Foster Wales NPT support family members to care for children and young people.
We have been foster carers to our two Grandson’s for 2 years. We found the assessment process very quick … and the whole process was straight forward. Our assessor was very sensitive when discussing my childhood and family background.
I didn’t even feel like we were being assessed, it felt more like informal chats which really helped us
Fitting fostering around our family has been brilliant. It has been so natural and it’s as if my grandchildren have always been here. I find that fostering doesn’t impact on us at all, even with all the visits and phone calls it feels very informal.
Being our grandchildren they were already a big part of our lives and the children were living with us prior to the court procedures, the Foster Wales team helped us massively by making sure we had beds, safety equipment and everything we needed for the children.
The festive period is definitely a busy time, having two young children added to our family has made it much busier. The house was fully decorated as we have an older son of our own. It makes the time more fun, we love doing elf on the shelf and have a lot of decorations for the children to enjoy. It’s all for them and our own son.
Christmas
Our first Christmas dinner as a bigger family was hectic, funny and amazing. It was nice to see how easily they fitted into the family. I can remember their first taste of sprouts and we went thought boxes of Christmas crackers as they loved them! The biggest thing for us was that we didn’t want to put pressure on them to sit at the table for dinner, we allowed them to do what they wanted as the day was them to enjoy their toys and have fun. It was a lovely family day.
The positive of fostering and the biggest thing was support
Not just for the children but for our family as a whole. I had more confidence that the children would stay with us and that’s the security we needed. We have loved every minute of it. The fostering team have become part of the family.
By us being foster carers it has allowed the children to remain in the family which is what we always wanted for them. The youngest was only a baby so he doesn’t know any different. The eldest was very shy and wouldn’t interact with anyone or try new things, he had no confidence at all. The eldest took a lot of time to form a bond with me as he didn’t seem to trust women. Since being with us this has changed massively, he is now a confident little boy.
People often think that that you have to give up a lot and sacrifice everything to be a foster carer however it’s completely worth it as it’s so rewarding.
