ABSTRACT
We all carry with us ideas and experiences, which determine how we think about families, roles and our different ways of belonging. Ideas about our identities – for example, what it means to be a mother, father, son or daughter – come from our different cultural backgrounds and lived experiences. These have a profound influence on how we understand and work with others. In this chapter we aim to discuss the narratives that people bring to fostering and adoption. We describe our work in this area, some of the themes that arise from it and how using narrative ideas has been helpful. The work described draws on our experience as members of a multidisciplinary fostering, adoption and kinship care team (FAKCT). Central to this work is finding ways of respecting painful and difficult stories, which may form a basis for the development of new and more optimistic narratives.
