DD1 has been a foster carer for about ten years now, when Steve and I married in 2011 she had three foster children a four year old girl and her two little brothers who were 2 years old and 6 months old. The little girl carried a ring cushion with our wedding rings on, into the registry office. These children were an emergency placement so were only with DD1 for a short time.
There are different types of fostering, emergency placements, where there has been a family crisis and children need a short term place of safety.
Pre adoption placement, usually babies or toddlers placed in a foster home whilst an adoption is organised.
Long term placement where a child can never return to his or her birth parents and so need a home for the foreseeable future.
DD1 does mainly long-term placements.
I remember when DD1 phoned up and asked if she could bring two of the children for Sunday lunch, they were 4 and 5 years old. I cooked roast chicken as she told me the children liked it, she warned me that their table manners were a work in progress. The children had spent all their short lived hungry and they fell on the food like wild animals. It was heartbreaking to see.
The children are now 14 and 15, happy, settled and doing well at school.
Scrimping and saving, ranting and raving. Past retirement age.
5 comments:
Your daughter is a special kind of person, but I think she might get that from her mum.
Isn't it amazing what love will do.
A heartwarming story. Not all angels have wings, but your daughter surely is one. x
I’ve read your bog from start to current day and the mentions of your DDs always give me a warm feeling. As a childcare professional I appreciate the vital role foster careers fulfil however I think their roles really need to be appreciated by society- without such wonderful foster carers , the LAC system would totally fail young people.
I can only imagine how proud you are to have DD xxx
Fostering children is the job of the best in our Society. I have met children from 'broken' homes a lot over the years. A good foster family can repair so much damage by showing children that their is another, better way of life.
Children's Homes are not always the right environment for damaged children, perhaps only for much older ones. Younger children and babies do so much better in Foster families.
Congratulations on your wonderful daughter.
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