Helen’s Fostering Blog
Finally, we make the big first step into fostering.
It was in the early stages of my relationship with my husband that we first discussed fostering.
As it was something I had always wanted to do I felt I needed to let him know this at the very beginning. I asked how he might feel about fostering at some point in our future together, he was very honest and responded he really didn’t know much about it.
I explained I had a couple of books on fostering which he decided to read. We talked about what he had read and he responded he was definitely interested in the idea of fostering but that it needed to be the right time and obviously at that point I had not even started a relationship with his daughter, but I was pleased that I had meet someone who thought it was something they felt they could do.
The discussions about fostering continued throughout our relationship and eventually an opportunity arose around 7 years into our lives together, when I took voluntary redundancy from my job of 20 years. We were already looking into buying a new home and decided to go for a home with 2 extra bedrooms so that we could foster siblings.
We moved into our new home at the end of February 2018 and started decorating all 4 bedrooms first. It was shortly after this I started the long process of looking into various different Fostering Agencies.
I had spent such a long time looking into fostering, the process and different approaches.
We had decided that for us it would be best to go through an agency rather than the LA. Problem was there were so many to choose from and I wanted to make sure I made the right choice for us. I noted down a few telephone numbers and details of agencies that seemed right for us.
Fostering UK (Simply Fostering) was at the top of my first choice. One of the reasons for this was because they covered many areas. The Director of Fostering UK called me back very quickly after my first initial register of interest. I found him to be very straight talking and I liked the fact that they were a smaller, new and upcoming agencies.
The Director clearly had many years of experience in Fostering which made me feel more comfortable. After a few days a representative from the company contacted us to arrange our first face to face meeting.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect from that first initial meeting, but I do recall suggesting my husband wore a shirt. When the lady arrived, I was delighted to see she had blue hair and looked very causally dressed. I then started to understand that Fostering isn’t about how you look on the outside, all importance’s is put on what kind of person you are inside.
Helen – A New Foster Carer’s Blog
