ABSTRACT
We all carry with us ideas and experiences, which determine how we think about families and roles within them. We have different expectations about what it means to be a mother, father, son or daughter. These have a profound influence on how we understand and work with the experiences of how others should be and how we want them to be. In this chapter we aim to discuss the narratives that people bring to the role they play in fostering and adoption. We describe our work in this area; some of the themes that arise from it and ways that using narrative have been helpful. The work described draws on our experience as members of a multidisciplinary adoption and fostering team. Central to this work is finding ways of respecting painful and difficult stories in ways that form a basis for the development of future narratives.
