My husband introduced me to blogs quite a few months ago. My first reaction was “I don’t have time to read about other people’s lives…I’m too busy and immersed in my own!” But I couldn’t help myself, and once I’d found a few foster carer’s blogs, especially those whose children’s special needs matched so well with my own kid’s, I was hooked. So, I became a lurker…. reading archives, choosing who to subscribe to, chasing links across the web, formulating comments in my head but never actually submitting them. But it’s time. I am no longer satisfied being the wallflower – I want to join in. Maybe I can share with you the Australian perspective on fostering and its related issues.
My family has been fostering sixteen years. Around fifty children have been part of our family for varying lengths of time, mostly babies to preschoolers. Two have permanently joined our family. “Portia” is now thirteen and came into our care at twelve months. She was nearly six when we got the Permanent Care order which gave us guardianship. In Australia we don’t have the system whereby the legal termination of parent’s rights leaves the child available for adoption, so a P.C order is the next best thing, in the state of Victoria, anyway. “Seth”, now eleven, joined our family at six weeks, and his Permanent Care order went through when he was three. As we already had three biological children, we’ve been a pretty busy household ever since, especially as we usually have one or two foster children in our care as well . Our current little angel is nine months old, and has been with us six months – he doesn’t look like going home any time soon.
Our oldest two children have moved out of home with their partners, so we just have one adult child still living at home. Luckily the others both live just a twenty minute drive away, so we see them fairly often. Our oldest son Ben also works in the family business with his Dad, so they get to ‘hang out’ every day – they’re both well and truly into I.T. so you can imagine the computer talk that goes on there. Our oldest daughter Jessi is a social worker and recently started working at my own Foster Care agency. We talk or email or see each other often – and our themes usually revolve around foster kids and the myriad of issues that go with them. She’s a great support to me. Our second daughter, Emily is studying Photography at Uni, just about to start her third and final year. She’s become the family photographer, so I’ll post her pics occasionally (not the foster kids though, which is a shame, because they’re just so cute!)
If I had time to spare, my interests would be crafts (and I do manage a bit of simple knitting or sewing occasionally, but not the embroidery and smocking I used to indulge in) reading (belonging to a book group does mean I read at least one book a month) and scrapbooking (still working on my daughter’s 21st album, and she’ll be 24 soon!). But the home and kids and a range of fostercare committees and meetings keep me busy, and I love to share times with my husband and friends, watch the occasional movie, and spend some time each day on my computer…. so all the rest just fits around that. And now I’m going to try and include a regular blogging…. I guess I’ll see how I go.