Red Letter Days are few and far between in life, and need to be savoured, because there are plenty of days which are the opposite.
Fostering has plenty of highs and lows. The highs are delightful, lows have to be seen out.
Thing is; there are different types"Highs".
Here's the "high" I'm on right now, it's a beauty, all thanks to fostering.
We're in the middle of a Parent and Child placement.
Mum is 16, the baby is now 9 months.
When her pregnancy was confirmed she was offered an abortion, she turned it down.
On giving birth all sorts of experts applied their professional skills. And asked me and our family to take them in. To be part of our family while the mum is assessed as to whether she can keep the baby, or needs to give the baby up for adoption. It would all hinge on her abilities as a mother.
There's over a dozen experts who have been visiting, some of them once a week, others as and when. It's been like Picadilly Circus has our house.
They ring the doorbell, speak with the mother and watch her with her baby, leave and drive away, and the mum can rest easy again, because the stress levels she absorbs in an all-out effort to prove her competence is exhausting for her, and doesn't do my energy levels much good either.
The mum has been walking on eggshells for seven months in our house.
Sometimes she's gets giddy, like when Amazon bring her a parcel. Or she achieves. For example the other Sunday she baked a trial birthday cake. She wants to make a cake when her baby has his first birthday, which will happen after she finds out whether she can keep him. She's being tactical in this instance hoping that her hopes to remain the baby's mother are underlined.
Yesterday he Parenting Assessor made her final visit.
The case is due to be heard by a judge in about 8 weeks, and the Assessor's report will be key.
The mother was almost dumbstruck with fear awaiting the arrival of the Assessor. But she needn't have worried. At the end of her visit the Assessor told the mother "I'm going to recommend strongly, not only that you keep the baby, but that we start looking for some accomodation of your own so that you can begin independent parenting."
With that the Assessor drove away for the last time.
I can't begin to tell you how happy this made the young mum.
And me.
It was one of my best moments in many years of fostering.
The word "high" hardly does it justice.
Yep, fostering is grand!
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