Collette has been a foster carer for 15 years, caring mainly for newborn babies and helping them eventually move on to their adoptive families. She has 4 birth children of her own, all whom were living at home when she started fostering and has a growing number of grandkids. She shares some of her thoughts on her journey:
“Babies have been such a blessing in our house, they slot right in. I have so much family support, everyone chips in and they’re always around. I’ve cared for babies for anything from 4 weeks to the longest which was 2 years 7 months.
“It is the hardest thing to say goodbye but it’s because we have open hearts that we can do it. It is the loveliest thing in the world to foster and if your heart doesn’t break each time a child moves on, you haven’t done it right.
“One wee girl that we cared for for almost a year, I took a video of her and shared it with her adoptive parents. To see the look that passed between them when they saw her for the first time, it was priceless. Although there’s no expectation for adoptive parents to keep in touch, I’ve found the majority still do, like sending photos of the children as they grow, which is so nice.
“Even though the children are so young, I try to prepare them for moving on, whether it’s getting them used to certain smells and items before they move on to introducing them to their new parents, anything to make them feel more comfortable with the transition. It’s important too that they feel they have permission to move on, even though they’re still so young.
“I couldn’t recommend fostering babies highly enough. There’s always someone to smile at you, to cuddle. Santa is always alive in our house!! You get to see so many firsts – smiling, waving and I try to catch as much of this as I can on video for their new families. I make sure to send lots of photos of the child’s time with me onto their forever families. It’s rewarding to know we’ve given them a really good start in life. We put our heart and soul into it and know we do a really good job.”