Adopting with SSAFA

Off By Ed Hanna

For more than 20 years, SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity has run a specialist, friendly, and registered adoption service tailor-made for men and women of the Serving British Military community covering the whole of the UK. Here’s just one success story:

Andy Jenkins and Terry Wilcox met 16 years ago in the Royal Logistic Corps and have been in a civil partnership since 2011. Andy left as a Major in 2016 and Terry is now a Lieutenant Colonel and CO of 17 Port and Maritime Regiment, based near Southampton.

The couple, knowing that adoption for Military families is challenging, considered surrogacy, but decided on adoption through SSAFA for two key reasons. “The first,” says Terry, “is that we were Armed Forces. Local authorities don’t really ‘get it’. Also, SSAFA is national, so we had the choice to look nationally at potential matches.”

Terry adds that pre-adoption courses, post-adoption support, and regular contact points “…were just there” and “SSAFA just offered so much more.”

Family
After some time, Terry and Andy found their son, Ollie, a bright, energetic six-year-old. “We saw a picture of this cheeky little boy with a massive grin on his face,” says Terry.

Ollie came to live with Andy and Terry in August 2020, and the family has bonded through a shared love of the outdoors, including two SSAFA weekends of adventure training in Wales.

“We would wholeheartedly recommend SSAFA to anybody thinking of going on the journey,” says Andy, noting “I don’t think anybody else offers the through life support that SSAFA does.” Terry agrees, adding: “With SSAFA, wherever you are – whether you’re deployed, or posted abroad – the support follows you.”