South Lanarkshire Council has carried out a new case study in a bid to encourage more people to consider adoption and fostering.
The local authority spoke to a couple who had taken on the care of two boys more than four years ago and who were now reflecting on the experience.
One of the adoptive parents said she had zero hesitation in recommending the experience to anyone considering fostering or adoption.
The couple wished to remain anonymous for the study, in consideration of the birth family.
The woman said: “It was a long road and of course, it hasn’t been easy, but it is, without doubt, the best thing we have ever done.
“They are brothers and we felt it was vital to them that we were able to allow them to remain together and grow up together.
“We got married in August 2016 and we knew we wanted to be parents. We ordered the information pack from the council website and two months later we were in the process.
“We had great assistance from our caseworker, who helped us every step of the way, and we met the boys when they were just one week old.”
Initially, the couple fostered the boys for almost two years before deciding to adopt them.
“That was what suited our situation best,” the woman added.
"And although it was emotionally difficult at times, knowing that the boys could go back to their birth parent at any stage, it has worked for us and we have built a wonderful life with our sons.”
Jan Strain, adoption and fostering manager at SLC, agreed that there were many routes to helping children and enriching their lives.
She stated in the study: “There are as many situations as people are willing to enter this way of life – some suit fostering, some adoption and some, as in this case, one followed by the other.
“The traditional view of children who are adopted or fostered as babies does still exist, of course, but there is a need for so much more than that now.
"For example is children over the age of five or teenagers who need foster or adoptive parents for the first time in their lives.
"This is an area where there is a great need for carers at the moment, and one that often suits prospective foster or adoptive parents who would prefer not to undertake the baby and toddler years but are more comfortable with these later stages.
“It means that there is a situation that suits all prospective carers and we would encourage anyone who is contemplating it to talk to us to find out if it is something that they would like to take further."
The boys’ adoptive mother added: “It is not only great to see how the two of them are now, but also to look back on how they have developed and grown. Of course, it has been difficult – what parent would ever say it never is hard?
"But the rewards outweigh the struggles so much.
“We are so glad we took that decision to get in touch in the first place all those years ago, because we look at life with the boys now and it’s the only life we can imagine for them and us.”
Anyone wishing to explore their options on fostering or adoption, or just wanting to find out whether it might be something that would interest them, can do so through the council’s website.
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