Faye and Stephen Neville from Moy, Co. Tyrone 
have been fostering for over five years and say being long term foster carers for a sibling group has brought so much joy and happiness to their family.
The couple have four children of their own aged 24, 21, 19 and 18, all of whom live at home. The family opened up their home and their hearts to three young brothers, who at that time were aged four, three and two. Since then life has been a rollercoaster for the family, but they insist they wouldn’t have it any other way.
Five years on, Faye says they have no regrets about their decision to become foster carers. She says the boys, now aged nine, eight and seven, are “doing great” and are very much part of their family.
Explaining why they took the decision to become foster carers, she continued: “We always had this feeling that if something ever happened to Stephen and I then we would like to think that there would be someone kind enough to look after our children.
In the early days we didn’t know if we wanted to do long term, short term or respite fostering – the only thing we were sure of was that we wanted it to be a sibling group.
It’s traumatic enough for these young people to be removed from their birth families and taken into the care system without having to be separated from their siblings. The boys share a bedroom and as long as they’re together, they are all right. It gives them a sense of normality and security, they just have this unbreakable bond.
It has been so good to watch the children grow and progress and do well at school and enjoy all the wee groups they’re in. We actually really enjoyed our time together during lockdown. We made sure we had a good routine in place for home schooling and the boys just loved the new experiences they had after their school work, like sowing a wildflower garden, roasting marshmallows and having 3 o’clock tea each day with freshly baked cakes. We all looked forward to that!”
Stressing that the decision to start fostering wasn’t only taken by her and Stephen, Faye says her children were very positive about the move and have “really embraced” the fostering experience.
“We discussed it with them before we decided to do it. It’s very important that you discuss it with your own family because it does bring changes to your family unit,” she says. “They’re great with the children and really encourage them, it has kept them busy too!”
Stephen and Faye’s daughter Katie, 21, says she and her siblings didn’t know quite what to expect from the experience initially, but is delighted with how things have turned out.
“We all clicked like we had met before. It just seemed to work. Mum and Dad understood how to handle three young siblings very well and knew every trick in the book.
At the start I didn’t know much about fostering, until I began to learn how much we have influenced three young lives. How much they have grown and developed, gaining self-belief and happiness all under one roof.”
Faye and her family have received “great support” from their local Trust and its social workers since they began fostering. “I go to as much training as I can to help me care for the boys and I’m also happy to offer a listening ear to new foster carers. I find it’s good to talk to someone who is living the life and I try to tell them that it’s OK to ask for help when you need it.”