Nickey and Tony, Kim, Segun and Seyi , Amerjeet, Collette and Adam, Jessica, and Oona mention adopted child
How were you matched with your child?
“We’re foster carers so we’ve had lots of children over the years, we’ve been fostering for ten years, and these two children arrived three and a half years ago and we just can’t part with them.”
How is adopting children different to birth children?
“...birth children have that continuity from birth, they are the centre of someone’s universe. Adopted children didn’t have that, so there’s always this sense that they were thrown away, like rubbish.”
Do you think you can love an adopted child in the same way people love a birth child?
“Yeah right now I would say without any doubt in my mind that I can love them both – I don’t love our adopted son any differently”
Did you always know you were adopted?
“...bearing in mind I’m half Indian half Nigerian, I was adopted by an Indian family”
What were the hardest things for you about being adopted?
“ ...there’s a mine of information available to kids nowadays but back then there wasn’t that much so I didn’t really know who I was or where I came from…”
“So it was just really because we didn’t want our son to be an only child.”
Do you think you can love an adopted child in the same way people love a birth child?
“ I can honestly say hand on heart we do love him as much as we do our own. Obviously in certain ways because of their ages, one will drive you mad one day, and one will drive you mad the next, but the bottom line is they are loved both the same definitel”
Do you think adoption is a good thing?
“The outcomes of children when they go into adoptive placements are generally good , they do better at school, they’re at less risk of things like teenage pregnancies and getting involved with drugs when they’re in adoptive placements…”
“...adoption seemed like a way of getting a baby instead of getting a bill”