By SallyAnn Kelly, chief executive of Aberlour Child Care Trust

BUYING a house is, experts agree, the single most stressful thing any of us will ever do.

Finding and securing the perfect property is, we are told, more fraught than getting married, having a baby, getting divorced, losing a job or becoming bankrupt.

If stress levels rocket when searching for one ideal home, they would, we feared, become stratospheric while searching for Aberlour’s first properties in the Highlands. We were looking for three houses to become home to 15 children, aged between eight and 18.

After successfully finding and buying the right houses, in Inverness, Fort William and Tain, we will formally open them with a celebration in Inverness tonight. House-hunting is never easy but the hard work has just begun.

Providing the best residential care for children – care that will make a difference and transform lives – costs money, takes time and rests on the commitment of talented, expert teams. It is complex, challenging and, at times, frustrating work. The costs, the challenges and the risks have, sadly, discouraged some organisations in Scotland from providing that care.

Those, like Aberlour, continuing to invest in the future of some of our country’s most vulnerable children know that our commitment must be measured in far more than warm words. It is measured in the hard cash we spend on bricks, mortar and expert staff and it is measured in the improved life chances of the children we care for.

To make transformative change in these young lives demands more than fuzzy feel-good notions. The hard yards are gained when the theory hits real life, real children with real needs, children who may, in their young lives, have not been given a single reason to trust or depend on those charged with their care.

Providing safe, secure care for children is what we do. It is what we have done for more than 140 years since the Aberlour orphanage first sheltered “mitherless bairns” in 1875. A lot has changed since then but one thing has remained constant – for us and for the other organisations helping care for looked-after children in Scotland – and that is the bedrock belief that, no matter what they have endured in their young lives so far, they deserve stability and safety, care and encouragement, love and understanding. They deserve a firm foundation to build a future on.

Every child deserves the chance to flourish, however, difficult their lives have been. Many of the children living with us have endured heartbreaking trauma, struggling through their childhoods, valiantly trying to hold things together in families scarred by poverty, addiction, abuse, and mental illness.

We do no do a lot of jargon. We do not provide community-based care units. We do not manage residential institutions. We create family homes for children, that are, of course, structurally sound but built on even stronger foundations. Children will grow up in these bright, happy houses, make friends there, and find a family there. They will be encouraged to think about their future there and to begin hoping for the best because they deserve the best. Many of them have lived in increasing isolation, drawing into themselves and away from whatever has been going on around them. To feel they are a valued part of something, of a family, of a community, can only improve their self-confidence and brighten their futures.

Yes, of course, our house hunting in the Highlands was, on occasion, a little fraught. Finding perfect homes for some fantastic children was sometimes arduous. It was worth it, however. It always is.