Mother's day is a time to appreciate mum but for one Tauranga woman this Sunday represents celebrating motherly figures in your life – whether they are relatives or not.

Rebecca Christie will be surrounded by her two children and eight youngsters who live with her family.

The full-time house-mum has taken in the children through the Homes of Hope Charitable Trust, which provides foster care for children or young people who are unable to be cared for by their biological parents.

'Children come with different needs. You need to build relationships with them so they feel safe, happy and can go and play with other children,” says Rebecca.

'It's about making them feel safe and secure.” Sadly more than 5000 New Zealand children are in care due to serious neglect or abuse, according Homes of Hope Charitable Trust.

But the trust can help – their house-parents and support staff aim to look after children who may have had a harder start in life.

For full-time house-mum Rebecca, caring for eight foster children as well as two of her own is more of 'a lifestyle” than a job.

Rebecca began fostering children after being a solo mother and wanting her son, who is now aged 10, to have a sister to play with. Today, she fosters eight children between the ages of two and 10.

Rebecca believes seeing the children grow and becoming more confident within themselves is the most rewarding aspect of what she does.

Day-to-day Rebecca does what any stay-at-home mum would do. From the school run and doing laundry to cleaning the house and preparing dinner. The older children do their bit to keep the house tidy, too.

'To learn about responsibility and the community of being in a family is important, everyone needs to help out in some way,” says Rebecca.

So her plan for Sunday? 'Ah, maybe breakfast in bed,” jokes Rebecca.

She says it's nice to be the children's motherly figure and feels little pressure on taking on that role.

'We've got so much support here. It's not like traditional fostering where it's in your own home and you have to do everything. We have a great support.

'Not only do we get to help other children, but it gives us the time to spend time with our own children as well and bringing values that we have into our children's lives and the foster children's lives which is great.

'That's why we do it, because we get to help others.”