It’s a process…

Our journey to becoming foster parents started back in November. On the 2^nd of November, David and I attended an informational meeting, put on by Youthville, about adoption and foster care, just to be sure that this was something we wanted to pursue. On our drive home, David and I couldn’t say “Yes” fast enough – our hearts hurt over the need for the children in our state to have a home that is loving, nurturing, and stable – even if it was temporary – we could help!

The very next day a recruiter called us to see if he could answer any questions that we had. On Saturday (2 days after the informational meeting), that same recruiter was at our house to do an “unofficial” home inspection and to begin our process in becoming licensed by the state.

Currently on this road of becoming foster parents, David and I are in week 7 of a 1 0 week training class called PS-MAPP, short for Partnering for Safety and Permanence- Model Approach to Partnership in Parenting. We have learned all kinds of things about the children in the foster care system, reasons why parents’ rights are terminated, how to deal with loss, abuse, and trauma in children, how to partner with case workers, social workers, birth parents, and other individuals in a foster child’s life with a goal of reunification. We have learned discipline techniques, how to aid a child developmentally, first aid care, etc. For the last 7 weeks, every Tuesday night we have spent 3 hours learning, growing, and preparing ourselves, mentally, for a child to be in our home.

Also, in this process is lots and lots of paperwork. We have filled out reports about our childhood, our family, our marriage, our support system, just about everything under the sun! Our licensing application was sent to the state for approval on December 21^st – and now comes the waiting game- we are told that we should have our approval by February.

We have also been preparing our house for our state inspection. We are blessed to not have to fix too many things, as our house is only 8 years old, and everything is up to code, but we are in the process of rearranging rooms, cleaning out closets, and reorganizing where we keep things.

For my “Type A- I like to know everything - be in control and have a plan” personality, this process is tough because I have no control – there is only so much I can do. I am learning (and will continue to learn) that God is in control and I need to learn to trust Him with my life. He knows what is best. His timing is always perfect.

“The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.” – Psalm 37:23