my 'safe baby' training was awesome
it just made me more passionate about caring for a foster child (if that was even possible)
i now have my first aid certificate - i hope i never have to use it
i got a call today while i was over at a friends house
it was august
she let me know that our home study was approved by the different levels in the ministry! :)
she said she will mail it to us - have us sign it and then mail it back to them.
they will then assign us a social worker, sign a contract and we are open and available to accept a child.
accept she said ...in your case the placement workers already know about you and you may receive a call from them before your contract is signed. normally we don't like to do that but in this case if there is a baby or toddler who comes into care they can call you for a placement.
wow!!!
that means (potentially) we could get a call at anytime day or night and have a child.
wow!!!
we are ready.
i know that this is the calm before the crazy and our world is going to get rocked in a good way but also in a hard way. i am not naive and i know the challenges this will bring. but we are ready. this is where and what we are supposed to be doing. i have never felt stronger knowing we are doing what god has called us to do.
bring it!
this chapter is opening and i cant wait to find out what is in store for us - the good and the bad the ups and the downs.
our hearts can only grow bigger and stronger.
we are ready!
xo
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
almost at the finish line
i am just amazed at how fast this whole process has been.
fast and smooth sailing.
at our last training session i talked to two different ladies.
the first lady i talked to works for the foster parents association. she is taking the training course to get a better understanding of the process. she asked if we had started our home study. she was floored that we already completed it and that we only started the process in late fall. she asked what age group we would be caring for. i let her know that we are ideally wanting children 0-3. she asked if we would be taking the 'safe baby' training course. i said yes - i am starting next week. she looked so surprised. she went on to tell me that there is a long waiting list to get into that class. she was not able to attend that training because it is only for top priority applicants. she said some people wait a very long time to get in.
the second lady i talked to later in the evening was a mother of two young children (not sure if she is a stay at home mom). she said her and her husband have been in the process for two years. two years!! they finally got into the training session but have not started the home study. i was floored when she said two years. i felt kind of bad telling her we only started a few months ago. she was a lovely lady and about my age. i am sure through this process we will keep in touch and be supporters of each other.
it just truly makes you feel blessed to know how fortunate we have been in this process.
this month is going to be busy!!
february 13th (tomorrow) i start the baby training course. it is a full day downtown.
february 18th is the second class for the safe baby training. i will be learning baby first aid as well.
february 20th is our make up session for the two classes that were canceled. it will be a full day as well as we will be doing two classes in one day.
my sister sara is being my angel and taking care of sophia on all three days. i was in a pinch because my parents are away attending my cousin libby's wedding - which by the way i am so sad to be missing.
so thank you auntie sara!
last week august came over to do the home safety check. we passed. we now have a pretty white fire extinguisher (did you know they made white ones?) all cabinets are baby proofed and our "rabbit hole" is nice and safe with a baby gate. all the little details are done.
the foster childs bedroom is done and done and it is adorable.
oh and we found the crib parts!!! woo hooo!!
it was so dramatic.
let me set the scene...
chris, sophia and i went to the storage locker and tackled every.single.box.
sophia was over tired and bored out of her little mind.
chris and i were starting to loooooose it.
we made the biggest mess ever.
we decided we were done and that there was nothing else we could do. we would just have to buy a toddler bed and use our playpen for a crib.
i started passing boxes back to chris so that he could put them away and make them all fit like the magic puzzle our storage locker is. he grabbed the box and he heard something rattle. he looked at me and said "did you hear that? that sounded like crib parts". pssht. yeah right. that box is solid and it says 'books' it is sooo not in there. i guess we should open it so we don't wonder if the *only* box we didn't open up did in fact hold the missing parts. and guess what......there were those crib parts!! stuck in a box that made absolutely no sense!! a box marked books?!?! whaaaaat?? but you should have heard my "woooooooohoooooooo" when i saw those plastic parts!! i scared sophia a little bit. we were soooo relieved to have found them! we set up that cute crib and we just kept the front railing off so it is the sweetest little toddler bed. and if we need the full crib all we do is pop on the front piece. so perfect. by the way sophia thinks it is fabulous and every once and a while sleeps in the "foster kids bed".
i really need to take some photos of these two sweet new rooms. it is literally a little girls dream upstairs.
if you have kept reading this far i applaud you.
i tend to ramble on this blog.
i just really want to remember these first stages and how beautifully things went for us.
august is typing up our home study interviews and once she is done they will be sent to the different departments for review. once that is done and we are approved we will be assigned a social worker and we will receive a contract to sign and then we are put on the list and are open to receive a child.
august said that it can take a while for all the different departments to review all the paperwork but hopefully march will be the month that we are done!!
we are so close to the finishing line!
fast and smooth sailing.
at our last training session i talked to two different ladies.
the first lady i talked to works for the foster parents association. she is taking the training course to get a better understanding of the process. she asked if we had started our home study. she was floored that we already completed it and that we only started the process in late fall. she asked what age group we would be caring for. i let her know that we are ideally wanting children 0-3. she asked if we would be taking the 'safe baby' training course. i said yes - i am starting next week. she looked so surprised. she went on to tell me that there is a long waiting list to get into that class. she was not able to attend that training because it is only for top priority applicants. she said some people wait a very long time to get in.
the second lady i talked to later in the evening was a mother of two young children (not sure if she is a stay at home mom). she said her and her husband have been in the process for two years. two years!! they finally got into the training session but have not started the home study. i was floored when she said two years. i felt kind of bad telling her we only started a few months ago. she was a lovely lady and about my age. i am sure through this process we will keep in touch and be supporters of each other.
it just truly makes you feel blessed to know how fortunate we have been in this process.
this month is going to be busy!!
february 13th (tomorrow) i start the baby training course. it is a full day downtown.
february 18th is the second class for the safe baby training. i will be learning baby first aid as well.
february 20th is our make up session for the two classes that were canceled. it will be a full day as well as we will be doing two classes in one day.
my sister sara is being my angel and taking care of sophia on all three days. i was in a pinch because my parents are away attending my cousin libby's wedding - which by the way i am so sad to be missing.
so thank you auntie sara!
last week august came over to do the home safety check. we passed. we now have a pretty white fire extinguisher (did you know they made white ones?) all cabinets are baby proofed and our "rabbit hole" is nice and safe with a baby gate. all the little details are done.
the foster childs bedroom is done and done and it is adorable.
oh and we found the crib parts!!! woo hooo!!
it was so dramatic.
let me set the scene...
chris, sophia and i went to the storage locker and tackled every.single.box.
sophia was over tired and bored out of her little mind.
chris and i were starting to loooooose it.
we made the biggest mess ever.
we decided we were done and that there was nothing else we could do. we would just have to buy a toddler bed and use our playpen for a crib.
i started passing boxes back to chris so that he could put them away and make them all fit like the magic puzzle our storage locker is. he grabbed the box and he heard something rattle. he looked at me and said "did you hear that? that sounded like crib parts". pssht. yeah right. that box is solid and it says 'books' it is sooo not in there. i guess we should open it so we don't wonder if the *only* box we didn't open up did in fact hold the missing parts. and guess what......there were those crib parts!! stuck in a box that made absolutely no sense!! a box marked books?!?! whaaaaat?? but you should have heard my "woooooooohoooooooo" when i saw those plastic parts!! i scared sophia a little bit. we were soooo relieved to have found them! we set up that cute crib and we just kept the front railing off so it is the sweetest little toddler bed. and if we need the full crib all we do is pop on the front piece. so perfect. by the way sophia thinks it is fabulous and every once and a while sleeps in the "foster kids bed".
i really need to take some photos of these two sweet new rooms. it is literally a little girls dream upstairs.
if you have kept reading this far i applaud you.
i tend to ramble on this blog.
i just really want to remember these first stages and how beautifully things went for us.
august is typing up our home study interviews and once she is done they will be sent to the different departments for review. once that is done and we are approved we will be assigned a social worker and we will receive a contract to sign and then we are put on the list and are open to receive a child.
august said that it can take a while for all the different departments to review all the paperwork but hopefully march will be the month that we are done!!
we are so close to the finishing line!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
four weeks later
really? its already been four weeks since my last post?
time certainly whips past you doesn't it?
im sitting here in a bit of a 'cough due to cold' funk. sophia is "helping" over at grama's and i am taking a break from my house chores. or i could just be procrastinating from my house chores. either way i am finally blogging!
lets catch up with where we are at in the process of becoming foster parents shall we?
january 5th - i met with august for our one on one interview.
january 17th - chris met with august for his one on one interview.
january 26th (that would be tonight) - august will do our *last* home study interview! she will also meet with my parents and do a small interview with them to verify that they are in fact normal people and can then be approved for babysitting.
did you hear that? our *last* home study interview!! holy moly.
as for our training at the mcfd we are two weeks behind. the first week back to training was cancelled since the instructor was sick and the second week back was cancelled due to crazy winter weather. hopefully they will do a make-up training session on a weekend and we can get 'er done all at once. we had our first training session of the year last night. so much information. so much heart ache. so much to be excited about. we can not wait to help these children and their families.
we have been busy on the home front getting our house ready. we did the big switcheroo of rooms on chris' christmas break. he is so lucky. a couple days of crazy was rewarded by a lovely and amazing new space for sophia. chris and i are really enjoying having our bedroom downstairs and its all just working out lovely. i cant wait to show you pictures of sophia's new room. it is pretty darn adorable if i do say so myself. also its practical so its a win win.
we have the crib waiting to be set up in the second bedroom. but we can't find the hardware to put it together. so unfortunate. some time in the very near future chris and i will have the pleasure of searching through our storage locker one box at a time looking for a ziploc bag that's marked "crib parts". i remember feeling really organized when i put them away. ha.
ok here is where i am going to get nice and cheesy.
the other night i had a dream that was so real and just what i needed to feel to be reassured. i know it was just a dream but sometimes i think God can work his magic in ways you least expect. i needed this dream to feel as real as it did. i wont get into all the details but basically in my dream i offered a father to help him take care of his daughter while he found help. in the dream he came back to me and said yes could you please help me. when we took her in she was dirty, sad and hopeless. we cared for her and loved her. the father came back and i willingly and gladly returned the girl to him. in my dream while the father carried her away she smiled at me the most beaming and genuine of smiles, she was healthy, happy and glowing. it felt so amazing and rewarding and real. i knew i had helped her and gave her the love and care she was needing but i was able to return her to her father with such delight. something i know that i will find extremely difficult. each child we will care for the main goal is to get them back with their birth families. i want to do this with a happy heart and know that this in the long run is what the child needs. each case will be different and some will be harder than others. there is so much beyond our control. i just want the wisdom to deal with each child in the best way possible. i also want to see and try to understand the birth families side and try and wrap my head around why they did or do the things they do. that is no small feat for any human but i really want the compassion to understand.
anyways that is just a drop in the bucket as to what i am feeling. there is so much depth to what fostering is. its the beginning of our journey and i am so confident that this is exactly where and what we are meant to be doing.
can i get an amen?
time certainly whips past you doesn't it?
im sitting here in a bit of a 'cough due to cold' funk. sophia is "helping" over at grama's and i am taking a break from my house chores. or i could just be procrastinating from my house chores. either way i am finally blogging!
lets catch up with where we are at in the process of becoming foster parents shall we?
january 5th - i met with august for our one on one interview.
january 17th - chris met with august for his one on one interview.
january 26th (that would be tonight) - august will do our *last* home study interview! she will also meet with my parents and do a small interview with them to verify that they are in fact normal people and can then be approved for babysitting.
did you hear that? our *last* home study interview!! holy moly.
as for our training at the mcfd we are two weeks behind. the first week back to training was cancelled since the instructor was sick and the second week back was cancelled due to crazy winter weather. hopefully they will do a make-up training session on a weekend and we can get 'er done all at once. we had our first training session of the year last night. so much information. so much heart ache. so much to be excited about. we can not wait to help these children and their families.
we have been busy on the home front getting our house ready. we did the big switcheroo of rooms on chris' christmas break. he is so lucky. a couple days of crazy was rewarded by a lovely and amazing new space for sophia. chris and i are really enjoying having our bedroom downstairs and its all just working out lovely. i cant wait to show you pictures of sophia's new room. it is pretty darn adorable if i do say so myself. also its practical so its a win win.
we have the crib waiting to be set up in the second bedroom. but we can't find the hardware to put it together. so unfortunate. some time in the very near future chris and i will have the pleasure of searching through our storage locker one box at a time looking for a ziploc bag that's marked "crib parts". i remember feeling really organized when i put them away. ha.
ok here is where i am going to get nice and cheesy.
the other night i had a dream that was so real and just what i needed to feel to be reassured. i know it was just a dream but sometimes i think God can work his magic in ways you least expect. i needed this dream to feel as real as it did. i wont get into all the details but basically in my dream i offered a father to help him take care of his daughter while he found help. in the dream he came back to me and said yes could you please help me. when we took her in she was dirty, sad and hopeless. we cared for her and loved her. the father came back and i willingly and gladly returned the girl to him. in my dream while the father carried her away she smiled at me the most beaming and genuine of smiles, she was healthy, happy and glowing. it felt so amazing and rewarding and real. i knew i had helped her and gave her the love and care she was needing but i was able to return her to her father with such delight. something i know that i will find extremely difficult. each child we will care for the main goal is to get them back with their birth families. i want to do this with a happy heart and know that this in the long run is what the child needs. each case will be different and some will be harder than others. there is so much beyond our control. i just want the wisdom to deal with each child in the best way possible. i also want to see and try to understand the birth families side and try and wrap my head around why they did or do the things they do. that is no small feat for any human but i really want the compassion to understand.
anyways that is just a drop in the bucket as to what i am feeling. there is so much depth to what fostering is. its the beginning of our journey and i am so confident that this is exactly where and what we are meant to be doing.
can i get an amen?
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