My disappointment with Best

Posted by Francesca on Jun 8, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments I woke up this morning expecting to see an interview I’d done with ‘Best’ magazine. I was really looking forward to it as it meant that the issues around adoption would be given visibility again. And then I saw the headline and my heart sank. “Yes we bought our dream family but don’t judge us.” This wasn’t me. It wasn’t our story: central to our decision to adopt was the view that we we not buy...
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Adoption and Home Study

Posted by Francesca on May 6, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments The next instalment from Mexican Takeaway Chapter 2, Does Your Cat Speak Spanish? “Do I look OK?” Rick said as he came into the bedroom, wearing his cream suit and his best tie. “Uh oh. Cream?” “I don’t want to wear a dark one. It doesn’t seem friendly enough; too businesslike. They might think I don’t have time for children if I wear that.” I’d never seen Rick this anxious. He was normally so...
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Mexican Takeaway – Too White To Adopt

Posted by Francesca on May 4, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments Mexican Takeaway This book is based on true events. However, the names of all persons connected to our adoption are fictitious. Any resemblance to real people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. The opening instalment from the first chapter, Too White To Adopt. June 5, 2008 The queue in the customs hall at Heathrow was long, full of weary and bad-tempered travellers, but I didn’t care. I...
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Mexican Takeaway – the Prologue

Posted by Francesca on Apr 27, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments This is the Prologue from Mexican Takeaway I did not legally become a mother until the paperwork was signed and Gaia was ours. But I had become a mother in my heart the instant I made room for her there, long before we had even met. I’d heard other women speak of that magical moment when their newborn baby was laid on their breast to nurse for the first time. They talked of a sense of...
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Why we adopted in Mexico

Posted by Francesca on Apr 21, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments People often ask me how we came to adopt in Mexico. I suppose the journey which led us there began many years ago in the two room flat where I grew up in Italy.  Aside from good brains and strong socialist leanings, my parents didn’t have much. They believed it was our responsibility to share whatever we had with others. And so it was that my brother and I found ourselves with an adopted...
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Being in the media spotlight

Posted by Francesca on Apr 20, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments If you looked at the Times of London yesterday, you’ll have seen they’ve put their weight behind a campaign to increase the pace and success of adoptions in the UK. It’s an exciting piece of news because it means that my own views, along with those of many others,are being shared by a large body of people. They came to interview and photograph us – myself and the children...
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