During this time of prayer, reflecting and contemplating, both J. and I have decided we would like to become foster parents. We have hosted children from Haiti in our home before. It was such a blessing to the entire family. We feel like fostering through the state will be quite similar to that experience, yet with more support.
I started the training classes. Although I have taken them several years ago, I needed to retake them. Also, when I took the classes it was solely for the purpose of adoption. After the classes were over, we decided to adopt from Haiti instead. Now, our intent is fostering, not adoption. I am taking a lot of information home and finding it very interesting and helpful. I have learned a lot of tools that pertain to parenting our adopted and bio kids too.
Through experience we have learned that keeping the kids in birth order works best for us, so we put on our application that we want to care for a child birth to age 3. Infants would be ideal, since a child under one can sleep in our room which is quite large.
We are in the process of getting our home ready. When S. started outgrowing his baby things, we sold most of them at a fundraiser garage sale. Now we are starting again from the ground up. We need a crib, bedding, clothes, car seat. We do have our house somewhat childproofed, but we need to get a few more things for our license; a larger fire extinguisher, a few more outlet covers and locks, and a wood stove barrier/fence.
Since J. is CPR/1st aid/BBP certified through work, I am the only one who needs to retake these classes. It's only one day and the state covers all fees for all who take it, even older siblings! So I signed up with L. and C. too, in March.
We need to get our children and pets' vaccination records, our well water tested and our wood-stove cleaned and examined. We also need to fill out a bunch more paperwork.
We are excited and busy getting things ready. Once the application is filed, we have 90 days to complete everything. The pressure is on!
3 comments:
Wow Kim! This is so exciting! Keep us updated on how the process works... I have been interested in foster care and the foster-to-adopt program for a long time. I am so inspired by your heart for orphans, thanks for sharing your plans.
Outstanding! Fostering is SO rewarding, although it can be frustrating too. I have been a long time foster parent. If you have questions, let me know. My blog is www.anotherchildtolove.blogspot.com -Diane
OH Kim,
I'm so sorry....I've been out of the loop and didn't know about Mercy :(
Fostering sounds wonderful! So happy for you and your family - sending hugs!
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