Carer Lisa Davis is accustomed to having a very busy home, saying she’d "take on an army" of children if she could.
Lisa, 44, and her husband Mathew, 46, have three biological children and have also cared for seven others through kinship and foster care placements.
"We’re an active family and I just love spoiling all of my children," Lisa says.
"I’ve always had so many kids around – they all play together.
"I just want to help them and give them opportunities that they may never have had before."
The southern suburbs couple, who have cared for their great nephew for about 10 years, were finalists in the Kinship Carer of the Year category of this month’s SA Child Protection & Family Support Awards.
We Are.SA is sharing their story as part of Foster and Kinship Carer Week, which runs from 14-20 September.
Lisa and Mathew also previously cared for another of their great nephews, and began looking after other children on a respite, emergency or short-term basis, through DCP’s Additionally Approved Care Program.
That program helps find family-based placements through kinship carers willing to care for unrelated children – in some cases, preventing children from going into residential care.
One toddler who came to live with Lisa and Mathew was reunited with her extended biological family after almost a year.
When she arrived, at just under two years old, the little girl was unusually independent for her age, Lisa says, but she relished seeing her develop and learn that she could depend on trusted adults.
"(For example), she would put her own shoes and socks on," Lisa says.
"When she first came to us, she’d gorge her food, but then she learned that wasn’t normal – that we eat all the time and she could have snacks if she wanted.
"Every morning I’d sit with her on her bed and do her hair for her. And every night, one of us would sit with her while she went to sleep. She just needed that reassurance that someone was there."
Seeing her reunited with her family was "very rewarding, but tough at the same time", Lisa says.
"We had a really good bond and when she left, she was thriving."
During Foster and Kinship Carer Week, DCP and its foster care agency partners are hosting about 20 events across the state to thank carers for the vital role they play in child protection.
For more information about foster care, head to fostercare.sa.gov.au or call 1300 2 FOSTER (1300 2 367 837).
This story was prepared by the Department for Child Protection and is republished here with permission.
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