She got to our house about 45 minutes BEFORE scheduled, so I was thankful I was pretty much ready by that point! Due to not being "ready" in my head yet, I forgot that Abe was laying in the back of the house. Our worker walked in the door and our 100 lb golden retriever Abe came barreling around the corner and literally our worker let out the biggest freak out scream I have ever heard at the sight of Abe.
Note to self... some people are deathly afraid of really big dogs.
After getting off to a great start (just kidding), we sat down and she confirmed that our age range was 0 - 10 years old... I laughed. I said, no 0 - TWO years! After fixing that, we discussed that we personally don't want a child over Cai's age.
She then reinterated over and over that Foster Care is TEMPORARY care. That she may drop a child off one week and have to take them the next.
We reinterated that we were coming from ADOPTIONS and that we understood what we were taking on (not really), but that we would also like to be able to ADOPT. (ha!)
All in all, we really had a great visit with her and I feel very encouraged about the fact that we will be getting children in our home. You see, on the adoptions side of things, if you say you want a baby or a young child, they look at you like you are crazy and tell you how long you have to wait. In foster care, they are just happy to have you and it seemed very positive to be able to have young kids in your home (even permanently- although she didn't "say" that). Of course, you are reminded of the risk that your child will be taken at some point back to their family.
At this, we have just decided that it's better to love deep, than not at all. I told her that we will be heart broken for every child that has to leave us, because we will get attached and when they come in our family, they will be 100% Traylor while with us.
We have to have this philosophy, because we don't know if when a little one comes to us in the beginning, if they will eventually be ours for real! And we don't want to miss the opportunity to love the way Jesus does.
The only "negatives" we have to work through for our family are that we thought we would be able to get ABC vouchers for day care while I am working, so as not to put added pressure on the grandparents. Today, we found out that isn't an option, if you work part-time. Apparently, both parents must work full-time to qualify. I think this is a loop hole that should really be looked into for helping foster parents. I can imagine there are MANY parents that do work part-time or even close to full-time, and I think it would be helpful to be able to have this aspect of foster care taken care of. Probably result in MORE available families, too! (Sorry for that rant!)
The good thing is that it's okay, to have babysitters and alternate caregivers for the date nights/weekend, etc as long as they have a cleared background check! I think that's great, because I was worried about how to leave the kids if we had a date night. You can also take your foster kids on vacations, as long as you tell DSS where they will be in advance.
For those wondering what they checked out in our home, I believe here is the list:
-Sleeping Arrangements, room set up; we have space for up to 2.
-Fire Extinguisher, tag was up-to-date
-Pet Vaccination Records
-Overall cleanliness? Who knows, but we/Cai sure cleaned up!
Due to the adoptions check, I also made sure I had all chemicals/paint supplies up high away from kid level, removed anything "dangerous". lol
Other than that, we filled out some more paperwork.
So what's next for us on this journey? We have to fill out our Alternate Caregiver forms, send those in. And then we have to wait for our next Fire Inspection on June 26th. After that, it will probably be a couple weeks until we are approved, and hopefully called with our next Beloved.
Everyone is getting excited!
I think Turner needs a new baby cousin to play with!
Please keep praying for us!
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