But I'm a Saint!

Everybody acts like I'm a saint when I tell them I want to foster. I guess it's not a total stretch because it's a job that most people won't do and it has the potential to save a person's life. But I really don't think it will be that bad. I mean, I myself plan to enjoy it. So.... I can't say it would be the most unselfish thing I will ever do. What I'm trying to say is that I'm doing it for ME, as much as I'm doing it for the kids. But, it IS nice, the way people respond. The attitudes they've had towards my news have been so encouraging and supportive... until now.
I was recently at a dance party when a small child showed up on the dance floor. This lady that I know turns to me and says, "When are you and Husband gonna have kids?"
Smiling ear to ear I replied, "We are actually going through the process of becoming foster parents!"
Waiting for the ususal, "Oh that is so wonderful! You guys will be great at that!", instead I got this response: "WHAT, CAN YOU NOT GET PREGNANT?"
Trying to keep this awkward question from phasing me, I joked, "We're not even sure if we want to have kids, so were just gonna test them out!"
She then proceeded to school me on how fostering is NOT the same as having your own children and asked me to promise her that I would not use my experience fostering to decide whether or not to have biological children.
How rude. That's all I have to say.

Not So Fast

For anyone considering fostering in the state of Colorado here are the training requirements per my caseworker. I'm posting them here to help others but also to give myself a quick reference. I did get some good news the other day. The 18 hours of training I took for my new NPP position counts towards my foster care training. Yippee!

The first training that is required by the State is CORE training. That is 12 hrs. To get your pre-certification, you need CORE plus 15 hrs of training. (Such as the training on Parenting Strategies for Challenging Children by the Butler Institute that is coming to Gunnison in April) 12+15=27 hrs of training out of the way.

So, once you have had 12 hrs of state sponsored CORE training and 15 hrs of county training, such as through the pot lucks, and any other scheduled trainings, you will have your precertification.

For the first 3 months of your license, that is the only required training other than 1st aid and CPR. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to count CPR and 1st Aid for their hours the first year of certification. We can in consecutive years, but for some reason, they dont let us the first year.

After that, you need 20 hrs of training your first year. So, the first year is pretty intense, because you actually need 47 hours of training. 6 of that comes from reading our Policies and Procedures Manual, on your own time. So, we make it happen, but it is a lot of hours.

So we have our Core training planned for April in Denver. I'm pretty sure that we'll be precertified by summer but my caseworker tells me there aren't any local kids waiting for a foster home right now. Things could change and we could get placed right away or it could be several months. I don't want to rush anything, but I really hope we get to do it sooner than later.

Still Standing

In my quest for knowledge about what it's like to be a foster parent I've read several times that dealing with case workers can be a pain. Not because they aren't wonderful, hardworking people but because they are overworked and underpaid. Foster parents claim that their caseworkers are difficult to get ahold of and there's lots of turn over. I'm getting a taste of that problem already.

We've had our application paperwork in for over a month now and were just waiting patiently for our homestudy since our caseworker told us that was the next order of business. I got antsy the other day and so I sent an email to my caseworker and now she tells me I have to do training before I can do the homestudy. She apologized and explained that she is so swamped that I slipped through the cracks.

That really makes me sad because I've been waiting around for a long time and if I had I known that I would have already completed my training by now. My caseworker is one of 2 in my county. There are supposed to be four. It's really sad that there are people like me who are eager to foster but are delayed by lack of funding for caseworkers.

So, I've registered for the next training which isn't until April 23rd. Which by the way is free and they pay your hotel and mileage. That was good news at least! Then we'll do the homestudy and then hopefully shorly after we'll be placed with a child. Both Husband and I are really eager to start this new adventure.

Interesting development

So, our application is still at a stand still as we wait for a caseworker to set up a home study. Nothing to report there. But, I just got a part time job as the coordinator of the Nurturing Parent Program in which I will work with some families who are facing losing their kids. It's a class that is taught weekly and it's a mix of self refered parents and court appointed. So it's interesting to think how these too things will intersect. But anyways I'm really looking forward to putting my husband and new foster child in the class as soon as we get one. It will be so good for us as a new family to have a class like this. It's such a great thing to have in our community. I hope I can do a good service for it and all the families involved.

Waiting...

So far we've got everything turned in except Husband's health report. And I did receive an email from our caseworker that she has started processing everything we turned in. I'm not sure what the next step is. I know they will need to come and check out our home. Then we will need to start training. I hope something happens soon. I'm getting really excited and hopeful about this new adventure!

Paperwork, Fingerprints, Shots!

I received a big fat packet in the mail from Social Services a few days ago and boy did I have a lot of work to do! The questionaire took me 1 1/2 hours to complete and we each had to fill one out of our own! Then we had to do fingerprints, get the animals all vacinated and get a health examination for ourselves. We've got to wait on those doctors appointments or else we'd have it turned back in already. Now that I think about it... I wonder if it would help them if we turned in what we had so far. I bet it would, so I'll see if I can go do that now!

The Ap Is In!

I just dropped of my application for fostering today! I'm really excited and hopeful about this. Right now I am searching the internet for whatever I can find on the topic while I wait to hear from a caseworker!