Last class...

We had our last class/graduation tonight! It was so wonderful. We had a panel of guests including adoption and foster care placement and workers, foster parents, adoptive parents and babies/children present!

We also had another spread of food. The two caseworkers that taught our class also brought us a cake for our class graduation. My pictures do not give the table of food any justice. I was rushing trying to take the pictures as we were beginning the panel discussions and others were walking in. So, please excuse the unedited pictures. I just wanted to post a little something with this. I will try to post a little bit more this weekend when I have time.

It was so awesome so all of the little babies and children that were either in care or either had been adopted. These were the most well mannered babies and preschoolers that I have ever seen. They were absolutely adorable. I actually had the opportunity to hold one infant that was a twin and someone else held the other twin during some of the panel discussion and our break when we ate allowed the little ones to eat. These were healthy and just beautiful babies.

Our caseworkers reinforced the fact that we should create some sort of little life books for the children when they come into our home by taking pictures and keeping little things for them and journaling because it is important for the children to have some sort of record for themselves. I did that even for little Miss Sunshine when she lived with us and our caseworker loved how I had all of the pictures to documents the entire time she lived with us from beginning to end. I even kept work samples to scrap with the pictures as well.

The administrator that was over placement of cases spoke to our class and answered many of those questions that we all had regarding placements. We were able to ask all of those specific questions that we had as couples and individuals during this segments. It was important to find out about being available and having your phone and returning phone calls immediately when they are calling about a placement.

They also advised the prospective foster/adoptive parents that are wanting an infant to go ahead and have a crib. They will not allow a child to be placed in your home without a crib, car seat etc. A crib is a must. His recommendations was to go ahead and get the essentials because when it happens with little ones it is critical to be prepared if you want that particular infant. If you are not prepared, they will have to go on and call another parent on the list. It is that serious.

They also made it clear that many of the children that do come through private agencies come from the system and a lot of people don't know that. When they do not have parents to accept the children within the foster care system, they have to turn to private placement agencies to place them in foster care. I found this out earlier in the year this year an that was one of the main things that triggered us to give our system an opportunity.

We were able to talk to the foster parents who had fostered so many children and truly had a passion about this and this was their ministry.

We connected with one of the main foster parents and she gave us her card and we will be talking and visiting with her as well. She has been doing it for years and has fostered and adopted many children. It is truly her calling as well. After coming over to our table and talking with us during the break where we fed the little ones and talked she came over and talked to us. She also asked my husband about thinking about being a male mentor to one of the little ones in her house since she had mostly girls and he needs to have a male figure to look up to here and there. She said that it is hard to find male mentors for the little boys. Ironically, she also attends our church, but at a different location.

The little preschooler sat at the table and ate with us. My husband fixed his food and drink and he was a really great kid with wonderful social skills. She told me to email her so that we can get together and she invited me over since she is not far from us on our side of town.

She is a resourceful parent and handed out her cards to us if we needed anything. She is also one of the parents who helps with providing "start up" clothing, and baby gear to new parents getting placements to help them get started. She said she started that clothing ministry a while ago and receives lots of donations from friends and others who donate to this ministry.

As we closed out the class, we had a little graduation ceremony where our paperwork was given to us and we had to tell the class what we learned. We ALL admitted that we originally thought that the class was going to be boring, however, it was a treat and it seemed like we didn't have enough time each night. It was very interactive.

My husband initially spoke for us because he is the quiet one and I wanted him to speak for us first. He is quiet in nature, however, he truly spoke from the heart and got a few folks teary eyed. He shared that taking the class, meeting the adoptive/foster parents and children in the system dispelled the myths that he had in his mind regarding becoming a resource parent with an intent to adopt. He also said that it is definitely a journey that God placed us in and he has no doubt that we are in the right place after taking the classes over the past two weeks.

Not only have we gained a cool bunch of diverse and new friends, who will also be resources to us if we need it since we all will be either resource parents or adoptive parents, but we gained knowledge that will assist us with encouraging our other close friends to go this route as they have inquired about adoption as well with building their family.

I tried to get out of talking since he was talking on behalf of us both, however, they made me say something as well. I basically recapped what he said and stressed how significant the class was because it opened our hearts up to becoming a resource family when we initially stated that we were in it just for straight adoption. However, learning what we learned and seeing that it is an opportunity to bless a child and give a child a stable home if only for a short while will be touching a life, and that is what we are all here to do.

While adoption is our main objective, we know that we will have the right placement in our home at the right time when it is time for adoption. They are also aware that we are more so interested in adopting a child and will be keeping that in mind with placements. In many cases though, they are unaware of how long the child may need to be in care.

However, we are open to being an example for the bio parents when they are trying to get their children back in certain instances.

Now, we are Not a foster only family. We are "foster to adopt" which is now called resource families in our area. Being strictly an adoptive family limits your amount of calls for placement and being a resource family gives you more opportunity to have a child from a much younger age as you wait for the TPR if it takes place. Again, the typical length of time in care before TPR takes place is 13 months. Therefore, in most cases not all, if you strictly sign up for adoption, then it is more likely that you will get a toddler, however, there are those special circumstances that happen with infants. The child will have to be in your care for 6 months prior to finalization.

I will try to explain a little more over the weekend when I post. I am a little tired. We have really been burning the candle at both ends as we have been completing this classes.

Thank God we are finished! We will have a second and last home study visit this coming week and she will be coming by for a brief visit to test the smoke detectors and a few other things. I will keep updating. Once she turns in that completed report and it is approved by her supervisor, our documents are sent over to a different department which does the placements based upon our profiles that we filled out for what we are willing to take and the age groups. We were advised that it can happen very fast or it can be a month or so. We are prepared as much as we can be for either case.