Waiting, Waiting, Waiting.....
We've completed our 6 week parenting course - which is usually 12 weeks long. But we decided to choose every single Saturday between the hours of 9am and 5pm.
We are now CPR certified, First Aid certified, we have smoke detectors in every room, hallway and kitchen. Speaking of home detectors! They all had to be "interconnected" detectors which means they were a little over 40 bucks a pop. it turned out that we didn't need to get a fire marshall out to our house since we chose straight adoption, instead of foster to adopt. So that saved us about $150.
sidenote: We chose to do straight adoption because during our class there were a lot of exercises that would show us how fostering would be. The exercises would teach us to fully invest ourselves in the foster child....then our caseworkers would explain how circumstances would change and the foster children either had to leave back to their parents or to another foster home or they got adopted. I could BARELY handle my emotions while they were describing these ordeals in words. Can you imagine ME living through it. NO WAY. I wish I could becaues I know there are a lot of foster childeren who need homes.....but I just can't.
We had a caseworker come out to our home to "pre-inspect". It went well. Other than my 5 pound chihuahua trying to naw at our caseworkers ankles....everything was just PERFECT! LOL.
We've done our FBI fingerprints and we are awaiting the results.....now.....all we do is WAIT. WAIT. WAIT. WAIT. I should be getting a letter soon in the mail that will give me a list of items that I need to turn in. To MY knowledge I have everything turned in.....but ya never know. CPS says that they are known to "lose" documents.
OH! we also had to make a LIFEBOOK. Basically a book that has pictures of yourself and your family, things to do around your home, vacation pics, etc. I will post pics this weekend. Making the lifebook was quite fun.
Most uncomfortable experience:
Speaking about children who were sexually abused. We talked about their backgrounds, who sexually abused them. There were a lot of opinions going around the room whether who was wrong and who was right. There was anger towards the mothers that did nothing for their hurt children. But we survived....thankfully.
Most memorable experience:
Overall just bonding with the other soon to be foster/adoptive parents. During our last class we had a pot luck while the panel of CPS experts answered our questions. When it was done....we all went our seperate ways. Then a week later, there was a "psychotropic medications" class that we were required to take. It was only a 2 1/2 hour class. They schedule this class several times a month or so. We chose to go that following week so that we could get it out of the way. When we arrived to the class....we saw a few of our old "classmates". We all instantly wanted to sit next to eachother and discuss our frustrations and progress with the paperwork, homework, certifications, etc. It was then....that I realized....we will FOREVER be bonded with these people. Maybe some more than others, but all in all...we are bonded.
It is nice to know that there are other people going through the same thing we are going through so that we can give eachother support when we are at our wits end.
We are now CPR certified, First Aid certified, we have smoke detectors in every room, hallway and kitchen. Speaking of home detectors! They all had to be "interconnected" detectors which means they were a little over 40 bucks a pop. it turned out that we didn't need to get a fire marshall out to our house since we chose straight adoption, instead of foster to adopt. So that saved us about $150.
sidenote: We chose to do straight adoption because during our class there were a lot of exercises that would show us how fostering would be. The exercises would teach us to fully invest ourselves in the foster child....then our caseworkers would explain how circumstances would change and the foster children either had to leave back to their parents or to another foster home or they got adopted. I could BARELY handle my emotions while they were describing these ordeals in words. Can you imagine ME living through it. NO WAY. I wish I could becaues I know there are a lot of foster childeren who need homes.....but I just can't.
We had a caseworker come out to our home to "pre-inspect". It went well. Other than my 5 pound chihuahua trying to naw at our caseworkers ankles....everything was just PERFECT! LOL.
We've done our FBI fingerprints and we are awaiting the results.....now.....all we do is WAIT. WAIT. WAIT. WAIT. I should be getting a letter soon in the mail that will give me a list of items that I need to turn in. To MY knowledge I have everything turned in.....but ya never know. CPS says that they are known to "lose" documents.
OH! we also had to make a LIFEBOOK. Basically a book that has pictures of yourself and your family, things to do around your home, vacation pics, etc. I will post pics this weekend. Making the lifebook was quite fun.
Most uncomfortable experience:
Speaking about children who were sexually abused. We talked about their backgrounds, who sexually abused them. There were a lot of opinions going around the room whether who was wrong and who was right. There was anger towards the mothers that did nothing for their hurt children. But we survived....thankfully.
Most memorable experience:
Overall just bonding with the other soon to be foster/adoptive parents. During our last class we had a pot luck while the panel of CPS experts answered our questions. When it was done....we all went our seperate ways. Then a week later, there was a "psychotropic medications" class that we were required to take. It was only a 2 1/2 hour class. They schedule this class several times a month or so. We chose to go that following week so that we could get it out of the way. When we arrived to the class....we saw a few of our old "classmates". We all instantly wanted to sit next to eachother and discuss our frustrations and progress with the paperwork, homework, certifications, etc. It was then....that I realized....we will FOREVER be bonded with these people. Maybe some more than others, but all in all...we are bonded.
It is nice to know that there are other people going through the same thing we are going through so that we can give eachother support when we are at our wits end.
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