All About

Sophie Sample

2015

Sophie’s Story

1. All About Sophie

2. Sophie’s Family

3. Sophie’s School

4. Sophie’s Name

5. The Beginning

6. Tania and Darren

7. Staying with Fred and Grace

8. The Sample Family

9. The Wise Judge

10. More about Sophie

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1. All About Sophie

Sophie was born in 2006, so that makes her 9 years old at the moment. She is a pretty girl with a great smile, sparkly blue coloured eyes and light blonde hair. She has lovely thick hair, although - I wonder if Sophie will agree!

A happy Sophie…

Sophie is usually smiley, chatty and bubbly and she can give great hugs. She is tall and slim and she is certainly a very fit, healthy girl with plenty of energy. In fact she is very good at athletics, although - I wonder if Sophie will agree! Lots of the time she is cheerful, but her mood can change and then sometimes she can be a bit of a grumpy, cross-looking girl - I wonder if Sophie will agree!

… a more serious Sophie

Sophie likes being outside in the fresh air playing football or running around or cycling or doing gymnastics - and she does especially impressive cartwheels! She really likes her scooter and is able to do some tricks on the skateboard ramps in the local park. She also likes cycling and swimming.

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Sophie also does ballet once a week

In fact, Sophie is so very talented in lots of things. She likes making models and drawing pictures and she is also good at art although - I wonder if Sophie will agree!

Sophie doesn’t watch much television,

but at the moment one of her favourite programme is Dr Who. Sophie enjoys going to the church club every week and she sings in the choir there. She also goes to church with the rest of her family once a month.

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2. Sophie’s Family

The main people in Sophie’s family are: - Mum, Dad, her brother John, and her grandparents - Grandpa, Nana, and Nanny and Grandad.

This is Sophie’s mum and dad Her mum’s name is Tracey and her dad is Jim.

and this is Sophie with her family

Here is Sophie, her mum and dad and her brother John. John is just a year older than Sophie, so he is 10 years old at the moment. Sometimes they get on very well together but at other times they just don’t - and then they really get on each other’s nerves!

But they play well together too. This is Sophie and John when they were little

Mum he is really getting on my nerves!

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…and getting older

And this is Sophie’s lovely drawing of her family.

The Samples

And of course we mustn’t forget the other member of the family.

Tommy – the cat.

So, Sophie lives in a house with her mum and dad and her brother in a place called Newtown. They live in a lovely, quiet lane and there are plenty of trees around, and open spaces to play in the field opposite.

Sophie has her own bedroom. The walls are blue and the curtains are yellow and she has just had a new bed and a bright blue duvet cover.

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The Samples live in a very nice house with a lovely garden. Sophie’s mum has ‘green fingers’ which is another way of saying that she is very good at gardening, so there are plenty of colourful flowers.

….and there are vegetables there too.

Since she was very little, Sophie has enjoyed helping her mum with the gardening. Planting seeds, carefully watering them and watching things grow.

Sophie’s mum and dad are obviously very proud of their daughter and love her very much. They say that Sophie is generally a very helpful and cheerful girl - I wonder if Sophie will agree!

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3. Sophie’s School

Park Road Junior School

Sophie goes to Park Road Junior School. The school is quite close to her home. It is about a 15-minute walk but most days mum drives Sophie and her brother John to school.

Last year Sophie’s teacher was Mr Moore and this year it is Mrs Read. Sophie doesn’t like some things about school, but she liked Mr Moore last year and he was very pleased with Sophie’s progress and he said that she has worked very hard. In fact, her teacher has said that ‘there has been a very big improvement in Sophie’s literacy skills’

Congratulations on your good work Sophie!

She finds some of the schoolwork difficult, but Sophie is a bright child, although – I wonder if Sophie will agree! In fact did you know that there are lots of very clever and very famous people who found schoolwork hard? Well there are!

Sophie is enjoying school now and she really likes her teacher this year. She is good fun and makes her laugh. At school Sophie is well behaved and the teachers say that she always tries her best and works really hard

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She is very, very, very good at sport and P.E. and Sophie’s favourite subject is art and she also likes doing projects. Sophie’s other lessons include maths, science, music, literacy, IT, French and geography.

These are some of the children at Park Road School.

Sophie is there somewhere

Sophie doesn’t like all of the children in her school - just some of them. She feels that some of them are a bit mean so she doesn't play with them. Her best friends are Jane, Jack and Daniel.

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4. Sophie’s Name

This is a copy of Sophie’s birth certificate. (This would be new short birth certificate with adopted surname)

Sophie Sample

Sophie is a Greek name meaning wisdom Sophie’s name was not always Sophie Sample. At first it was Sophie Smith. How can this be? (In this example child knows original surname, but with rise in social networking sites I would usually no longer put birth surname in book, or original birth certificate, unless child is older and already knows this. This is recorded elsewhere so will be available for child when appropriate) Well, children join families in all sorts of ways. Some are born into them, some live with aunts and uncles, grandparents or friends, or they may live with foster carers, and some children are adopted into their families. Foster carers usually only look after older children, or younger children for a short while, either until they go home or until they move to a new family to be adopted. Adoption means that children stay with their mum and dad until they are all grown up and until they feel ready to have a home of their own – adoptive families are forever families. So, like thousands of other children, Sophie was adopted. Many famous people and characters have been adopted, like Superman, Stuart Little and Paddington.

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Indeed, there are many adopted children all of Britain and all over the world.

As well as her brother John, Sophie’s also knows some other people who are adopted too. She recently went to a Family Day at a country park and met lots other adopted children all living near Newtown.

Just like Sophie they are adopted and this is how she became –

Sophie Sample.

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5. The Beginning

Like most babies Sophie was born in hospital. She was born in Liverpool, which is a large town in the North of England. She was born in the General Hospital, on the Princess Anne Ward. It was a summer’s evening, and it had been a lovely sunny day.

Baby Sophie was a gorgeous, loveable little bundle, although - I wonder if Sophie will agree!

Hurray it ’s a g ir l ! Sophie was a very small baby, so the doctors thought that she had arrived early, which means that she was born several weeks before the date she was expected. She weighed 1.8 kgs which is the same as saying she weighed just over 4lbs

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So Sophie’s weight was about the same as 2 bags of sugar, and this is very light for a newborn baby.

Sophie was born at 7.12 hours or 12 minutes past 7 o’ clock in the evening on the 14th July.

She was born on a Tuesday, and there is a rhyme all about being born on different days of the week.

Sophie is a Tuesday’s Child

Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's child is full of grace,

Wednesday's child is all aglow, (note slight change in rhyme)

Thursday's child has far to go,

Friday's child is loving and giving,

Saturday's child works hard for a living,

So according to this, Sophie will be a very graceful person – so perhaps that is why she is so good at dancing or gymnastics! I wonder if Sophie will agree!

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6. Tania and Darren

Like all babies Sophie has a birth mother and a birth father. Sophie’s birth mother is called Tania, and her birth father is called Darren. When Sophie was born Tania and Darren both thought that she was beautiful and they decided to name her Sophie, after a very famous film actress, Sophie Lauren and a model, Sophie Dahl.

This is Tania at the hospital with little baby Sophie

At the time of Sophie’s birth, Tania had dark brown, shoulder length curly hair, blue eyes and a pale complexion. Sometimes her hair was a very light brown. She was slim and 5ft 6ins tall and she was in her mid 30’s when Sophie was born. She wore size 5 shoes. Tania’s family had lived in Liverpool for many generations. Tania’s mother, Maria and her grandmother, Mary, were from there. Her grandfather was originally from Ireland and he moved to Liverpool where he met and married Mary. Sophie has photographs of all of these birth relatives in her special memory book.

Darren was 2 years younger then Tania and he had light brown hair and blue eyes. At one time Darren had been a soldier in the army. Like Tania he was also born in Liverpool. He was tall; 6ft and well built with size 11 feet.

This is Darren with baby Sophie

Darren came to see Sophie in hospital, just after she was born and he was very proud of her and thought that she was lovely.

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Darren and Tania met, a few years before Sophie and her bother John were born, Tania already had 2 children, Roger and Mary, and they were living with her when she met Darren. Roger and Mary are Sophie and John’s older half- brother and sister. They are called ‘half’ because they have the same birth mother, Tania, but they have a different birth father. Roger will be 17 years old and Mary will be 16 years old this year.

This was Mary and Roger around the time of Sophie’s birth

Sometimes Darren and Tania were happy, but at other times there were lots of arguments and difficulties. They lived in the Liverpool area, but they moved around a lot and sometimes they were homeless or they stayed for a while with friends or relatives. At different times they were also both in trouble with the police for fighting, and both spent time in prison.

Tania and Darren had their first child, John, Sophie’s bother, in 2005 and by then the police and the social workers in Liverpool were often visiting the family as they were very worried about all of the children, but they were particularly worried about little baby, John. Sometimes Darren and Tania would argue in front of the children and became violent and hurt each other.

At other times the home was very dirty and in a terrible mess and there was no food in the house for the children to eat, so they were often very hungry. They were just not being looked after properly. Instead of buying food for the children Tania and Darren were using their money to buy illegal drugs. They thought that taking drugs would make them feel better and happier but of course all it did was made everything much, much worse! In fact, because of the drugs, they were often feeling too ill or too sleepy to look after the children and it was Roger, who was still only a little boy of 8 himself, who was left to look after Mary and John most of the time. This must have been very hard for such a young boy.

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This must have been very frightening, upsetting and scary for all of them.

Roger Mary John

Things became so horrible and scary at home for the children that in February 2006, a few months before Sophie was born, and when John was still only a baby, the police, the heath visitors and the social workers all felt that it was now an emergency.

It was just too dangerous for them to stay with Darren and Tania. The social worker, Ben, collected them all in his red car and took them to stay with foster carers.

Roger and Mary went to stay with foster carers who often looked after older children, and baby John went to a foster carer who just looked after little babies, so she already had all the things she needed to care for John.

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7. Staying with Fred and Grace Meanwhile, while the children were all being safely looked after by their foster carers, the social workers and the doctors tried to help Tania and Darren. If they could stop taking drugs they might be able to look after their children properly, but sadly this was too hard for them and although they tried, neither of them seemed able to do this.

By this time Tania was pregnant again and Sophie was on the way, so it was even more important that she looked after herself, for the baby’s sake.

Tania and Darren’s second child, Sophie, was born 5 months after the other children had gone to live with foster carers. Tania hadn’t really been looking after herself or Sophie properly while she was growing inside her. Because she was still taking drugs, she hadn’t been able to feed and look after John, Mary and Roger properly, and because of her drug taking she also hadn’t been feeding and looking after growing baby Sophie properly either. In fact, as Sophie was so very small when she was born she had to be looked after by the doctors and nurses in the Special Care Unit at the hospital …

At first the doctors still didn’t realise just how ill Sophie was. The drugs that Tania had been taking during the pregnancy had affected tiny newborn baby Sophie too. She was very shaky and unwell and left in a lot of pain for the first week of her life, before she was given the special medicines she needed to help her feel better.

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While she was still in hospital Tania, Darren, Roger, Mary and John all came to see Sophie. The nurses, the doctors and the social workers were all still concerned and worried about this precious little baby. They knew that Sophie needed very special care and they also knew that while Tania and Darren loved her and they were trying very hard, they just would not be able to look after her properly.

The social workers were very worried about all of the children

There had already had lots of meetings and talks about the older children and it was agreed that for the time being none of them should go home. They would stay with their foster carers, and it was also decided that as soon as she was well enough to leave hospital Sophie would also go to foster carers for a while. Bringing up children is a bit like building a wall. To make tall, strong wall you need a very good foundation and then, using just the right type, and just the right amount of cement, you carefully lay all the different bricks on top. The cement is like the love that holds everything else together and makes the wall strong. You can see from this wall of bricks that children need love, but they also need lots of different kinds of caring to help them grow properly, and they need to be cared for by grown ups who can make sure that children are happy, healthy and safe.

TAKING TO SCHOOL CUDDLES CLEAN CLOTHES RULES

PLAY TIMES BED TIMES

WARMTH LAUGHS STORIES TALKS KISSES SAFTEY

GOOD FOOD CHECK HOMEWORK HUGS A SAFE HOME FUN

DOCTORS

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE

DENTAL CHECKS

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Tania and Darren loved Sophie, and they would have liked her to go home to them. They thought that she was a gorgeous, lovely baby, but as they were not looking after themselves properly, they were just not able to do all the things that parents must do to keep their children safe and to help them grow into strong healthy grown-ups. So, when she was well enough to leave hospital, Sophie went to stay with John at his foster home. His usual foster carers, Fred and Grace, were away at that time, so they stayed for a week with another foster carer, Edith, and then they went to Fred and Grace. Sophie was only 5 weeks old at the time, and although she was too young to remember this, it must have been a confusing time for her. So many changes and moves for such a little baby to cope with.

Hospital è Edith è Fred and Grace

This is Fred and Grace’s House

Sophie still wasn’t very well at first. She was a bit shaky and restless, she had a chest infection and she also needed an operation on her eyes.

Grace and Fred

Thankfully, Fred and Grace had looked after lots of babies, including John, and they knew exactly how to look after Sophie and in time, she became less jittery, and soon Sophie was growing very well and she was:

Smiling and laughing and crawling…. and then walking

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…and Sophie had her 1st birthday there

While Grace and Fred were caring for Sophie, and John, the social worker, the health visitor and the doctors were very pleased to see how well she was doing.

They had lots of meetings and long talks about Sophie and the other children. No one thought that they should go to live Tania and Darren, so they went to the Court to see the Judge. Judges are very wise people. He listened to everyone, including Tania and Darren, and he also agreed that Sophie and the other children should not live with them, because they were still taking too many drugs and the home would not be a safe place for children.

The Judge said that as Sophie and John were so little and so precious they needed a new mum and dad – ones that would be able to adopt them and look after them forever. A mum and dad who would love and protect them, and ones that would be able to understand Sophie and the difficult start she had had - a family that would know just how to look after her and keep her safe and of course, one that would love and look after John too.

A Forever Family

The social workers felt that as Mary and Roger were much older than Sophie and John, they should remain with their foster carers until they were grown up and able to look after themselves and the Judge also agreed with this.

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This was a very sad and very hard decision to make, but everyone felt that this would be the best way of making sure that all four children had the best possible care - fostering for Mary and Roger and adoptive parents for Sophie and John. Everyone also felt that it was important for the

children to stay in touch with each other. It was agreed that through the social workers in Liverpool, that when the right family had been found for Sophie and John, their adoptive mum and dad would send a letter and some photographs to Mary and Roger, every year and that they could also write back, giving their news.

K

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Mary &Roger

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8. The Sample Family

Everyone agreed that Tracey and Jim were just the right mum and dad for Sophie and for John. They knew what to do to help them grow into healthy, strong children – just like that strong brick wall.

They knew that children need lots of love and cuddles, plenty of sleep, good food, a warm house, clean clothes, lots of fun, games and playtimes, and just the right number of rules to make sure that children are kept safe and secure – and of course lots of love and they both have plenty of that to give.

Tracey and Jim met the children in 2008, at their foster home, when Sophie was 20 months old, and they fell in love with Sophie and John as soon as they saw them. You could say that it was ‘love at first sight’.

Sophie and John meeting their mum and dad Sophie would have been too young at this time to remember this, and I am not sure what she thought of her mum and dad. She was very shy at first and clung to Grace, but she relaxed as she got to know them and she became more cheerful and giggly, and she was very interested in her dad’s shoes and crawled around with a big smile on her face. John was a year older and he was very quiet at first and looked a bit confused. Roger and Mary also came to see Sophie and John’s new mum and dad, and they seemed very happy and pleased to know that their little brother and baby sister would be moving to their new home soon.

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Here are all of the children with the foster carers.

Over the next few weeks the children got to know their mum and dad, and they got to know all about them too. They came to the foster home everyday and then the foster carers took the children to visit their new home.

A few weeks later Grace packed up all of John and Sophie’s toys and clothes. They also had their memory boxes with special things in and the foster carers gave them each a special book full photographs and lovely memories of the time they had lived with them.

And then the two children made the very long journey south to their new home with their mum and dad.

…and that was how John and Sophie became Tracey and Jim’s very precious son and daughter.

Of course it must have been very strange for Sophie and John when they first moved to her new home. Although they were going to live with their mum and dad forever, they were

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too young to understand this and must have been very muddled. So many different people had already been involved in her care – the nurses at the hospital in the special care unit, Darren and Tania, the first foster carer, Edith, then Grace and Fred and now Tracey and Jim. Although Tracey and Jim knew that they were going to be Sophie and John’s mum and dad forever, the children didn’t really understand this at the time. Sophie and John had to get use to the new house. The rooms looked different, the furniture was different, the smells were different, their clothes felt different, the food was different, there were different Sample ways of doing things, and probably they even had different words for things, and of course instead of Northern accents, everyone had Southern ones. What a lot of different things for a baby girl and a little boy to get use to! So Sophie and John had a lot to learn about the Samples, and they had a lot to learn about them. It must have been very strange at first. Perhaps it was a bit like moving to another country, in another part of the world!

Sophie soon settled into her new home. She was still very tiny and light and she just loved being held high in the air and she was a happy, cheerful child.

Everyone had made the right decision. Sophie’s mum and dad certainly knew just how to look after her and John and most importantly they continued to love them dearly although -

I wonder if Sophie will agree!

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9. The Wise Judge

When Sophie and John had lived with their mum and dad for quite a long time, for almost a year, and when everyone knew each other very well, the social workers went to the Court in London, to see another very Wise Judge.

The Judge read all the reports about the children and about Tania and Darren and he listened to everyone. He could see just how loveable and precious Sophie and John were and he agreed that they deserved loving, caring parents. He also knew that Tracey and Jim loved Sophie and her brother very much, and he said that they should definitely be adopted and remain part of the Sample family forever. He signed the Adoption Order and Sophie became officially and legally Sophie Sample.

The Adoption Certificate

A few weeks later everyone went to the court to meet the wise Judge – mum and dad, the social worker, Nana and Grandad, and of course the most important people that day – Sophie and John. It was a very special occasion and everyone took a day off work to be there. It was called the Celebration Hearing and that is exactly what everyone did. They celebrated!

They all went to see the Wise Judge in 2015

This was a very special day and to celebrate all the grown ups had champagne and the children had balloons.

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and then they went into London for a special meal

and that is how Sophie and her family celebrated when she became officially

Sophie Sample

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10. More About Sophie

The family

Sophie has been living with her mum and dad for a long time now and they have continued to care for her and to love her. Sophie is no longer that tiny baby but she is still and will always be very precious to her parents. She is still a very fit and healthy girl with plenty of energy and every year she has grown a little bit taller and stronger.

Sophie and John are both getting quite tall now

Her Mum and Dad know Sophie so well; they know all sorts of very important things about her. For instance they know that Sophie’s-

Favourite T.V programme is Dr Who

Favourite Food is fruit and pasta

Favourite game is Twister

Favourite animal is a dog

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Favourite drink is hot chocolate

Favourite bedtime routine is having a bedtime story And they also know that sometimes Sophie and her mum and dad like to look at the memory book and the photographs that her foster carers gave to her all those years ago, Sometimes they think about her older brother and sister and about Tania and Darren and hope that they are all okay.

So as you can see, Sophie’s mum and dad know quite a lot about Sophie They also know that like all children, sometimes Sophie feels happy, sometimes she feels cross or upset or hurt or she may feel sad or unwell.

I wonder if Sophie knows that her mum and dad would like to know when she is feeling upset or if she is hurt. I wonder if Sophie is a bit like ‘Nevermind the Nifflenoo’ and sometimes, just like him, she tucks all of these feelings away deep in side her pockets. I just wonder of course and most of all - I wonder if Sophie will agree! Well Sophie’s mum and dad hope that one day soon she will feel able to tell them when she feels sad or unhappy or when she has hurt herself – and they will always be there to listen, to help her or just to give her a cuddle. They love her very much and that is what her mum and dad would like to do!

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What other things do her mum and dad say about Sophie? Well they say that she likes company and is kind to the younger children living in her street. She still gives her mum and dad lovely hugs, especially if they are not feeling well. She is still very smiley and bubbly much of the time. She is also still generally very caring and she is usually very helpful around the house and will ‘muck in’ and help when needed.

Sophie also has lots of plans and hopes for the future. She thought that she might become some sort of athlete, but she is not sure now. She is certainly very sporty and talented and she could be very good at this, although - I wonder if Sophie will agree!

Sophie enjoys the family holidays in the summer. Usually they go camping in France. The family really enjoy being outdoors and they go for long walks and cycle rides and have love lots of lovely food!

Here they are on holiday in France

This year the family went to France again. I wonder where they will go next year and the year after that and the year after that?

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But there is one think I don’t need to wonder about at all, as I know for sure that wherever they go and whatever they do Sophie will always be her mum and dad’s very precious daughter and she will be part of the Sample family.

And you never know, perhaps one day when a teacher says Sophie is doing very well, or her mum says she is very kind and talented, or her dad says that she is a really good athlete or one of her nanas says that she has lovely hair, then Sophie might just say –

Oh thank you - I think so too! Yes, I agree!

Now this may be the end of this book, but Sophie’s life adventure will continue and there will be lots more fun and happy times to come!

(You could add some more of your favourite photographs of family celebrations, outings, holidays etc to finish the book, or you could add a few each year if you wish to continue adding to the book –

whatever feels right for you and your child)