This quote makes me think of my wonderful husband.

"God is primarily concerned with receiving glory from our lives. Perhaps the daunting circumstances you are facing are just a platform from which God desires to demonstrate a mighty miracle to an unbelieving world. The eyes of God are going to and fro throughout the earth looking for someone through whom He can show himself mighty."

I also got to see this video this morning!

Shocker

So last night was class #2. 


Got the huge tax-code sized packet of information that we have to fill out...YAY!

Then we got a whole bunch of information..... most of which I was ready to hear. Except for this little gem.

Foster Parents are asked to be the supervisor for all supervised visits. The kids will have court ordered visits with mom and/or Dad during the week. How many and for how long varies. In most agencies, the caseworker takes care of the visits. They supervise, note how the parent and child behave with one another etc.  They even pick the kids up if necessary. But for whatever reason (I am guessing lack of resources) my agency will have the case worker attend the first visit and then let us carry on just the two of us for the rest of the duration of the child's stay.

I am less than impressed. 

However, It is not a deal-breaker. Visits will happen in a public place, and if I just can't do it... I won't. 


Every couple of days I get a little nugget of information that scares the hell out of me I wasn't expecting, but God always reminds me what I am doing this for.

Last night there was a couple in our class. An extremely nice couple (she works, he owns his own business) whose granddaughter is in foster care in another state. That state requires that even relatives have to have foster parent training in order to care for the child while the bio parents get their stuff together. Our agency is streamlining them through, but for now this couple is left with trying to get ready as fast as they can while their grandbaby is with someone else. 

I asked Grandpa about it and his response was what He needed me to hear.

Me: have you seen her since she is in foster care?
Grandpa: Yes we were there last week. IT was hard to leave.
Me: Is she with good people?
Grandpa: SHe is with an amazing Christian family who obviously loves her.

While we want to adopt one of the little ones that come into our home.... I also hope that we get to be that "amazing Christian family."

Beginnings

Ever since my husband and I decided to become foster parents I have been obsessively stalking reading every Foster Parent blog I could find. So.... knowing full well that blogging is something that my pretentious college self started doing in 2007 and that in 2014 it is something that even Barney Stinson is done with, I am starting a blog in hopes that years down the road, my experiences will provide some insight into the craziness that I am signing up for.


A quick background: I am 27, live in the south, and have been married for almost 5 years to the most wonderful man God put on the planet. I love my job, my friends, my family, and aside from being bullied for being chubby with frizzy hair in middle school, my life has been pretty easy.

Until God decided that having a baby (something that tons of undeserving people get to do) was going to be a challenge for me.

After a miscarriage and a year of (unsuccessfully) trying, one day I looked at my husband and asked "what are we waiting for?"

We always said we were going to adopt no matter what. Adoption has been a part of my family for generations and we wanted to continue the tradition.

So my husband made a very typical "him" response and said "You".

From there we went through what I think everyone goes through when they decide to adopt. We talked with friends, we called people, got information packets, prayed, cried, thought maybe this really isn't for us, until we finally landed on becoming foster parents with the intent to adopt.

A lot of reasons factored into our decision, but the bottom line was that these children are here NOW, they need a home NOW and based on my experience with kids and foster parents, WE are in an ideal situation to provide the kind of home that they will need.

So for those of you are just starting the process, or for those of you curious about how it works, here is what I understand so far.

1. Kids come into foster care as an absolute last resort. In my opinion, they should get taken away a little sooner. So when they come to you, they have been through the ringer.

2. The buzz word that you will hear over and over and over again is "reunification". That is the goal. They WANT the parents to get their kids back. They will do everything they can to get the kids back to mom and dad. They do NOT want you to adopt. Period.
3. In my state, a parent has to up nine months to get their act together before the courts begin looking for other placement options. This could mean adoption by a family member, adoption from a foster parent, or adoption from  an adoptive family.
4. In my state. licensing happens REALLY FAST! We are enrolled in a class called PRIDE that lasts for 9 weeks. After we finish the classes and turn in our paperwork, we will have a homestudy. After the homestudy, it will take about 30 days to get our license. After that, a phone call could come at any time.
5. A foster parent has a lot of control when it comes to accepting a child into their home. You can choose the age, gender, race, amount, and situation. However, that does not mean that the case workers will always call you with what you sign up for. YOU CAN SAY NO.


We have decided to foster girls from infancy to 6 years old(that is a long story)we are wanting to do one at a time but are open to two.
All of this means that we have A LOT to do to get ready in  a short amount of time. Hope this will help somebody some day.:)