Voices of Foster Carers

Hi my name is Poppy, and this is my fostering journey. Fostering is the ability to help children who need a loving and supporting home. My parents having been doing this since I was 4 and I couldn’t imagine a better job for my parents to do. Growing up with my parents doing this job has its challenges children moving on, children moving into our home, and having social workers in our home but it is nothing compared to the reward you get from nurturing a child and seeing them with their family. Over the years we have help over 40 children and I wouldn’t change a thing knowing I have helped all those children. 

 When my mum receives the phone call it like a rush of different emotions and questions. I always wonder what they are going to be like, look like and act like. Preparing everything for this new child to arrive is always chaotic because a placement is never usually expected. When I was little, I can remember begging my mum to let me stay up late to see the new child as I always find it one of the most exciting parts of this job. However, they don’t always get dropped off at our home occasionally my mum has been to pick the child up from hospital sometimes only being a few hours old. Seeing pictures of them all huddled up in the cot makes me excited to watch them grow, develop, and learn new skills. Once they start to settle, they become a part of our family but knowing its only temporary. 

 After looking after the child, the hardest part of the whole process begins. Them moving on. Whether it’s too adoption or back to parents or family it all hurts just as much. Although as a child I didn’t fully understand the process as much as I do now that I am older. How I would describe it now I am older would be like losing your sibling as I’m not going to sugar-coat it. But knowing that they are in the family they are meant to be makes the heartbreak bearable. 

 After the child moves on stands the question whether we will see them again. Over our years of fostering there is some children we don’t see, where other are now part of our family. The first child we ever moved on went to adoption I was too young to remember however I call the child my cousin and their parents my aunt and uncle and I’m so grateful they are in my life. There is also another family which is now part of our family who we try to travel up to see them at least once or twice a year, who again I’m so grateful to have in my life.

 Although there are many challenges to fostering the good out way the bad, knowing I have supported so many children find there forever home makes the heartbreak of losing the children meaningful and so worth it.