‘Our foster child asked us to adopt him – by drawing himself on to a family photo’

“Fostering is temporary, even if it lasts two years,” Tony says. “With adoption you are taking on the child entirely – as if they’re your own – and you’re taking on all the responsibility – financial, relational, emotional. You’re basically saying, ‘You will be in our family like a birth child, so your children will be my grandchildren, and your grandchildren will be my great grandchildren.’ It’s a big, big thing to do.”