I've been patient....really, I have. But you know what? I'm tired of being patient. We've been licensed as foster parents since last October and have only had one extremely brief placement of our own. Every time I have the radio on I hear recruiting ads for foster parents. The meth problem in our area is growing---there are meth busts in the paper all the time and most of the time there were children involved who are taken into custody. There are kids who need foster parents! We are willing to take them! Why don't we have a placement??????
I feel like we have lived in a state of anticipation (waiting for "the call") for months and months. It's exhausting and draining.
Showing posts with label foster care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label foster care. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Respite again
We did more respite care last weekend. There is a lot I like about doing respite. I get a chance to know the kids w/o having to get involved in all the drama of their court cases, visits, etc. Also, usually before their quirks move from 'cute' to 'annoying' it's time for them to go home.
This group consisted of three sisters. Ages 11, 8, 5. They were from a city and clearly were used to city life. My 6 yo took great pride in showing them the goats, chickens, deer heads on the wall, etc. I could tell they thought they had been abandoned in redneck-ville. lol They are very sweet, quiet girls. I hope they weren't too terribly bored here. I have decided I need to invest in some books/activities/games/????? for pre-teen girls if we are going to continue to do respite for that age. Any suggestions? We're set up with boy stuff and little girl stuff but not much to do for older girls.
The only issue was that there turned out to be more transporting involved than I had been told upfront. When I was first asked if I could do respite, no transport was mentioned. (But I didn't think to ask either). Then it turned into "they might have a visit but since it's a holiday weekend I don't think they will" and I was left with the impression that someone would pick them up at my home if there was a visit (not sure if that was my misunderstanding or if I was intentionally led to believe that). Then a few hours before they were to be dropped off it was "Oh btw, you'll need to take them to _______ (city over an hour away) for their visit and then pick them up again 5 hours later." HUH???? At that point I should have said, look, that's not what I agreed to, you'll need to make other arrangements".....but I was feeling trapped because I wasn't sure if I had misunderstood all along that this transporation was going to be expected and I didn't want to leave the other foster parent in a lurch.
So I took them. $60 in gas and a lot of driving time out of my weekend. I'm not in
foster care to make a profit but I also cannot afford to have to spend money from our personal budget on respite transport. I'm not even sure how much I'm being reimbursed for caring for them...probably about $75 (it was just for one night) but I won't see that money for a month.
I learned a valuable lesson. Next time I'm called about respite my first question will be "How much transportation will be expected?" Then if it changes later I can confidently say, "I'm sorry, that's not what I agreed to do."
This group consisted of three sisters. Ages 11, 8, 5. They were from a city and clearly were used to city life. My 6 yo took great pride in showing them the goats, chickens, deer heads on the wall, etc. I could tell they thought they had been abandoned in redneck-ville. lol They are very sweet, quiet girls. I hope they weren't too terribly bored here. I have decided I need to invest in some books/activities/games/????? for pre-teen girls if we are going to continue to do respite for that age. Any suggestions? We're set up with boy stuff and little girl stuff but not much to do for older girls.
The only issue was that there turned out to be more transporting involved than I had been told upfront. When I was first asked if I could do respite, no transport was mentioned. (But I didn't think to ask either). Then it turned into "they might have a visit but since it's a holiday weekend I don't think they will" and I was left with the impression that someone would pick them up at my home if there was a visit (not sure if that was my misunderstanding or if I was intentionally led to believe that). Then a few hours before they were to be dropped off it was "Oh btw, you'll need to take them to _______ (city over an hour away) for their visit and then pick them up again 5 hours later." HUH???? At that point I should have said, look, that's not what I agreed to, you'll need to make other arrangements".....but I was feeling trapped because I wasn't sure if I had misunderstood all along that this transporation was going to be expected and I didn't want to leave the other foster parent in a lurch.
So I took them. $60 in gas and a lot of driving time out of my weekend. I'm not in
foster care to make a profit but I also cannot afford to have to spend money from our personal budget on respite transport. I'm not even sure how much I'm being reimbursed for caring for them...probably about $75 (it was just for one night) but I won't see that money for a month.
I learned a valuable lesson. Next time I'm called about respite my first question will be "How much transportation will be expected?" Then if it changes later I can confidently say, "I'm sorry, that's not what I agreed to do."
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Ten People, One Bathroom
Day two of respite care for the sibling group of five has gone well. Really sweet kids. No issues today except for the "I had that toy first" and "It's supposed to be my turn now!" type stuff that is normal whenever you get a group of small children together. They'll be here one more night.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Full House!
Our respite care kids arrived last night. What a sweet group! Five kids, ages 9-2. It's going good so far. :)
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Respite
The new agency offers 2 days of paid respite care per month. That is a wonderful service to provide to foster parents! This is something we can do while we wait for a placement of our own. We will be doing respite care this weekend for a sibling group of five. I am both excited and nervous. It will be for three nights. I’ll let you know how it goes. It can’t be any harder than the previous group we did respite for (did I ever blog about them? The group with the major food hoarding issues and the major, major, major behavioral problems? This group *should* be a breeze compared to those children. I hope.).
Switching Agencies
We began our foster care journey last summer. For years we had talked about fostering and/or adopting off and on. It was never the right time. First, we lived in a tiny 2 bedroom house and literally had no room for extra dc. I seriously doubt we could have passed a homestudy inspection just due to the small square footage.
When we moved to our current home, our youngest was a high need 6 week old baby. So we had the space at that point but not the energy. LOL As she got older and less needy we began to discuss fostering again. By this time we also had met a family who are now good friends who had just begun fostering themselves. We looked into beginning the licensing process in the fall of ’06. We were discouraged to find that we (both of us) would have to attend all day classes for three Saturdays in a row. (Plus, we would have to drive 1.5-2 hours one way to go to the classes). There was no way we could leave our youngest for that many hours at a time---not without making her and her caregiver miserable. So we put the idea aside, again.
A few months later R, was content to stay with others for a few hours at a time and we again looked into beginning the licensing. Then we were thrilled to learn that I was expecting. We put fostering on hold again, knowing that pregnancy and the newborn phase would keep me plenty busy without adding the stresses of foster care. Unfortunately, I lost that baby last summer at 15 weeks gestation. We were devastated. It didn’t take long though, for our thoughts to return to fostering. We had the room, our youngest was older, and pregnancy was no longer a factor. We signed up for the classes.
That was in July. Actually I had surgery related to the miscarriage on July first, came home on July second and called the county agency that same day. I threw myself into fulfilling the licensing requirements as a way to keep my mind off my grief.
We were finally licensed at the end of October. At that point we were offered a sib group of 3, which we turned down due to lack of seating for that many children in our vehicles. (It turns out they went back home after only 3 days in foster care anyway.). In December we had a toddler boy placed with us. He was/is adorable and I was so sad to see him leave. He was with us 9 days and then he was placed with a family member. After that we had no more placements! We’re in a small rural county and there simply are not many children in care. That’s good…..I’m glad there aren’t more children in need of care here….but we know there are children somewhere who need us so we switched to a private agency that seems more likely to have a placement for us.
The new agency is a therapeutic agency so we had to do some more training in order to transfer our license. We completed that last weekend. I am so excited about this switch. Every one has been so nice and professional. I’m excited to see how it works out.
So….that’s a summary of our foster care journey thus far.
When we moved to our current home, our youngest was a high need 6 week old baby. So we had the space at that point but not the energy. LOL As she got older and less needy we began to discuss fostering again. By this time we also had met a family who are now good friends who had just begun fostering themselves. We looked into beginning the licensing process in the fall of ’06. We were discouraged to find that we (both of us) would have to attend all day classes for three Saturdays in a row. (Plus, we would have to drive 1.5-2 hours one way to go to the classes). There was no way we could leave our youngest for that many hours at a time---not without making her and her caregiver miserable. So we put the idea aside, again.
A few months later R, was content to stay with others for a few hours at a time and we again looked into beginning the licensing. Then we were thrilled to learn that I was expecting. We put fostering on hold again, knowing that pregnancy and the newborn phase would keep me plenty busy without adding the stresses of foster care. Unfortunately, I lost that baby last summer at 15 weeks gestation. We were devastated. It didn’t take long though, for our thoughts to return to fostering. We had the room, our youngest was older, and pregnancy was no longer a factor. We signed up for the classes.
That was in July. Actually I had surgery related to the miscarriage on July first, came home on July second and called the county agency that same day. I threw myself into fulfilling the licensing requirements as a way to keep my mind off my grief.
We were finally licensed at the end of October. At that point we were offered a sib group of 3, which we turned down due to lack of seating for that many children in our vehicles. (It turns out they went back home after only 3 days in foster care anyway.). In December we had a toddler boy placed with us. He was/is adorable and I was so sad to see him leave. He was with us 9 days and then he was placed with a family member. After that we had no more placements! We’re in a small rural county and there simply are not many children in care. That’s good…..I’m glad there aren’t more children in need of care here….but we know there are children somewhere who need us so we switched to a private agency that seems more likely to have a placement for us.
The new agency is a therapeutic agency so we had to do some more training in order to transfer our license. We completed that last weekend. I am so excited about this switch. Every one has been so nice and professional. I’m excited to see how it works out.
So….that’s a summary of our foster care journey thus far.
Blogging again
Hello Blog Friends!
My poor blog has sat neglected for months. I originally started this blog to record our foster care journey because reading the foster care blogs of others has been very helpful to me. There has been little related to foster care to journal though, so the posts have been few and far between. We have switched to a new agency now and hopefully will be getting placements on a more regular basis.
I also struggled because I wanted to keep this blog very anonymous, to protect the identity of any foster children placed with us. However, I didn’t like how impersonal that made the blog feel so I didn’t enjoy posting. I’ve decided to relax a bit on the privacy issue with my own family. Hopefully I can find the right balance between privacy & security VS. sharing enough details to make the blog personal and interesting. If/when we have foster children in our home I will reevaluate and will break off the more personal posts into a private blog if needed.
A friend has challenged me to blog daily through the month of May. I will try my best to keep up with that so keep checking for new posts!
My poor blog has sat neglected for months. I originally started this blog to record our foster care journey because reading the foster care blogs of others has been very helpful to me. There has been little related to foster care to journal though, so the posts have been few and far between. We have switched to a new agency now and hopefully will be getting placements on a more regular basis.
I also struggled because I wanted to keep this blog very anonymous, to protect the identity of any foster children placed with us. However, I didn’t like how impersonal that made the blog feel so I didn’t enjoy posting. I’ve decided to relax a bit on the privacy issue with my own family. Hopefully I can find the right balance between privacy & security VS. sharing enough details to make the blog personal and interesting. If/when we have foster children in our home I will reevaluate and will break off the more personal posts into a private blog if needed.
A friend has challenged me to blog daily through the month of May. I will try my best to keep up with that so keep checking for new posts!
Saturday, January 19, 2008
2.5 months
Wow, has it really been two and a half months since I updated here? Time flies when you're having fun. :)
We got our first foster care placement in December. An adorable 23 month old boy who was only with us for nine days. We knew from the beginning that he would probably go to a family placement and with Christmas coming we knew the judge would likely push for their paperwork to be rushed so the child could be with them for Christmas. It did indeed work out that way. I'm glad we knew the placement would be short because that made us prepared for when he left. We enjoyed caring for him. Hopefully we will have another placement soon.
Since then I've done some babysitting for the 11 month old foster son of a good friend. He is a precious child too and it is a pleasure to care for him. In the near future we may be doing some respite care for a sibling group of three that is currently placed with another local foster family.
I have so many thoughts about foster care that I would like to blog about. The emotions involved with it are so complex. It's late though, so I will save those posts to blog another day.
I've made soap several times this winter. It is my new hobby. Soaping is addictive! I have a notebook full of different soaping ideas I want to try. I set up a store on ETSY but haven't listed anything yet. That is one of my projects for February.
Our does are looking pregnant and we are looking forward to having goat kids in March. I'm so excited about these bloodlines---I can't wait to see what the kids look like. Plus once the does freshen I will have more milk to make into soap. lol
We are taking a new approach with school this semester. We're using a unit study method called "lapbooking" which is something I've never tried before. We've done some unit study work in the past (years ago) but never lapbooking. I'm finding it to be really enjoyable. Currently we are working on a "Sled Dogs" lapbook. In a few weeks we will follow the Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska as the final part of our unit study.
I also changed up our math curriculum. We set aside the Saxon math in favor of a worksheet generator. C (age 11)and I are both liking this much better. Saxon (in spite of being one of the most popular homeschool math curriculums) is rather boring. I find their review method confusing also because so many different types of problems are included in each lesson. It's nice to shake things up for a change of pace once in a while. :)
M & C are getting ready for an ice-fishing trip with M's grandfather. I know they will have a great time. T has a list of 12 "girl things" she wants us to do together while they are gone. The list includes 1) Go out to eat at Red Lobster (She asked if I could wear my wedding dress for that occasion! lol ) 2) Take R to have her ears pierced among other things. M & C will only be gone 4 days but I think it would take us 2 weeks to do everything on T's list. She likes to dream big!
We got our first foster care placement in December. An adorable 23 month old boy who was only with us for nine days. We knew from the beginning that he would probably go to a family placement and with Christmas coming we knew the judge would likely push for their paperwork to be rushed so the child could be with them for Christmas. It did indeed work out that way. I'm glad we knew the placement would be short because that made us prepared for when he left. We enjoyed caring for him. Hopefully we will have another placement soon.
Since then I've done some babysitting for the 11 month old foster son of a good friend. He is a precious child too and it is a pleasure to care for him. In the near future we may be doing some respite care for a sibling group of three that is currently placed with another local foster family.
I have so many thoughts about foster care that I would like to blog about. The emotions involved with it are so complex. It's late though, so I will save those posts to blog another day.
I've made soap several times this winter. It is my new hobby. Soaping is addictive! I have a notebook full of different soaping ideas I want to try. I set up a store on ETSY but haven't listed anything yet. That is one of my projects for February.
Our does are looking pregnant and we are looking forward to having goat kids in March. I'm so excited about these bloodlines---I can't wait to see what the kids look like. Plus once the does freshen I will have more milk to make into soap. lol
We are taking a new approach with school this semester. We're using a unit study method called "lapbooking" which is something I've never tried before. We've done some unit study work in the past (years ago) but never lapbooking. I'm finding it to be really enjoyable. Currently we are working on a "Sled Dogs" lapbook. In a few weeks we will follow the Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska as the final part of our unit study.
I also changed up our math curriculum. We set aside the Saxon math in favor of a worksheet generator. C (age 11)and I are both liking this much better. Saxon (in spite of being one of the most popular homeschool math curriculums) is rather boring. I find their review method confusing also because so many different types of problems are included in each lesson. It's nice to shake things up for a change of pace once in a while. :)
M & C are getting ready for an ice-fishing trip with M's grandfather. I know they will have a great time. T has a list of 12 "girl things" she wants us to do together while they are gone. The list includes 1) Go out to eat at Red Lobster (She asked if I could wear my wedding dress for that occasion! lol ) 2) Take R to have her ears pierced among other things. M & C will only be gone 4 days but I think it would take us 2 weeks to do everything on T's list. She likes to dream big!
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Foster care updates
I had to turn down a young sibling group of three about a week ago. It broke my heart to say "no" but I only have room in my current vehicle for 2 children in addition to my own. I wasn't sure how I would work out transportation issues if I accepted a placement with more than 2 children.
Today I learned through the foster care grape vine that they were returned home already. So that would have been a short lived placement.
So we are still waiting on a placement. I am ready. At the same time I can't bring myself to hope for a placement because for children to land in my home that will mean that another family is going through the trauma of separation. I can't wish that on anyone.
Today I learned through the foster care grape vine that they were returned home already. So that would have been a short lived placement.
So we are still waiting on a placement. I am ready. At the same time I can't bring myself to hope for a placement because for children to land in my home that will mean that another family is going through the trauma of separation. I can't wish that on anyone.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Random updates
We started 24 eggs in the incubator Friday. Hopefully we will have some chicks in a few weeks! The eggs are from Buff Orpingtons, Black Orpingtons, and also some Partridge Wyandotte bantams. We have one hen in with our Blue Orpington rooster but she doesn't seem to be laying right now.
The does joined the buck in his pen on the 15th. If all goes well we will have some kids in March! The children are very excited.
Still waiting on documents for our foster care license. Everything else is completed. The licensing worker says we are "a click away" from getting our license as soon as the documents are turned in to her. I am frustrated by the delay. However, it is very likely we will get kids within a few days of getting our license so I just keep telling myself that the kids God intends to place with our family are not ready yet. His timing is always perfect. It is also an odd feeling to be excited about having children placed with us....but at the same time realizing that in order for children to land in our home that will mean their own family is going through the trauma of being split up. Very very sobering thought.
Tomorrow is my follow up appointment with my rheumatologist. We will be going over the labwork (12 vials of blood, $2330!) that I had done in September. This is to see if there is a cause for my recurring miscarriages. I hope we find some answers but I realize we may not.
I have been doing really well since the miscarriage but the last few days have been rough. Since July I have filled up my days with getting the foster care stuff underway. Now that that is at a standstill I have more time to think again. Thinking isn't good when you are grieving. I also have a friend due around the same time I was. Every time she mentions a pregnancy milestone it is a painful reminder to me of where I 'should' be. I am happy for her and I love to hear her updates but they do sting sometimes.
I'll leave you with some recent kid funnies:
My 5yo calls Miracle Whip "American Whoop"
***************
Lyrics from my 2yo Stinker, Stinker, Little Star
How I wonder, where's your car?
*********************
I told my 2yo that I loved her. She grinned and replied, "You sure do!" Got to love that confidence!
*********************
The does joined the buck in his pen on the 15th. If all goes well we will have some kids in March! The children are very excited.
Still waiting on documents for our foster care license. Everything else is completed. The licensing worker says we are "a click away" from getting our license as soon as the documents are turned in to her. I am frustrated by the delay. However, it is very likely we will get kids within a few days of getting our license so I just keep telling myself that the kids God intends to place with our family are not ready yet. His timing is always perfect. It is also an odd feeling to be excited about having children placed with us....but at the same time realizing that in order for children to land in our home that will mean their own family is going through the trauma of being split up. Very very sobering thought.
Tomorrow is my follow up appointment with my rheumatologist. We will be going over the labwork (12 vials of blood, $2330!) that I had done in September. This is to see if there is a cause for my recurring miscarriages. I hope we find some answers but I realize we may not.
I have been doing really well since the miscarriage but the last few days have been rough. Since July I have filled up my days with getting the foster care stuff underway. Now that that is at a standstill I have more time to think again. Thinking isn't good when you are grieving. I also have a friend due around the same time I was. Every time she mentions a pregnancy milestone it is a painful reminder to me of where I 'should' be. I am happy for her and I love to hear her updates but they do sting sometimes.
I'll leave you with some recent kid funnies:
My 5yo calls Miracle Whip "American Whoop"
***************
Lyrics from my 2yo Stinker, Stinker, Little Star
How I wonder, where's your car?
*********************
I told my 2yo that I loved her. She grinned and replied, "You sure do!" Got to love that confidence!
*********************
Friday, October 12, 2007
Foster Care Update
Our homestudy report is ready and waiting. Now we are waiting for a replacement social security card and a birth certificate to come in the mail. As soon as we can turn in those documents we should be able to get our license! Hopefully everything will come early next week. My husband and I are ready to get started with this. :)
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Our homestudy
We had our homestudy for our foster care license last night! It went very well. The social worker said several nice things about our home. Everything here was in order so we will be ready to start accepting placements as soon as they finish processing our paperwork. We could have kids in just a week or two!
I am very excited. This is something I have wanted to do for years but it was never the right time. Now everything is falling into place.
I am very excited. This is something I have wanted to do for years but it was never the right time. Now everything is falling into place.
Monday, September 10, 2007
More foster license progress
Today I sent in our water samples. Everyone I have talked to has said their first test results were not good enough. Most people have to treat their well and then resubmit. I am hopeful ours will pass on the first try but that may be unrealistic. We will see what happens.
I also went to my doctor appointment for my physical for the foster care license. It was a good appointment. Last fall this doctor referred me for weight loss surgery. I seriously considered having the surgery but my insurance would not cover any part of it so it would have been $$$$$ out of pocket. Instead my husband and I got serious about a low carb lifestyle and have each lost 70 pounds since the first of the year. I hadn't been back to this doctor since last fall. He was very impressed with my non-surgical weight loss and said lots of encouraging things. That was so nice to hear.
That's two more things I can check off my foster care license to-do list!
I also went to my doctor appointment for my physical for the foster care license. It was a good appointment. Last fall this doctor referred me for weight loss surgery. I seriously considered having the surgery but my insurance would not cover any part of it so it would have been $$$$$ out of pocket. Instead my husband and I got serious about a low carb lifestyle and have each lost 70 pounds since the first of the year. I hadn't been back to this doctor since last fall. He was very impressed with my non-surgical weight loss and said lots of encouraging things. That was so nice to hear.
That's two more things I can check off my foster care license to-do list!
Thursday, September 6, 2007
New School Year
We started our new school year this week. It is going really well so far. All of the curriculum I have selected seems to be exactly right.
My 10yo is continuing with Saxon math with the D.I.V.E. cd-rom. To tell the truth, I find Saxon very boring but it seems to work for him so we are sticking with it. The DIVE cd's are wonderful! They are worth the investment if you are going to use Saxon. I am so glad that I learned about them. For those of you who are unfamiliar they are cd's that are a companion to the Saxon book. They feature a short lecture for each lesson where the student can watch the instructor work the sample problems. Very nice!
We are planning to do American history this year. After 2 years of ancient history we are looking forward to the change of pace! Some of the history books have not arrived yet so we are starting the year with a 4 week state history unit. He is studying electricity in science right now which he seems to enjoy. He is also reading Treasure Island.
My 5yo surprised me today. We were counting together. I asked her to count to 20 and instead she counted to 50 without missing a beat. Then my son told her she was halfway to 100 so she might as well keep going. She did keep going and counted to 100. :>) Then she announced that she could count backwards too and proceeded to count backwards from 12.
My 2yo loves for me to count with her also. I say the number and she repeats it. We do the same with the alphabet. She thinks this is great fun.
Tonight we went to the kick-off dinner for our homeschool group. It was so nice to visit with our friends again. The kids had a great time. My 5yo cried when it was time to leave. The kids will have p.e. classes, art classes, bowling days, and other events with this group during the school year.
Our water test kit arrived tonight so we will take the samples and get them shipped. This is one of the steps we need to take for our foster care license. This week I talked to the social worker who will do our homestudy. She is still waiting for our fingerprints to come back. As soon as they are back then we can schedule a date for the homestudy! My husband and I have appointments for our physicals and tb tests next week. We are just about to get all of the hoopjumping and red tape accomplished. :>) Our last training session is 9/29. I am hopeful that we will have everything else finished by 9/29 so that we can have our homestudy done as soon as our training is completed.
My friend who fosters told me that her home was the only foster family in our county with an open bed at the moment. Actually since she told me that a few days ago they took in another placement so they may be full now too. She thinks they will push our license through as soon as all of our training is complete because they need foster families right now. It is sad that there is a need for foster families, but it is good news that they are likely to grant our license in a timely manner. I know several foster families which dealt with a long delay from the time their homestudy/training/paperwork was completed until their license was actually granted. Hopefully that won't happen to us.
My 10yo is continuing with Saxon math with the D.I.V.E. cd-rom. To tell the truth, I find Saxon very boring but it seems to work for him so we are sticking with it. The DIVE cd's are wonderful! They are worth the investment if you are going to use Saxon. I am so glad that I learned about them. For those of you who are unfamiliar they are cd's that are a companion to the Saxon book. They feature a short lecture for each lesson where the student can watch the instructor work the sample problems. Very nice!
We are planning to do American history this year. After 2 years of ancient history we are looking forward to the change of pace! Some of the history books have not arrived yet so we are starting the year with a 4 week state history unit. He is studying electricity in science right now which he seems to enjoy. He is also reading Treasure Island.
My 5yo surprised me today. We were counting together. I asked her to count to 20 and instead she counted to 50 without missing a beat. Then my son told her she was halfway to 100 so she might as well keep going. She did keep going and counted to 100. :>) Then she announced that she could count backwards too and proceeded to count backwards from 12.
My 2yo loves for me to count with her also. I say the number and she repeats it. We do the same with the alphabet. She thinks this is great fun.
Tonight we went to the kick-off dinner for our homeschool group. It was so nice to visit with our friends again. The kids had a great time. My 5yo cried when it was time to leave. The kids will have p.e. classes, art classes, bowling days, and other events with this group during the school year.
Our water test kit arrived tonight so we will take the samples and get them shipped. This is one of the steps we need to take for our foster care license. This week I talked to the social worker who will do our homestudy. She is still waiting for our fingerprints to come back. As soon as they are back then we can schedule a date for the homestudy! My husband and I have appointments for our physicals and tb tests next week. We are just about to get all of the hoopjumping and red tape accomplished. :>) Our last training session is 9/29. I am hopeful that we will have everything else finished by 9/29 so that we can have our homestudy done as soon as our training is completed.
My friend who fosters told me that her home was the only foster family in our county with an open bed at the moment. Actually since she told me that a few days ago they took in another placement so they may be full now too. She thinks they will push our license through as soon as all of our training is complete because they need foster families right now. It is sad that there is a need for foster families, but it is good news that they are likely to grant our license in a timely manner. I know several foster families which dealt with a long delay from the time their homestudy/training/paperwork was completed until their license was actually granted. Hopefully that won't happen to us.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Paperwork and Red Tape
My husband and I are in the process of getting licensed to do foster care. Much of my time over the last few weeks has been spent filling out forms and jumping through hoops for that. So far we've completed our first aid/cpr training and 2 out of 3 of the required parenting classes along with filling out a mountain of forms.
Today I ordered the water test kits that we need. All foster families with well water are required to do water testing. I was told that in the past foster parents didn't have to do the testing if they promised to buy bottled water for the foster children. That is no longer an allowed loophole. So we will send our water off to the state lab. I hope the results are good. I know several people in the area who had to do well treatments after the initial test and then submit a retest. Hopefully we can avoid that extra hassle.
I also need to set up medical appointments for me and my husband, order a copy of his birth certificate, and get updated rabies shots for our cats. We want to be ready to do our homestudy visits by the end of September so I need to try to tie up all these loose ends.
We are looking forward to being able to help children in the system and their birth families.
Today I ordered the water test kits that we need. All foster families with well water are required to do water testing. I was told that in the past foster parents didn't have to do the testing if they promised to buy bottled water for the foster children. That is no longer an allowed loophole. So we will send our water off to the state lab. I hope the results are good. I know several people in the area who had to do well treatments after the initial test and then submit a retest. Hopefully we can avoid that extra hassle.
I also need to set up medical appointments for me and my husband, order a copy of his birth certificate, and get updated rabies shots for our cats. We want to be ready to do our homestudy visits by the end of September so I need to try to tie up all these loose ends.
We are looking forward to being able to help children in the system and their birth families.
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