Two dads, Lee and Bobby, share their journey adopting siblings, from the validation of being approved as parents to navigating their sons' unique personalities and trauma responses. Their story highlights the importance of maintaining connections with foster carers while developing therapeutic approaches to parenting children who've experienced neglect.
• Equal treatment in the adoption process regardless of being a same-sex couple
• Building productive relationships with the foster carer who had cared for the boys for 18 months
• Honoring children's life stories and past experiences rather than seeing foster care as just "a holding room"
• Understanding and supporting different trauma responses
• Accessing post-adoption support including play therapy and life story work
• Learning therapeutic parenting techniques that help disarm fight-or-flight responses
• Creating support networks through extended family and professional resources
If you'd like to hear more from the Barnardo's fostering and adoption NI podcast, like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about fostering adoption with us, search for Barnardo's online or find the link in our program description.
Learn more about fostering and adoption with Barnardo’s:
https://www.barnardos.org.uk/get-support/fostering-and-adoption
To learn more about fostering and adoption in NI, visit our Linktr.ee:
https://linktr.ee/barnardosfosteringni
To ask a question, give us some feedback or make a topic request, email us at:
[email protected]
Foster belonging with us!