I was adopted in 1969 from the Mission of Hope based in Croydon.  My birth parents were from the UK but my intended adoption parents were not UK citizens, hence the reason for the use of the Provisional Adoption Order.

The purpose of the PAO was to offer (under the Adoption Act of 1953) the possibility to non UK citizens to adopt UK citizens, something that was not otherwise permitted.  The best way of describing PAO is a travel permit for the intended parents to travel to their country of origin with the child where they would complete the adoption process.  A PAO would be issued by either the High Court or a County Court and for a period of two years only.  The PAO could only be issued once the child had lived with the intended parents for a period of six months and the intended parents had undergone a thorough background investigation by the court.

In my case my intended parents were granted a Provisional Adoption Order and after seven months left the UK to live for the next eighteen years in Scandinavia, never to complete the adoption process in their country of origin, nor fulfill the promises that they had made to both my birth mother or to the agency that they had used.

This is an attempt to chart my journey though this process of discovery and investigation and hopeful resolution.