As a foster carer, you will have the chance of helping children from very diverse traumatic experiences and every child is unique to his/her situation. One of our foster carers had received a child the age of 3 who had arrived without a coat or shoes. It became apparent that the child very rarely left their home because everything was new and challenging to them. Like walking on grass in the garden, having properly dedicated mealtimes, and a very basic necessity like sleeping in a bed. The parents worked hard to help the child settle in.
The child had been separated from her baby brother which had a huge impact on her although she was a child. She would look in other prams in playgroups and when they took her shopping to see if her baby brother was in one. It was really heartbreaking to see a young child go through this trauma and be separated from her family, not knowing where they are.
With time the girl started to feel at ease and secure and slowly started to build a stable attachment to her foster parents. They had received positive feedback about the progress the child was making in their care.
Even going on holidays would be difficult emotionally and they arranged for a respite carer to look after the child while they went away for a week. The parents found a meaningful way of communication that they would be going away and coming back through roleplay using the child’s dollhouse and dolls.
Once the child got comfortable with the family, a foster to adopt family was found for the child and the transition took place from one family to another. The foster parents were both happy and sad, happy to see the child placed with a family long term and sad to see the child leave.
There are a lot of stories like these where you have a chance to help a child overcome the challenges they face. Sometimes children go from one placement to another and sometimes it’s hard to track the development of the child from family to family as a foster carer genuinely creates a bond with the child. The reason for this little story was to give a little insight into the children you could be matched with and the trauma they bring with them. As a foster carer, you will be creating and bringing positive change to these children’s life.This makes fostering worth it!