Every year, we hear stories about couples paying a fortune to conceive or adopt. They want a child they can call their own. This is fair enough, and everyone has a right to want to create the family unit they want.
What we often forget or put at the back of our minds is that there are thousands of children out there who will not be up for adoption, for one reason or the other, who could do with experiencing some of that love we so desperately want to give to a child ? children in foster care.
Maybe you have children of your own but would like to help a child in care ? fostering could be for you, too.
There are 50,000 children in foster care on any given day in the UK. More foster carers are needed to provide these children with safe and caring homes while they are unable to live with their own families.
Currently, there is a shortage of over 10,000 foster carers in the UK.
Foster Care Fortnight (11-24 May 2009) is an annual campaign which raises the profile of fostering and highlights the need for more foster carers, coordinated by the Fostering Network. It is the ideal time for anyone considering fostering to get in touch with their local fostering service.
Julie and Clive?s story
Staffordshire married couple Julie and Clive have three children of their own and have been foster parents for two years now.
Julie has an evening part-time job and Clive is self-employed and a little more flexible with his working hours, so even before their youngest child was born they started thinking about fostering. However the plans were put on hold when Julie had some health problems and they decided to wait.
?Recently, two young brothers have now been with us for just over six months on a long-term foster placement.? They were quite unsettled when they first arrived, but when they got to know us a bit better they started to calm down. They have both made significant improvements with their work and behaviour at school. The boys have regular contact with their birth family and the steady routine has aided their relationships,? says Julie.
It hasn?t always been plain sailing, however. A particular low point in their time as foster carers came with an earlier placement which just didn?t work out.? ?He didn?t settle well into our family life, and his behaviour affected all of us,? recalls Julie.
The decision to ask for the child to be moved to another carer was one of the hardest they had to make and they felt that they had failed as foster carers.? ?The support we received from our social workers and the Park Foster Care, the foster care agency we registered with, was invaluable.
?They made us realise that it was natural to feel guilty, but that it was no reflection on us and that not all placements work out, no matter how hard people work at them.
?Fostering was a family decision and I think it has brought us all closer ? I wish we?d done it sooner. My advice to anyone considering fostering is to do it now! Yes, it can be difficult at the beginning but its incredibly rewarding and definitely worth it!?
Further information
For further information go to www.parkfostercare.com or call 0800 169 4552 for an informal chat about fostering in the North West and West Midlands area.
For more information on fostering visit the dedicated campaign website, www.couldyoufoster.org.uk.
