TRACEY and Lee Farr have two daughters of their own and one day decided to satisfy a long-term interest and find out about being foster carers.

They contacted an independent fostering agency and one thing led to another.

Several months later and after endless interviews and questionnaires the couple were given the news they had passed the assessment – they had become official foster carers.

Soon after that, a troubled 13-yearold boy arrived on their doorstep.

“He was taking drugs and smoking and was sexually active,” 32-year-old Mrs Farr said. “The first night I did not sleep a wink. I was on guard the whole night.”

But it soon became clear that all he needed was normality – sitting down for three meals a day, being dropped off and picked up from school, and adult conversation.

In the last two-and-a-half years, this couple and their daughters, 15-year-old Megan and 11-year-old Imogen, have welcomed 10 youngsters into their home.

“I really could not do it without the girls,” Mrs Farr said.

“Having my own kids they all go and play together, it is great, but we do have to make time for our own.

“I am not trying to replace them so they do not feel threatened.”

The couple, who have known each other since they were teenagers, receive support from social workers and their agency the ChildCare Bureau.

There are meetings to review the placement, regular training, and a social worker is on 24-hour call in case there is a problem.

At the same time they also like to do it their way. When a foster child arrives they have a referral form with them which lists all their previous behaviour.

The list can be endless and reading it is often demoralising for the child.

So 36-year-old Mr Farr sits the youngster down, shows them the form and turns it over, revealing a blank piece of paper.

“They know it is a fresh start and whatever they do in this house gets put on the blank sheet. It’s their chance to start over,” he said.

So what are the highlights of caring for these youngsters?

Mr and Mrs Farr reminisce on the time they looked after 10-month and 20-month-old siblings.

“We got the younger one sitting, standing and walking. She met all her milestones here,” Mr Farr said.

“We paid for the oldest to go to private nursery. It was important for her to interact with her own peers.

That is the best bit, when they catch up with what they are supposed to be doing, just to see them happy.”

The couple, who live in Lutterworth Close, Tolladine, Worcester, are now making a book to give to the girls so when they are older there won’t be any gaps in their history.

They don’t deny that it is hard when the children leave, but they accept that it is part-and-parcel of fostering.

Mrs Farr said: “It is horrible when they go. I have missed them all and I always cry when they have gone.”

Their advice for anyone thinking about fostering is to look into it properly and persevere.

“The hardest part is the process, but once you get there the rewards are endless and you really are making a difference,” Mr Farr said.

For more about fostering, visit: worcestershire.whub.org.uk/home/ wcc-social-cf-fostering.htm.

I've had more than 100 children through my door

ONE Worcester woman, who asked not to be named, has been fostering with her husband for more than 30 years.

She has had more than 100 children through her door and even after her husband died six years ago, she is still fostering youngsters.

The 65-year-old described the highs and lows, and still gets emotional thinking about some of the “littlies” they looked after.

She spoke about the wild children who wreaked havoc in her Worcester home.

“I went to meet one at a children’s home. As I sat waiting, something shot through the room with a man chasing it,” she said.

“A lady then said they had tried to catch him and now had him cornered in his room.

“When I saw him he was on the window sill and jumped from there to a sink to a chest of drawers to a bed. All the time he had a tape of swearwords playing.”

She returned home, told her husband the eight-year-old was wild, to which he replied: “Well, we had better have him then.”

The boy lived with the couple for eight years.

“He turned out to be a really nice lad and he loved my husband. You never saw them apart.”

She has had to sit with mischievous children at school, tell respite carers it was normal for one of her foster boys to eat everything including the bath sponge, newspaper and pencils, and watch another boy who said he could swim nearly drown on holiday.

Despite all this, she does not know when she will stop.

“I think I have a constant need to look after something,” she said.

“They are wild and wonderful but you can usually find something good in most of them.”