Trevor and Sandra

Meet Trevor and Sandra

Until a few years ago, Queensland foster carers Trevor and Sandra had little interest in having children. They never had children of their own, and were approaching retirement happy with their choice.

This all changed, however, when they began to help out with the care of their newborn nephew. This experience of caring for a baby inspired them to look into foster care in Queensland, and a new chapter of their life began.

After doing research on foster care agencies in their area, Trevor and Sandra applied to become foster carers with Life Without Barriers.

After being reviewed and approved, they began their training, which they passed with flying colours. Not long after being approved as foster carers, they took a teenage girl, Rosie, into their care.

Trevor and Sandra immediately knew it was the right decision and their time was soon filled with school, homework, after-school sports, family visits, play dates, cooking meals together, playing Minecraft, bike riding, as well as training and meetings with their foster daughter's care team.

We asked Trevor and Sandra a few questions about their care journey.

What sort of training did you receive to be foster carers?

Trevor said that Life Without Barriers provided comprehensive training and support to them as new foster carers.

"These kids have complicated feelings and behaviours, and the training will really help you know how to respond to that." Trevor said.

What would you say to someone considering foster care?

"It will help the child, it will help the carer to be more empathetic to others and it will help society as a whole," Trevor said.

How do you prepare for a foster child?

"The best gifts we can give our foster daughter are our love, time and attention so we've been pouring those upon her and she is thriving!" Said Sandra.

Of course, there are some challenging days for all of us, and there is still a long road ahead. But with our help, Rosie is starting to see that there can be a bright future ahead for her."

Was foster care the right decision for you?

Since they signed up to be carers with Life Without Barriers, Trevor and Sandra haven't looked back.

"We still think it was the right decision not to have any biological children of our own, but we are definitely enjoying the opportunity to express the nurturing, parenting sides of ourselves that we didn't even know we had," Trevor said.