After their children reached adulthood, Leanne, 56, and Grant, 63, were looking forward to reconnecting with family in Germany and taking short caravanning trips in Australia.

“We went from having two adult children who were at university and working to literally changing nappies, doing school lunches and making Book Week costumes,” Leanne said.

The Mount Barker couple have two of their own children, both in their 20s, and Grant also has a daughter from a previous marriage.

About four years ago, they became kinship carers for their three grandchildren Josie*, Sarah* and Noah*, with whom they previously had little contact.

“You don’t think too much about what it’s going to mean long term - you just know the children need somewhere to go and you say, ‘Of course they can come here,” Leanne said. “Once that moment has passed, it’s a bit of a shock.”

“But we’re very lucky – the support team here at DCP Mount Barker has just been marvellous.”

The Department for Child Protection is celebrating the vital role kinship and foster carers play as part of Foster and Kinship Carer Week (10-16 September).

The Malchows’ grandchildren are among a growing number of children in care who are placed in kinship arrangements with family members over other types of care, such as foster or residential care.

As of 30 June, 2402 children, or 49.4 per cent of all children in care in South Australia, were in kinship placements. This percentage has been slowly growing each year, and is up from 44.8 per cent in 2017.

Kinship care placements can be provided by a child’s relative, a close friend, a person considered to be family, or for Aboriginal children, another Aboriginal person from the child’s community, a compatible community or the same language group.

Leanne and Grant said their new role as carers meant they made countless sacrifices, such as overhauling their work lives and at times, feeling isolated from friends of their own age who are taking part in events or trips that aren’t so easy to attend with three children in tow.

“If friends want to go to a winery on a Sunday afternoon or go to a band and have a few drinks, that’s just off the cards for us now,” Leanne said.

“We’re back looking for where is a nice playground, and planning trips around toilets again – who knew?”

But, Leanne said the positives far outweighed the challenges they had faced, as they have enjoyed getting to know the children and making countless new happy memories.

“They’d never been on a holiday before and didn’t know what it meant,” she said.

“They love going out for walks and we do have a very impressive rock, leaf and feather collection now.

“All three of them have developed a love of reading – that’s something Grant and I are really big on.”

There are numerous benefits to the children being placed with family, the couple said, including being able to share stories about their mother’s childhood, having the ability to send birthday cards to her, and sharing photos among family members.

“We can help with school activities like family trees, because we know it all – there are lots of benefits to being with family,” Leanne said.

Grant said when the children were younger they experienced limited social outings, and he loved seeing Noah’s face light up when he received his first birthday party invitation when he was about seven years old.

“The look on his face when he got the invitation and he was allowed to go… that’s a warm and fuzzy feeling that you can’t replace,” he said.

*A pseudonym has been used for privacy reasons