Reflecting on twelve months of fostering, Nicola and Chris' story

This summer, Nicola and Chris from Blaenau Gwent celebrated their first anniversary as Calon Cymru foster carers.

After their previous experience with respite fostering several years ago, they knew it was something they wanted to return to, and when the time was right, commit to fostering on a full-time basis.

The perfect opportunity arose in early 2022 when Nicola was able to retire from her nursing career, so they enquired to become foster carers with Calon Cymru. One reason why Nicola and Chris decided to foster was because they enjoyed being parents to their three grown up children through every stage, from infancy into adulthood.

Following a year of fostering, the couple attended their first review at the Calon Cymru office in Cardiff, where they shared their reflections on the last 12 months.

“When we had our first placement, a young guy, two years of age. He was amazing. Yeah, he was a challenge, but it was what we sort of expected… It's the little things that we enjoyed as well, not just opening our home up and welcoming him into our family. Things like the cooking, eating meals together, making sure he had warm clothes, having fun together, the painting, going to the park. There's all those little things that sometimes we forget are important.”

A couple of months into fostering, Chris unexpectedly had to go to Italy to work, leaving Nicola as the sole carer, for days or weeks at a time. Throughout this period, the little boy made huge progress, and both Nicola and Chris could see the difference they had made to his life:

“For us, the rewards and the achievements were seeing him talk, his confidence grow, his self esteem… the hugs were endless.”

One of the couple’s fondest memories of the young boy came one Friday afternoon, when he was being picked up from nursery by Chris, who had just returned from a four day spell working in Italy:

“I was able to go and pick him up from the nursery and for him to see me through the window and run and jump in my arms. All of the nursery teachers were crying and it was such a change. When you can do that with a child and see that development it, it really does make it all worthwhile. It really does.”