1st time being called Mam & Dad…

It was April 2011 and our oldest asked whether she could call us mam and dad. My face would have been a picture. It was the best thing i had heard in a long time. We had to ok it with the social workers as everything was still up in the air about whether the girls would be with us permanently but they wanted a mam and dad, and thats what we became to be known as.

In May 2011 we went on our first family holiday together. We had had a couple of short breaks away but this was 2 weeks in Florida. The trip had already been arranged before we got the girls as my husbands dad was paying for us all to go along with my sister-in-law, her husband and 2 children. When we were there it was strange. My mother and father in law were ‘all for’ their other 2 grandkids and the only way i can describe the way we felt is…left out. Big style.

When you feel left out, for whatever reason, you think of reasons why. The only reason i could think of is that they loved their real grandkids more than our girls. It’s awful to say but at that time, that is how i felt towards them. They still go on at how great that holiday was, i don’t think it was a great holiday, and i have never said it was.

I know it takes time to get to know people, get used to people. I am very protective of my girls. Theres a women i work with who collects food for the salvation army, and last christmas she did a toy appeal too for unprivileged children, she always does a lot for charity. She came back from her lunch break with some teddy bears one day and my boss had said to her ‘aww you should adopt one of them children, that would make their christmas more’ she replied with: ‘no way, i would never have a ‘stranger’ in my house!’. She knew i was sat next to her and i was shocked she actually said something like that without thinking. I wanted to slap her, instead i said ‘my girls were strangers to me, and i quickly fell in love with them’. She did not know what to say or where to look!

People can be cruel and it does worry me sometimes about the future and what things might be said to my girls. Or more scary what they might say to us as their parents.