Nathan and Andrew's Story

Nathan and Andrew are task centred foster carers who were approved 12 months ago. They reflect on their first year of fostering for Staffordshire.

We remember our first night so clearly, a little boy walked through our door on a windy Friday night, and we will never forget his cheeky smile on arrival. His little laugh was and still is infectious; he is and cutest and most loving boy we’ve ever known. Andrew & I became foster carers as we felt we had a lot of love to share and had the ability to truly advocate for a child, it’s been so refreshing to share our love with a child. We must share a million “love yous”, cuddles and kisses during the day; however, the ones that count are unprompted and catch us off-guard. You take a step back and it brings you the most amazing happiness, which is indescribable.

Our little man went away with Andrew’s parents, we missed him like mad, however it’s lovely to see that he’s been accepted and settled within our wider family – they also think the world of him. On his return from his motorhome adventure, he was so excited and came running up to us, we picked him up and cuddled him all up. He said “I’ve really missed you”. It was a beautiful moment that demonstrated the strength of our family attachment. 

We’ve had far too many amazing memories and moments throughout our first 12 months of fostering to note them all down. However, our first Christmas as a three was the best of them all.

Our little boy (possibly for the first time in his life) appears settled and content with his surroundings. He’s achieving in every aspect of his life, which is amazing. As quoted by our fabulous supervising social worker “the proof is in the pudding”. No one imagined this would work (including us in the very early days) with both carers working, however we feel our expertise within our industries has only benefited and advocated for him. We often pinch ourselves when we sit here of an evening that we’ve got the most adorable little boy upstairs tucked up fast asleep.

We enjoy every waking moment with him, don’t get us wrong, he can sometimes push our buttons like every child, but it’s the moments you are able to influence that makes every moment worth it. He hasn’t sworn at home for nearly 6 months and 8 weeks at school, despite all the children around him continuing to swear in his presence - what an amazing little boy!

As we look beyond 12 months with him, we look forward to our first abroad holiday, several UK breaks, days out, amazing family moments that will last a lifetime. We were playing eye spy to practice our phonics, and he said “eye spy with my little eye beginning with D” I said “door”...he was no, it’s daddy because your mine. Whilst we will never replace his birth parents, it is rewarding to know we’re up there with them.  

Not a moment goes by, where he isn’t in our thoughts, he really does make our world go round. To anyone thinking about fostering we’d say give it a go it’s the greatest thing you will ever do.

Here’s to another 12 months of fabulousness with our gorgeous superstar.