Long term fostering

[PatchworkPerfect]

Does anyone have any experience with this? I understand the technical differences between short term and long term and between it and adoption, but I'd love to hear some real life experiences of what it's like to foster a child long term.

Are there still a lot of appointments with SS and for contact? (I know there's possibly a lot of health related appointments/counselling still).

Does the child feel like part of your family?

How does your day to day or month to month life differ because there's a foster child in it?

Just any insight would be appreciated.

2 foster children, long term, been with us since they were little. Social worker at the time warned us if we committed to them long term it would be a hard slog, and she was right.
Both have issues, although completely different, and we seem to lurch from crisis to crisis. Many appointments, meetings, etc although the statutory social worker visits do lessen when children are long term.
Dh and I hardly ever go out together anymore and family dynamics have changed.
I know this seems very negative but on a positive note both children are very much part of our family and we couldn't imagine life without them. However we did wait until our own dc had left home first as there is no way we could have given them enough attention whilst at the same time dealing with the many needs of foster children.

The above comment could have been written by me.
Completely takes over your life.
My own children are older now so all my friends are able to come and go as they please, we still have to consider our foster child.
It completely takes over your life.
Still lots of appointments, social workers, I supervise contact every 6 weeks.
My partner and I rarely go out or have breaks together as child wouldn’t cope in respite so all of our holidays are the 3 of us.
They are very much part of our family but due to their needs we do find ourselves sometimes wondering if we did the right thing.
Would be impossible for us to give up though.