Amy and Kim's story

Read Amy and Kim's video transcript

Amy: The DNA blood, to me that doesn't make a family love, does. Seeing children just grow is just beautiful.

Kim: People write off children and kids very quickly, and I think they're the children that they just need extra love. They're not bad kids. They just they've been through a bad time.

Amy: It's all about the bigger picture. I feel there's a lot of misconceptions when it comes to children in care, seeing them from such a fragile, vulnerable state and growing into, you know, confident, little, independent people. It's pretty beautiful.

Kim: We started at fostering in 2019 we've been doing it for five years now.

Amy: Me and Kim were at a Newcastle Pride event one year.

Kim: At the time we were 21.  

Amy: We saw a fostering van we just sort of found ourselves wandering over and spoke to them to get a bit more information, and then a few months later, started the ball rolling.

Amy: We had some children come on the night time, and we got approved on the dinner time, and our first children came, and they were just lovely. And we've had eeh 19 children now, so it's been quite a long time. So yeah, it's been good though.

Amy: I think especially for us, having been a younger foster care, it means that we're a lot more active, so we can give a lot more energy. We can run around with the little ones. We have a lot of similar interests. We do games nights, like on the Nintendo, or on the Switch, and the children really seem to gel with that. We have a child who is now 16, and there's only, like, 13 years difference between me and her.

Kim: She is our first teenager that we've dared to venture in. We have a lot of similarities, and I think that kind of it makes it less daunting as well, having, like a younger set of carers.

Amy: She knows that if there is something troubling her, we are there ready, you know, to be approached a lot of the time. You know, a lot of the time she'll speak to birth mum, which is great. We've got quite a positive relationship with birth mum. We're all trying to work together to make it as happy and as safe and as nice possible environment as we can.

Amy:  A few years ago, we ended up with a baby in our placement. We taught how to walk, how to talk. She was calling us mam, and we were really considering, at that point that, you know, to adopt her, we did look into it, but unfortunately, due to, you know, unforeseen circumstances, we weren't able to do so. 

Kim: After having kind of a little one, we kind of realised we wanted to have a little one of our own as well. Then we went into the adoption side of things, which was very different from being a foster carer, which kind of gives us, like, a really good, kind of unique sense, because not only have we foster carers, but we're adapters, so we can kind of see from both perspectives.

Amy:  It just solidified that there's so many children out there in the world that haven't got a home, and now she's three, she's got fetal alcohol syndrome, autism, she's peg fed, short stature. She's got a couple of additional needs. If it wasn't for fostering, we would never, ever have had her, and I could never, ever change that for a million.

Kim: We have had a lot of children with SEN. SEN is like special educational needs. It can cover all aspects of learning disabilities are genetic disabilities.

Amy: We had a young girl, ten year old, with Down's syndrome for six months, and that's how we ended up teaching our daughter how to sign, how to use Makaton, because she was getting frustrated that our little girl couldn't communicate with her, and to this day, she still signs, which is amazing.

Kim: I feel very lucky that I've been able to be a foster carer. Very lucky that I've been able to kind of see the way children have grown. Very lucky to be a part of their lives.

Amy: Simple things from watching them how to get themselves dressed, remembering to brush their teeth, learning how to read, how to walk and talk.

Kim: It makes you a stronger person, a better person, a lot more vocal person. When children need things, like, I know how to fight for them now and how to get those things to them in place.

Amy: Ultimately, you're the one that's you know. You're giving them the care, you're providing them, the safety, and all they need is someone to love them, to keep them safe, and to be able to do that is, is really, really rewarding.

Kim: If you're thinking about doing fostering, just do it.

Amy: Honestly it'll change your life. Go and do it. Do it Now.