Orchid Throat

Quite nice LARGE

For the first time in a long time I had a choice of 3 images to blip!! I am hoping this is a good omen for my digital photography course starting tomorrow. You can see the other two images HERE and HERE.

Milestone day at work today.....13 years ago today I started a new job as Family Support Worker on The Family Support & Advocacy Pilot Project in an independent grant-aided special school.

When I say began work, I mean I arrived at my new place of employment to be given an office, a desk and a very antiquated computer and the rest was up to me!!

I had one year to set up from scratch, run and evaluate the Pilot Project. My role was to support parents of children with disabilities to understand theirs and their children's rights, and support them to have their voices heard when professional decisions were being made about their children's lives. In short, I helped them fight for what they thought was best for their children rather than accept any old crap the basic input offered by staturory services.

13 years on and today it all came full circle as I began clearing out my office in preparation for leaving my job on 24th May. After a lot of very careful thought and consideration, I resigned from my post 2 weeks ago in order to concentrate fully on something I have never had the luxury to fully concentrate on before.....my two boys! Yes, from the 24th May I shall be joining the ranks of stay at home mums and I cannot wait! :-)))

I have loved every minute of my 13 years working at the CC and feel totally privileged to have met and got to know so many wonderful children and their families, as well as my many utterly amazing colleagues.

At times it wasn't the easiest of jobs as being in the same position as the families I was supporting, I would spend all day helping them fight for services / equipment etc for their children, then come home to face exactly the same battles in my personal life in fighting for the same things for Alan. It's a strange situation when your professional development stems from your personal experiences! :-)

But I wouldn't have changed a minute of it. How many people can honestly say they have never experienced that dreaded back to work feeling after the holidays? I can and I know ow lucky I am to have had a job that I love and feel so passionate about.

I know I will be in absolute bits on my last day (actually I'll probably be in bits many times in the run up to my last day!!) but I know the time is right to move on and begin a new chapter in my life.

It's all a little scary but tremendously exciting!!

Happy Monday Peeps....will do my best to catch up with you later but need to get my head into OU stuff too!!!!!!

xxx