Jim and Pam's story

In the summer of 2013, Jim and Pam were having a break from fostering after a particularly difficult and challenging placement. They felt they needed to rest, recover and reflect on whether they would continue.

During this time Pam read Krish and Miriam Kandiah’s Home for Good book. “It was almost a ‘Eureka’ moment. He managed to describe all the things I felt about fostering but was not able to verbalise. We decided we would continue fostering – one placement at a time!”

Jim and Pam made themselves available to the local authority at the beginning of September and at the end of the month they received a phone call asking them to have a two-year-old Samuel. Jim was in Zambia at the time, with their church, but Pam agreed anyway.

While they were fostering Samuel, a Placement Order was made, enabling him to be adopted. “We thought he would be snapped up; in our opinion he was very adoptable. By July there had been some interest but as soon as FASD was mentioned, potential adopters backed away. At this point I read the Home for Good book again and we both felt that despite our age – 50, give or take a bit! - and the fact that our birth sons, in their mid and late teens, were approaching independence, we really loved Samuel and wanted to offer him a forever home.”

After the agreement of Social Services, Jim and Pam are now waiting for the adoption hearings. “Without the Home for Good book I don’t think we would have followed this path, but we do feel it is the fulfilment of our call to fostering back in 2006.”