14 May 2025
In a foster family, children find not only a roof over their heads, but also security, reference points and a reassuring environment – everything they need to be happy. We visited a family who has taken in five foster children over the years.
When we visit Franciane Loudun-Adelakun on a Friday morning at her home in the south of the country, the table in the living room is already set with cakes, biscuits and tea waiting for us. Her laughter is infectious, as is her energy. ‘My husband and I both come from large families. We love children and we want to give those who haven’t had the chance until now the chance to live happily in a close-knit family’, says this 56-year-old Frenchwoman who has lived in the Grand Duchy for several decades and used to work as a childminder. Welcoming foster children into her home was, and still is, a vocation and a real affair of the heart for her. The couple’s two biological children have now left home and are studying.
‘When our daughter was two, we decided together to take in a foster child. A boy the same age. It was practical, because they could play together and grow up together’, recalls the foster mother, who devotes herself entirely to her family at home. After special training for foster parents, a rigorous examination of the necessary documents, home visits and interviews with the Luxembourg Red Cross Foster Care Service, it was clear that the Loudun-Adelakun family and little Jan* were a good match. ‘When we received the call and the authorisation, I shouted for joy and I was so happy,’ she recalls, beaming. That was in 2003.
‘Between 2004 and 2021, we took in four other children, Matthieu, Louis, Tom* and Jasmin*, when they were still babies or toddlers. We always looked after them with love, as if they were our own biological children,’ explains Franciane, who lives her role as a foster mother to the full. How did her biological children react? Was there ever any competition or arguments? That’s never been a problem. ‘They all get on very well,’ she says. The four children, who have different characters and backgrounds, were immediately welcomed as their biological brothers and sisters. Some children in care have regular contact with their mother or father, while others have little or no contact at all.
The Loudun-Adelakun family is different in many ways. The communal living and the large number of children make it a special family. The number of bedrooms for the children in care has never been a problem, and the spacious house offers enough room for everyone. Of course, there are always challenges. For example, one of the foster children needed psychological help to overcome what he had experienced in his family of origin. But the family managed to overcome this difficult phase.
Read the full interview in our annual magazine Crossroads.
*Names changed by the editorial team