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St. Francis’ Children’s Society Could you adopt siblings, and help keep brothers and sisters together? Latest figures show there are currently 2,030 children waiting to be adopted in England. Of those, approximately 44% are in sibling groups of two or more. Groups of children wait an average of 17 months to be adopted, which is 36% longer (135 days) than individual children. 56% of these children wait more than 18 months for their new family. In response to these figures, Milton Keynes adoption agency St. Francis’ Children’s Society (SFCS) has joined a national campaign which encourages people who are considering adoption to think about adopting brothers and sisters together. In most cases, keeping brothers and sisters together is vitally important when children are adopted. They share their life-stories and have a life-long bond, and have often been the only constants in each other’s lives. Siblings are much stronger together than apart. Natalie and Phil became parents when they adopted two brothers with the help of SFCS. Natalie says, “It’s easy to forget that adoption is just becoming new parents, and life does dramatically change for any new parents. The first few months were a massive culture shock for us and we did find things difficult. We bonded more quickly with the older child than we did with the baby, and we felt so much guilt over this. “We weren’t prepared for feeling quite so tired, to function on little sleep and to need to be ‘switched on’ all day, every day to meet the children’s needs. In hindsight, going from no children to two children overnight was a little crazy, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. We now feel like a normal, happy and complete family.” New research released as part of the campaign reveals that, while there are challenges in adopting more than one child, 88% of parents that adopted brothers and sisters say the positives outweigh
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any difficulties. And 61% of these adopters acknowledged that adopting children with their brothers and sisters has been the most beneficial factor in their child’s adoption journey. Owen and Abi adopted three sisters with SFCS in July 2019. The youngest two are twins who are now aged four, and the eldest is now aged 5. Owen says, “The love that we receive from the children and the love that we can give them is something you can’t put into words. They truly have completed our family and, nearly two years down the line, they’re just our kids. The things they do inspire us to be better. It’s a wonderful thing – I’d recommend it.” Brothers and sisters who need to stay together wait longer in care for adoptive families, through no fault of their own. Could you adopt siblings, and help keep brothers & sisters together? St. Francis’ Children’s Society is an independent adoption agency that welcomes all kinds of families for all kinds of children - regardless of age, race, religion, marital status or sexual orientation. Visit www.sfcs.org.uk to find out more.
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