We’ve been fostering with our family for four and a half years now. We started fostering when we were five and nine years old. We foster younger children, mainly babies and toddlers and we really enjoy looking after the children that come into our home.
We remember our first foster child when he came to stay. He was only 18 months old and he was so very cute. He looked very scared when he first came to join us, but we got lots of our toys out and helped him to play with them and soon he started playing with the cars and he settled in. We like to share our toys with the children although not all of them are age-appropriate to some of the little children and we have to keep them up high if they have small parts in them like the marble run! We enjoy having the children join us for lots of activities and we enjoy watching them grow. Some children have learnt to talk and learnt to walk and learn lots of new things whilst they have stayed with us.
We also help young parents to care for their children and encourage them to eat their food and drink their bottles of milk. We like it when they learn to walk and hold onto our hands whilst they try. When we come out of school, the young children are often really excited to see us and we are often greeted by lots of smiles and arms wide for cuddles.
The hardest part about fostering is when it’s time for children to move to their forever homes. It’s always really sad and we find it quite upsetting when they leave. We always try and do something nice on the day after they have left to try and celebrate the time that they’ve been with us and help us feel less sad. We like keeping in touch with some of the children. We haven’t been able to with all the children, but when we do the children often rush up to us and give us a hug. We have lots of fun when we meet up with them and play. The children often remember our names!
We really like taking part in the fostering activities with the other foster carer‘s children. We’ve made lots of new friends and it’s really fun to meet up with them. The last trip we went onto was at the pier. We had so much fun going on all the rides with our friends and the fostering team! We have visited other places too; we’ve been rock-climbing, bowling, learnt water sports and played laser tag. On the next holiday we’re going to do pottery painting, we really enjoy the activities.