Everyone was very surprised when I talked about my idea, but very supportive. My aunt (Asha's Nan) was very happy as she sats was finding the prospect of Asha being adopted outside of the family very hard. But she made it clear to me that if I changed my mind at any point, there would be no pressure or bad feeling. My friends wondered why on earth I was choosing to become a single parent, but knowing how stubborn I am, let me know they would be there for me. It started a lot of interesting conversations down the pub with my male friends about whether or not they would go out with a single parent! I was surprised by some german english dictionary of the answers! Most of my friends were a bit worried for me when I first mentioned it, but once they talked with me properly they could see how serious I was, and started to get excited about being honorary aunts and uncles!

The only negative response I had was from social services, as they seemed to think the family was in on some kind of a plot to keep Asha in the family whether it was the right thing for her or not. It took me six months to persuade Asha's social worker to put me forward translate english to spanish to be assessed. In the end I had to go to a family lawyer who wrote a very snooty letter reminding them that everyone has the right to receive an adoption assessment regardless of the social worker’s personal feelings, and that did the trick.