This Mother’s Day, we’re recognising a special group of mothers – foster mothers. There are currently 377 foster parents in Singapore who have opened up their homes and lives to children in need. A foster mother shares her experience.
As a working mother of four young children, Joy Shuo has her hands full, but she still signed up to be a foster parent with the blessings of her husband, a pastor.
A home with loving parents and siblings is the “best stable environment” for a child to grow up in, she explains. That belief led her to embark on her fostering journey in 2011 and she has not looked back since.
Keen to make a greater impact on the child’s overall well-being, Joy asked to care for a child over a longer period instead of the initial short-term arrangement that she was tasked to do. Her request was granted and she was assigned a two-month-old girl.
Joy, who works as a pastor now, shares her fostering duties with her mother and domestic helper, Anyes.
Megan, Joy’s youngest daughter, was extremely excited with the arrival of their foster “baby sister”. She would often run to fetch Anyes or her grandmother whenever the baby wakes up or needs a diaper changed.
“Megan has become like a mother hen, watchfully guarding her foster baby sister’s every single move,” says Joy.
It is Joy’s belief that every child should grow up in a home, and not in an institution, hospital or orphanage. “This is why it is so important for us as a family to take in a foster child. It is the least we can do to give another child a chance to be loved and cared for, and to have that stable foundation to realise his or her full potential.”
She admits she was unsure at first “how much love to put in”, given that the goal of foster care is to reunite the child with his birth parents. She says: “I’ve heard stories about foster mums sobbing when they have to return the child. But I have to think of the big picture here. My role is just to love someone, and hopefully that will change her life forever.”
If you would like to help provide a stable home environment for children in need, you can find out more by calling 6354 8799 or visiting www.msf.gov.sg/fostering.
