I just came accross this thread- i am not a foster carer however i grew up with parents who did and still do foster care and we have had about 150 kids over the years coming and going and for me and my sister (my parents only biological kids) it was just the norm, we always had someone to play with. Now i have 3 adopted brothers, 1 sister who mum is adopting soon but has been with us for 12 years and 2 foster sisters with disabilities in permanent care. My mum started doing it with repite placments from the local RCU when i was only 3 months old so all my childhood pics are of me with different kids!
I congratulate you all ondoing such a needed thing.
we are thinking of perhaps going for respite placements once our girls are at school.
So much to think about, so much running thru my head right now. Have soooo many questions. One question is once approved, how does it work, do they just call or do you have visits with the child first to get to know each other, every minute i have a new question -lol. All i know is i cannot explain to myself or others why it is i wake up crying about no having a family - why is it as women we need this fulfilled - is just in our nature or something that the world has told us we must do - you read all these things about fostering/adopting and they say things like, " Are you doing this for yourself or for the child"? i have thought about this one alot, when you try to fall pregnant and start a family the answer is you are doing this for yourself you are trying to fulfill a nature desire/need/want to nuture so isn't it the same thing???????
They just gave us a call and asked if we were interested in taking on a baby and he turned up a couple of hours later, amazing.
Yesterday I had the best news since Arden was born, the final court orders went through and we now have permanant custody and can adopt within two years!!!! I am so excited!!!! his caseworker said it's very rare so we feel so special right now, Arden is really excited too
HOw exciting for you on both counts!
Congratulations, My 3 brothers are all adoted after having been in permanent care for years with us! It was really special to us kids to be able to go to court and see it become official!
Foster carers will only normally be paid these amounts when a child is actually in their care. Some foster agencies, though, do pay a retainer to foster carers who are available for work but don?t currently have a placement.
According to the latest figures from the Fostering Network fifty per cent of foster carers don?t receive a fee payment on top of their basic allowance. Many of these people rely on other employment, a partner?s income or benefits.
I've been a fan of the author and foster parent Cathy Glass since she wrote her first book a few years ago. She has totally inspired me to foster in the future.
Her books are a fantastic resource for insight into fostering She has fostered lots of kids over the years and has written about these experiences with five children. Heartbreaking. I must warn you, they make you cry. Have tissues handy. But that is exactly what you should know before fostering I think. She's also about to publish a book about Happy Kids soon and Kids in Care in Jan 2011. The books are beautifully written, and you won't be able to put them down. If you want to check them out she has a website, which details each book and upcoming works. The testimonies will speak for themselves.
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