Hunter Valley couple who opened their home to 60 children

Sue and Neil Coutts raised three children of their own, looked after at least 55 foster kids and adopted two with Down syndrome over the years. The Hunter Valley couple show no signs of slowing down and want to open their home to more special needs kids.

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With more than two hectares of trees, chooks, pigeons, dogs and miniature ponies, this is a dream place to raise a child.

But the remarkable Sue and Neil Coutts have welcomed more than 60 to their Martins Creek property in the Hunter Valley.

The couple has raised three of their own, looked after at least 55 foster children (they have lost count) and also adopted two Down syndrome children.

The latest is Russell, a seven-year-old boy the couple first took in when he was just three months old.

Neil and Sue Coutts with their adopted son Russell, who is seven years old. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“We just fell in love with Russell and tried to adopt him after 12 months but it took us four-and-a-half years,” Mrs Coutts said.

While their eldest two children are now grown up and have kids of their own, the couple show no signs of slowing down and indeed have asked that they only work with special needs children.

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Along with Russell, they are also fostering another Down syndrome boy who is 14, and a toddler with cerebral palsy.

Connie, 18, the youngest of their biological children, is also still at home sharing her parents with her “siblings” as she calls them.

“We first started fostering when our kids were little,” Mrs Coutts, 56, said.

“A lady came into our fruit shop with a foster child with three of her own children and this little one was very shy, and she had been abused.

“Neil said he’d like to foster so that’s when we started when I was at home with my own.”

Mr Coutts, 59, said: “I thought we had a lot to share, our lifestyle and our life.”

Sue Coutts and her adopted son Russell.

Connie Coutts (left) with her brother Russell.

The couple often took in emergency cases, sometimes in the middle of the night.

“We’d get a call at 2am and we’d meet the kids at the police station down at Maitland, they’d just turn up in their pyjamas,” Mr Coutts said.

But, in 1996, they took in Sarah, a six-week-old baby with Down syndrome and fell in love.

Sarah was born with a serious heart condition and at five months, she fell ill with bronchiolitis and almost died.

“She was in John Hunter Hospital and the doctor said you better get here, she won’t make it and Neil and I stood at her bedside and said if you pull through, we will adopt you, and even the doctors were amazed she lived,” Mrs Coutts said.

Sarah, who has Down syndrome, was adopted by the Coutts family as a baby but died when she was 14.

A young Sarah Coutts (left) with her sister Connie and their parents Sue and Neil.

So they adopted their “gorgeous girl” but her heart condition, common in children with Down syndrome, claimed her life at just 14 in 2010. All the family was heartbroken but Connie, who was only 10 at the time, was devastated.

“She was my best friend, I was very close to her, it was definitely tough,” Connie said.

Mrs Coutts said it was an “enormous blow to the family”.

“Sarah was so fragile towards the end and we stopped fostering for a while but when we lost her and, after the grief, we were at a loss. Caring for a children with a disability and advocating for their future becomes your life, it’s all-consuming. She left an enormous gap in our lives,” Mrs Coutts said.

At that point, the Coutts family told the Department of Family and Community Services they would only adopt other children with disabilities, especially Down syndrome.

“We had networks, we had all this knowledge and we felt we could give a lot and there is also a shortage of foster carers for kids with special needs,” Mrs Coutts said.

“They are also the most delightful children, their purity, they are so loving and trusting and happy.”

Russell has been with Neil and Sue Coutts since he was three months old. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Russell came to the family in 2012.

“Russell had the same heart condition as Sarah but he had his heart operated on at age six months. He is now doing really well and in a mainstream school, we have the NDIS and it is working really well,” she said.

“He’s just so cute,” Connie said.

“I love Russell, he’s definitely the best little brother.”

Connie sees Russell and her two younger foster brothers as siblings.

“I tell people I’ve got three little brothers, they are just siblings to me,” she said, adding she is very proud of her parents.

“I think they are amazing to do what they do. I’m 100 per cent proud of them because they are giving so many kids what they need.”

Russell suffers from a heart condition but underwent an operation when he was a baby. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Connie’s big sister Madeline, 28, is also very proud of her parents.

“I didn’t mind sharing mum. I’m beyond proud because they are not just carers, mum fights the good fight and I love that about my parents, I can’t put into words how amazing they are, but that’s just mum and dad,” Madeline said.

Mr Coutts has now retired but he said he’s never been so busy.

“It’s the old cliche, I don’t know how I found time to work,” Mr Coutts said.

“It has been our life, so it’s a lifestyle now.

“It’s not actually rewarding, there is no reward we see, but it’s gratifying, we see what our love and care and knowledge brings into these children’s lives. We are willing to fight for them and you have to keep upskilling yourself.”

Mrs Coutts said she was proud of her family.

“It’s also changed who I am, to see them and we are so proud of them, they are lovely children we can take out and show off. I don’t know, maybe we are strange,” Mrs Coutts said.

Originally published as Hunter Valley couple who opened their home to 60 children