Foster mums celebrate first Christmas with foster daughter
A couple who foster with a Staffordshire fostering agency are celebrating their first Christmas as foster parents, creating new traditions for the young person in their care.
Jodie Armstrong, 39, and her wife Holly, 34, have been fostering Lauren who is 13 years-old with Orange Grove Foster Care since the start of the year.
The pair are looking forward to sharing the season’s festivities with a child for the first time, Jodie said: “Holly and I are both very Christmassy people with fond memories of it growing up so we’re really looking forward to sharing that magic with Lauren*.
“We’ve got a lot planned - we’ve been doing elf on the shelf and we’ll be doing stockings. All things which she might never have experienced before, we want her first Christmas with us to be exciting.”
Christmas can be a complicated time for children in care. For many of them it may not have been a memorable or positive experience and they might want to spend time with their birth families which isn’t always possible
Jodie said: “Lauren’s sister is spending Christmas with us too. She’s a little bit older now and not in foster care any more but we thought that would be a lovely way for them to experience Christmas together while they’re both still reasonably young and give them that familiarity.”
While this is the couple’s first Christmas with Lauren, they’ve celebrated other events over the course of the year, Jodie said: “We got married this year and we really wanted to include our young person in that process, so we asked Lauren to be our ring bearer. She got all dressed up and met our extended family - we wanted her to feel important and part of the family.
“In the summer we went on holiday too, so we’ve had a busy year! We saw her flourish and make friends while we were away, exploring and having fun. We’ve just had so many lovely moments with her.”
Inspired by Jodie’s mum who was a local authority youth outreach worker, the LGBTQIA+ couple, who can’t have children of their own, decided fostering was right for them and are now encouraging others to do the same by sharing their experience.
Jodie said: “As soon as she came to us, we both acknowledged just how special she was and how much she meant to us and now we can’t wait to share our first Christmas all together.”
For more information on fostering in the north west with Orange Grove, visit the website or call 0800 369 8513.
