Local Ballymena Councillor Beth Adger spoke on her experience with adoption and fostering.
Beth lives just outside Ballymena with her husband Tommy. They have been married for fifty-four years, dedicating there time to fostering and adopting children over the course of there marriage.
Beth commented on how many children she and her husband have taken care of, saying: “We were married seven years before we had our first son, and when he was about two we started fostering.”
Home for good found that there are three thousand families in Northern Ireland that currently foster children, with 83% of children in care living with a foster family. However, most children wait over three years to be adopted.
“We moved into a bigger house, with seven bedrooms. When the kids got bigger, they had plenty of space.”
“At one particular time we had twelve in the house, all at school.”
“I felt I had done by but for that child and let them move on.”
When asked would she recommend adopting or fostering she said “I would highly recommend either of the two. The love you get back highly compensates the pressure your under while they are there. It’s a very worthwhile thing.”
A local family in Ballymena, who have two boys that are adopted spoke on the matter when asked would they recommend adoptions to others, “I would always do it, yeah.”
When asked how long the adoption process was Monique, there mother said: “Lee’s was four years, but Cody’s was quicker than that. From start to finish his was a year and a half.”
