connor – so a mixed bag of emotions on that reminder.? We also planned a spa weekend, because why not, and ate at a restaurant local to us called Angelina.?? It’s an Italian restaurant that prepares and serves cuisine in a Japanese tradition. Think Italian flavours, but served as sushi, and an amazing wine list. Try it out if you’re ever in the North London neck of the woods!

Shortly following, I was fortunate to have a business trip to Miami with one of my colleagues where we got several days of face to face time with a client whom we are supporting to build out their people analytics team and roadmap. Having spent several weeks interviewing senior business leaders, we worked with the forming team to establish their ethics charter for the use of employee and other data across people decisions and technology, including AI, established the 6, 12 and 18 month priorities to have the team and insights produced really humming, and a plan to develop skills for the team as they move from getting the fundamentals in place to engaging in more sophisticated analyses and delivering more impactful insights to business decision makers. Plus we got to see Miami Beach and sing “I’m in Miami Beach” as we walked along after work one afternoon. What a win!

A vacation to Cape Cod, specifically, Provincetown rounded out the month. Long days filled with sunshine, lobster rolls, brunches with friends, tea-dances, costume parties and bulk purchases of discounted Calvin Klein underwear were exactly what the doctor ordered!??? The break afforded some time for reflection. As we walked into town on our last day on the cape, we talked about how lucky we are, and how different our life experience is as adults to our parents. With friends living all around the world, we’re spoiled to be able to touch down in amazing locations and experience things with friends that just a generation ago might have been once in a lifetime opportunities. We also reflected that a week in Provincetown, as it had been this time, was perhaps the last in a very long time for us, as a d-i-n-k (double-income-no-kids) couple.?? The end of summer, signalling a time of change in the year, also signalling the next big time of change for us – our adoption panel.

?Back in London, we had our final meeting with our social worker, in preparation for being presented as prospective adopters at panel, the penultimate step in being approved as parents – the panel’s recommendation is submitted for final approval by the responsible officer before we’re officially official. For those playing along at home, this milestone has been a long time in the making. In terms of the official process, we’ll be approximately 11 months to final signed approval. In life terms, this is a process that commenced in summer of 2017, when we decided to commit to life in London, and to commit to building a family together. Flash forward through a year of negotiations to move my global job from Switzerland to the UK (with countless thanks for the campaigning made by my former boss/mentor/work-mum), a year of research, initial submission, volunteering at a youth club in person, volunteering in a childhood literacy charity virtually during the covid lockdown periods in London, more research, a house purchase in an area we felt best suited the plans for our family, a wedding, more research, more hours spent listening to child psychology and adoption podcasts and reading books about therapeutic parenting than I think either of us had bargained for, and now, going on 7 years later, being prepared to step into the next phase of our lives together as parents.

?From here – we start the process of matching with our prospective family members, and getting on with the getting on with family life. Talk about autumn being a time for change!