Joy and heartbreak

DURBAN father has spoken of the joy he and his family experienced as ’’foster parents’’ – and the heartbreak they endured after the child was removed from them.

The man, an accountant, and his wife, who cannot be named to protect the interest of the child, who is now in the foster care of another couple, said he, his wife and son were gutted when the child was taken away from them, apparently on the instructions of a social worker.

He said his other son, who died in a motor vehicle accident two months ago, had urged him and his wife to “fight for and care for baby”.

The father, however, told POST that he and his wife had had enough of the heartache and had decided to abandon any legal means to try to get the child back.

He said they had referred to the child as “Princess”.

The accountant said he and his wife had rallied to the assistance of the child after they heard that she was living with another family and not her biological parents.

“We were not registered foster THE government has allocated R890 a month for every child cared for by foster parents.

It is paid by the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa).

In the department’s annual report, Coceko Pakade, the director general in the Department of Social Development, said in the 2014/2015 financial year 519 232 children benefited. In 2013, 532 159 children were beneficiaries.

According to its website, a foster child is one placed parents, but the other party were registered.

“When we heard that the foster parents were experiencing financial difficulties, we offered to take care of the child from Monday to Friday and return the girl to them on weekends.’’

He said this arrangement worked for only three months last year.

Adopt

“My wife and I had planned to adopt the child. We cared for her as though she was our own. Then we subsequently heard that the child’s biological mother and the registered foster parents had reached some sort of agreement, which did not go down well with us. We then decided to quit our plans to adopt the child. It was a heartbreaking decision. We and the registered foster parents had bonded with the child,” he said.

According to the man, they last saw “Princess’’ in September last year.

“She stayed with us in May, June and July 2015. My wife became distraught after the child was removed from us. She skipped her food and sleep and read the Bible for approximately eight hours on one day recently. It was as though we ‘lost’ a second child.”

He said they had fond memories of their visits with “Princess’’ to the Drakensberg, uShaka Marine World, Gateway, the beach, parks and other places.

“We turned one of our rooms at our home into a nursery,” he said. “We bought a pram, shoes, clothes and other items for Princess.”

He said they did not need to be foster parents but did so because their late son loved Princess “to bits”.

“We were hit by two sets of bad news in a matter of months. Princess was taken from us in September last year.

“Then our son died in the car smash.

“One moment we were feeling on top of the world. The next, our spirits were at its lowest ebbs.

“My wife and I decided to leave everything in God’s hands,” he said. “We pray that God’s angels will watch over Princess and guide her through her infancy, as a girl, teenager, woman and thereafter.”