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🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00We're just a normal family. We really are.
00:03I don't think it's any sort of super parenting or anything like that.
00:07We've just been lucky haven't you?
00:09We'll put it down.
00:16What does family mean to you?
00:19Sat at a table at tea time just chatting with each other.
00:23People just like always being there for you and love.
00:27Being funny to each other.
00:29It's going in and after a long day it just makes you feel like I'm home.
00:36Naturally you think of belonging as well.
00:38That's how I feel like we all belong together in this family.
00:42The relationships this family have created together are fantastic.
00:45They've lived together for eight years.
00:47The three young people feel very well supported.
00:49The two foster carers and their birth children, adult birth children.
00:52The interaction, the involvement that they've had with the young people is wonderful.
00:57To take three black children in was a massive task in itself.
01:01We've had to fight racism like every step of the way around racism within the school.
01:06But they've made fantastic relationships.
01:09They've got great friendships.
01:11I think friendships come in all shapes and sizes don't they?
01:14Families, extended families, friends, the children's grandma.
01:18Neil speaks to her daily.
01:20You know she's in contact all the time.
01:22Whether she's in the UK or she's in Zambia.
01:25And them are from all in Zambia and they always ask about us.
01:28And there's quite a large extended family over there who knows by name and who messages quite regularly.
01:34And I think they struggled at first because it was a white couple taking on three black children.
01:38And they really struggled with that.
01:40But they've come to...
01:41Yeah, they've come to tell us.
01:42They wasn't appreciated what we're doing for the children.
01:44From the day they came to what they are now, it's just like you wouldn't think that these were the same three children.
01:50Is that the same thing again?
01:52Sherelle, she's just so bubbly.
01:54She's very focused.
01:55She knows where she wants to go and what she wants to do.
01:59Michelle's the 15-year-old.
02:00Yeah, there's a lot of jogging in the house and there's, like, stress.
02:04You can just know that, like, they'll be happy when you go home.
02:07When she came to us at seven, I was very, very shy.
02:11Didn't speak.
02:12I don't think she spoke to me for the first...
02:14For about 12 weeks.
02:1612 weeks or so.
02:17She knows.
02:18And obviously we realised that she needed more help and more support.
02:22To see her now is amazing.
02:24Absolutely amazing.
02:26It's nice when the grandma phones and...
02:29She's funny.
02:30She...
02:31But she even says, I can't believe my granddaughter will actually speak to me on the phone.
02:36Because she didn't even speak to...
02:38Didn't speak to anyone.
02:40Michelle.
02:41Michelle.
02:42Without the relationship with Louise Nail, I would probably be, like...
02:47Papa, mean, horrible guy.
02:49And, like...
02:50David.
02:51The tape's not long enough.
02:53Living in, like, a bed and breakfast or something like that.
02:56You wouldn't want to mess with me, so...
02:58I'm, like, a kind-hearted person now that I've lived with Louise Nail for so long.
03:03He is.
03:04He's so caring.
03:05He's very caring.
03:06He's very caring.
03:07He's super intelligent.
03:08They've come an awful long way.
03:09To say that they couldn't sort of read and write, and they didn't have any schooling
03:13before they came to us, and they're just absolutely blossoming.
03:17Yeah, absolutely.
03:18Louise, she's like the globe that holds everyone together.
03:23Like, the epitome of what it means to be a mum, I'd say.
03:27And I'd say about me dad, Nail, he's a bit crazy.
03:32He says I'm crazy, but I'd say he's weirder than I am.
03:36They kind of mold me into who I am, because that's what parents do, really.
03:40What do you mean the challenges of the years?
03:43The challenges...
03:45Getting told off for, like, something...
03:48What about naughty?
03:50I'm not naughty, but the thing is, I can slip a bit.