With young children, aged 1 and 2 years old, Russell and Vicki became foster carers. They have had long term placements and short term placements and have also gone on to have two further children of their own.
We knew a lot about fostering as my sister had fostered for a while, she currently had a sibling group of three. We thought we could help her by having her foster children for respite. Capstone initially were unsure as to whether to take us on due to the fact we had such young children aged one and two.
We had gained a lot of knowledge about fostering through my sister and me being a teacher and that helped Capstone to make the decision for us to start the assessment process.
After we had completed the assessment process which took approximately 6 months, we were approved! It was not too long before we were offered our first placement. An 8 year old girl, our first foster child, turned into a long term placement. This set us on our fostering journey towards having a few short term and 4 long term placements in addition to our 2 further birth children, our family was growing. Our current foster daughter is a part of our family, she’s almost 17 now and has been with us for 5 and a half years.
Initially when we first looked at fostering we thought younger children would suit our family dynamic, as I worked in early years for 15 years and for the last 6 years taught KS1 in a primary school.
However all the young people we’ve fostered long term have been older than our birth children. We feel fostering teenagers fits in well with our young family and has been such a positive experience for our birth children and the foster children.
We have a busy, lively and fun household, we can’t imagine it any other way now!
Capstone offer informative training courses and are always there to support and advise us when we need it. They are great at organising family days out throughout the year too, which are always great fun.
If you are thinking of fostering, and want to find out more information, then contact Capstone and have a chat.
Start the conversation today. Our team of friendly advisors are on hand to answer any foster care questions you may have. We can offer you honest and practical advice that can help you decide if becoming a foster carer is the right path for you.
