Our journey
to joy

Pictured: Happy family of five: (left to right) Paul, Zion (11), Trent, Xavier (7) and Jaya (14).

We always wanted to be parents. When we heard Barnardos often found it difficult to place siblings, we decided to adopt siblings so they could grow up together. During training we learnt about
childhood trauma which helped us understand what children in foster care had been through.

We were accepted as foster carers in 2013, with a view to open adoption. Not long after, we got the call! Barnardos told us they had a four-year-old girl named Jaya and a two-year-old boy named Zion and asked if we were interested in meeting them. It was such an exhilarating and scary decision but of course we agreed in a heartbeat as we were more than ready to become parents.

The training we received gave us the insight to respond with love, patience, understanding, whilst setting boundaries and a routine to make them both feel safe and secure. After a while they both settled in and began to flourish! Zion’s language came along in leaps and bounds and they both began to trust us and become confident little people in their own right.

Then in 2016 when Jaya was 7 and Zion was 5, we got a surprise call from Barnardos. Their younger sibling Xavier who was 14 months old had entered care. Would we consider taking him into our family? It was a no-brainer for us as we wanted the children to grow up with their new little brother and we had more than enough love to go around. A year later in 2017, we formally adopted all three. It was the best day of our lives! We are now a big happy family of five.

We were always committed to forming a good relationship with their birth mother. We’d talk about her at home and get them to draw pictures for her and take photos to show at our visits. The kids have a large extended family with aunts, uncles and cousins who have since embraced all of us. Our kids are our world, and we wouldn’t have things any other way.