Children arrive at your house "with very long faces and a little bag but by the time they are leaving they are so full of life and energy". This is how foster parent Pauline Kenny describes why she finds the work so rewarding.
She and her husband, Vinny, who are in their early 30s, have been fostering for more than a year after completing a training course with the North Western Health Board. In that time they have taken six children into their home in Aughavas, Co Leitrim, ranging in age from babies to teenagers. Some come just for weekends and others have stayed full-time from two weeks to up to six months.
Pauline and Vinny do not have children of their own and were "looking around to see how we could help someone else" when they saw an advert looking for foster parents.
"After doing the training we became very interested, because it opened your eyes to what it was all about. You hear of different problems and you think there are children in those situations and we have to get them out."
Pauline "can't stand" the idea of children being placed in residential homes. "From our experience the children need to be loved and really cared for.
"When children stay with us, they start a new school and they want to feel part of a family. They don't want to feel any different from any other child in the school. They can say they're staying with Pauline and Vinny while their mother is sick or whatever."
She says the advantage of foster homes over residential homes is that the children get a chance to bond with families. "You form a very strong bond with each of them and they get very attached to you. The children feel they have an extended family that really cares for them."
While she would encourage people to consider fostering, she cautions that it is challenging and requires a lot of time. "You really have to be there for these children, you have to gain their trust and to build up a relationship and that takes a lot of time." She says social workers provide a lot of support.
Pauline, who is a playgroup assistant and is doing childcare training, says the main reward is seeing how children improve over time. Many keep in contact afterwards. "It's hard to see them go and you're always thinking after about how they're doing, but I don't mind once they are going back into a stable home."