Fostering Tea Session (Land & Joyce)
Sharing at fostering intro session, in partnership with Boys' Town, on 29 May 2021.
Joyce and Land decided to foster despite juggling with their busy schedules as full-time IT project managers and as parents to their only son. The couple first heard about fostering from an employee from the Ministry of Social and Family Development in 2014 and were shocked to find out about the unfortunate experiences that children face in an affluent country like Singapore.
They were initially apprehensive as both of them were working full-time and had very busy schedules. The couple pondered for a while and thought “if we can make a difference with just 1 child, it would be good enough”. With that thought of making a difference with one child at a time, Joyce and Land opted to only take 1 child. However, when a second child was placed with them through an emergency placement, they decided to take her in. One thing led to another, and they are now fostering 3 children (2 males aged 12 and 11 year old and 1 female aged 9 years old). They had also cared for 2 other foster children who are no longer with them.
Joyce shared that all her 3 foster children have special needs and the first few years of their fostering journey were particularly challenging. Her eldest foster child had ADHD and the family struggled in the first few years of caring for him. He managed to achieve The Most Improved Student Award in school after his first year with them, and this had given them great encouragement. Their other 2 foster children had Global Development Delay and learning difficulties. In particular, Joyce shared about the time where she felt rejected by her second foster child who initially did not want to interact with her no matter how hard she tried. The foster child also had very bad meltdowns every morning and was difficult to soothe. She confided in her sisters in Christ and they prayed together. According to Joyce, her second child miraculously opened up to her the next day and they have been able to connect since that day! The foster child was also able to follow 3 rules that Joyce has set for her: Obey, Respect and Not to throw tantrums.
Land added that their son, being the only child, found it hard to accept the foster children in the beginning. Nevertheless, with God’s grace, things have changed radically since then. Their son has become a big brother to their foster kids, and all of them idolise their son, often sitting with him to watch movies and spending time together.