The six months of family leave was more valuable than I could have ever imagined. Diageo allowed me to take as much holiday leave as I needed before the family leave kicked-in, which allowed me to meet up with Desmond as much as possible and sort out the final bits of admin. I cannot thank my team enough for how supportive they were. As soon as we were introduced, Desmond asked where his friends were, so we said we could be his friends too, which he seemed quite happy with! We spent a lot of time with Desmond over the next month, increasingly taking on caregiving responsibilities, until the very emotional and amazing transition day, when he moved-in and we became a family. We organised a ‘bump into’ meeting with his foster carers, where myself and my partner ‘bumped into’ them as if we were old friends, whilst they were in a play park with Desmond. We were so excited, and in July 2021 we finally met our son-to-be, Desmond. The following Christmas, we were told there was a potential match.

He was supportive and ensured that I could take the time I needed to get everything sorted. I was very open with my manager about the uncertainty of timings and how much had to happen before we adopted. We knew it would be years before we could call ourselves parents, with interviews, training courses and home visits. My partner and I always knew that our route to parenthood would be through adoption, and after moving to Edinburgh in the summer of 2019 we began the official process.

Christmas zoom background office