Hi thanks for all of you have stuck with me and I hope that you are all healthy and well. I have been having a really busy time this last couple of years, which is why I have been absent.
My husband and I have fostered children for over 20 years but a couple of years ago we decided that we were going to wind down. I had a full time teaching job and having troubled teens was getting harder as we were getting older. We decided that we would do the last few years fostering younger children so we took a three sibling placement two girls aged 6 and 2 and a baby boy aged 10 months. The social services had no option than to go for a full care order in the end and were worried that if they couldn't find adoptive parents for the group or the would split them up once one of the girls turned 7.
I had looked after these kids for 10 months at this point and I was devastated at this news. Anyway to cut a long story short and a lot of soul searching we took all three of them on and we are now their official special guardians until they reach adulthood with court given parental responsibility for their care and any decisions regarding their future, they are effectively our children now and call us mummy and daddy.
There are some days when I think I must have mad as a hatter to do this given that we are both the wrong side of our mid 50s but I really could not imagine life without them now.
I will be having hip replacement surgery soon (I hope) an I worry about how my husband will cope but I know we will mange some how.
They have been with us for over two years now, and we love them all so much and our 31 year old son finally has the siblings that he longed for, obviously we involved him in our decision even though he has a family of his own (we have grandchildren older than our trio).
I still craft when time allows and I do hope that I will get back to making crafting videos sometime in the future. I have been getting to grips with vinyl and sublimation crafts as I have got to grips with my Cricut Maker. I still use my scan n cut but mainly for cutting out stamped images these day. I got fed up with price of the new mats and you can't get economically viable dupes for the cricut.
These are my most recent makes
I have taken early retirement from teaching so I can concentrate on raising these three children with my husband. I thought I would miss my job because I loved teaching, but to be honest Ive never been happier (well if I could get rid of the arthritic hip pain).
Please post below the crafts etc that you might like me to do if I get the chance and I will see what I can do. Take care and keep crafting!
I cannot tell how wonderful it is to read your post. Its simply lovely, beautiful what you're doing for these kids. I'm nearly 70 yrs old now but I was once one of those kids when my parents died suddenly due to illness. These kids need you more than they know and it's good to hear many feel called to do what you & husband have done.
ReplyDeleteI hope to see future scan n cut videos but I too have a Cricut Maker and both I'm still rusty at it but your videos simplify it for me (a slow learner). Thank you so much Beverly, blessings on you and your family.
Trudy