DONNA and Gary Murray of Grays Point have five wonderful children but have made room in their lives for another 18.
Since 2008, the Murrays have provided foster care through Barnardos Australia to 18 children aged from newborn to 13 for a period of between a month to more than a year.
Their first placement was a five-day-old baby who was unable to live at home with his biological mother.
"I was very nervous at first, but was amazed at how easy it was to get back into the swing of caring for a newborn," Mrs Murray, 51, said.
There are 17,800 children and young people in NSW who are unable to live at home safely because of the risk of harm and neglect.
Care for these children may be required for a variety of reasons including disability, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence and mental illness.
Mrs Murray has always enjoyed caring for babies, and became a foster parent after learning about the acute shortage of foster carers in NSW.
"When I read that you get an allowance, and that you are not out-of-pocket for having another mouth to feed, and there is support available, I thought 'why not?'.
"At the time, my husband said I was crazy but I said let's try it once and see how it goes."
Mrs Murray said the most rewarding part about being a foster parent was seeing the growth in confidence and happiness in children.
"In my experience, in every case, the biological parents love their children but they just can't parent them."
Foster carers can be single, married, de facto, gay, straight, renting, retired — they just need to have some experience with children and be able to share their home with a child in crisis.
A foster child will usually have visitation with their parents at a meeting supervised by their case worker in a venue separate to a foster carer's home. The foster carer's address is kept confidential.
"We've had a couple of children aged five and six who have had big behavioural problems, but they settled once they knew there was food on the table, that they could expect stability.
"Even people who have an organised life with food on the table and an income can struggle, so imagine what it's like for people who have chaos in their lives."
The Murrays are currently fostering a 12-month-old boy while the Children's Court decides which of his relatives will go on to care for him.
"We will be really, really sad when he goes but the whole point is the child is going back to people who have had help with things to enable them to care better than before."
Barnardos Australia is holding an information session about fostering care at its Sydney metropolitan office, Level 1, 60-64 Bay Street, Ultimo, at 6.30pm on Wednesday, April 1. Mrs Murray will be one of the speakers.
RSVP: Friday, March 27. Details: 9218 2358, sydneymetro@barnardos.org.au