‘Initially, when we decided to look into fostering, I looked online, and I didn’t realise that fostering was a business in many agencies. I was only aware of the Local Authority, however, for Akmal and me, money was never the motivation.’

‘Our motivation was to foster a sibling group because of our own two boys. We know our boys fall out, sometimes they hate each other, most of the time they love each other, but they always have each other. We wanted out foster children to have that relationship, we know they too will love and hate each other at times; however, they are always together and their love for each other is obvious.’

‘It was because of this, why we wanted siblings and Caritas Care were the right agency for us, because we knew we would be supported. We wondered if we would be vulnerable because we had younger birth children, and at the panel, one of the panel members did raise this as a vulnerability in our application. However, we were approved as a fostering family, and Caritas Care honoured that matching process, we knew it would take longer, but we were prepared for this as a family.’

‘Throughout the fostering process, our birth children were very much involved, they were never ignored. It is part of our normal life that Sharon will come and do a review, and they feel a part of this. They know that our Social Worker, Collette will come into our home regularly and they are not fazed with Caritas Care coming into their lives.’

‘Caritas Care is a small, family unit, and we are all in this together. Our Social Worker, Collette, is well-organised, she is very respondent to emails and she is always one step ahead in planning.’

‘Fostering with Caritas Care is everything I thought it would be, and more. It does start off scary and it is intrusive, but this is good. We feel comfortable talking with Colette and Caritas Care made the process simple and straightforward. For Akmal and myself we started off with our family tree with spare branches for out foster children. We never gave up, and we stayed true to our motivation to foster siblings.’

‘There was never a point where we wanted to give up and we never thought we couldn’t do this. We often told ourselves it would be worth the wait, and it was.’ Also, we know that there is a Mum out there who has given birth to these boys, and now we are part of their lives and are now responsible for the care of the boys.’

‘There were delays in the boys coming to us, but we knew that whatever the delay was, there was something best in this for the boys. So, we continued to prepare for them; waiting as a fostering unit until the time came when they would join us.’

‘Sometimes, while we were waiting, we would take our seven-seater car out because we were paving the pathway and putting things into practice. We wanted to get it right, and to be honest, for us, waiting was a blessing in disguise.’

Click here to read more about Sobia and Akmal’s fostering story…

Click here to enquire about fostering with Caritas Care

Rated Outstanding by Ofsted.