(definitely not a homage to the Spice Girls hit!)
Let me, before I fully start this blog, set the scene. Normally I wouldn’t think this was important however, we are currently in (and if I hear this said one more time I might scream) “unprecedented times”. It’s what we have come to affectionately name, “lockdown”. The whole world (for the generations currently alive) will always remember these crazy, abnormal and endless days, week and months where humans were confined, unnaturally so, within their homes.
We have been shut up with our loved ones, who, let’s be honest are now the most irritating and frustrating humans on the planet, for approximately nine weeks. We have walked every possible inch of the fields around us (and trust me, there’s a lot of fields!), baked every creation the BBC recipe website has on offer and we have exhausted every single way of getting three children aged 8, 12 and 14 to complete home school activities.
And then we get it. The call. THE CALL. The call which, as a Foster Carer, you are both excited and petrified about. It was a particularly important call for us as it was indeed, our FIRST call. Obviously, my first thought was “Have I febreezed the beds and bleached the bath and shower?” Little did I know that life was about to change, forever. And we had approximately an hour and fifteen minutes to prepare for it.
The hour and fifteen both dragged and flew by. It was this strange time where everyone was nervous and no one really knew what to do with themselves. I was nearly at the hyperventilating stage when I heard my eldest child shout at that they were here. I had a quick scan around the house and, satisfied that it was cleaned within an inch of its life, I went to greet our new arrivals.
What happened next proved to me that absolutely no amount of cleaning, organising and titivating would ever prepare you for three children, freshly taken into care arriving on your doorstep.
Suddenly, there were six.