Prospective Foster Parents
I will skip all the excess verbosity that I have become jaded towards in the course of our self-re-education: we start foster parent training this weekend.
This is something that we started thinking about back in January of this year. At first, it seemed like we were just not meant to foster. Not because of anything on our end, but whenever we'd call the adoption/fostering agency, the people would magically always be unavailable. (you would've thought the whole operation was a scam if you didn't know better) So finally I put on the man pants and did some calling myself, and finally got something arranged. Over the course of three weekends, we will be attending about 30 hours of training, courtesy of Georgia Agape, which is the agency.
We are feeling a bit apprehensive, now that training is about to start. There are no hard feelings at all, but this post at The Common Room about the fostering system brought up some of these worries. We do hope we are doing it for the "right" reasons, whatever they may be. Parts of motivation probably do involve our miscarriages and infertility, but I don't exactly know how.
If anyone has any words of advice, encouragement, or honest discouragement (we haven't legally committed to anything yet), we'd like to hear them.
Categories:
adoption/fostering
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our life
I think it is wonderful that you would like to help an ailing system and some very needy children. Have you read A Patchwork of Blessed Moments? She blogs very honestly about the hardships in fostering and then adopting. She has a "foster care and adoption" category in the side bar.
I didn't realize how much of a lengthy process it can be, but I have heard a little bit about the issues sometimes present in the fostering system.
My friend's mother foster parented many babies (children under age 2) over the years. She particularly liked to foster children with medical problems. She mentioned a story of a baby who had a really tough beginning to life, but that she is doing well today. It was really encouraging to hear that her mother helped many babies who came from not-so-good situations.
So even though I do not know much about the foster parenting process, I am still very excited for you both! Know that you have my support in doing this. I hope that the training goes well this weekend.
As an adoptive Mom, I know there are good and bad people on both sides. It's the same w/ any issue. You just have to do the best you can and help others do the best they can. Get involved w/ changing the broken parts of the system if you can. From the little I've read of your blog, I think ya'll will be GREAT parents :)
Did I see that you're in GA? We used to live in Kingsland. Small world.
We are in the midst of some hard stuff that was a result of us fostering. We gave up our license over two years ago when we adopted our five children.
Because of what has happened to us this past month I will not encourage anyone to foster again. I used to be a huge advocate.
If you think this is what God has called you to, PLEASE do it.
My kids are one of the most amazing gifts God has given me. I would not trade a one of them. While I don't understand what is happening right now I know God is in control. :)
I have a lot of good stuff on fostering in the early parts of my blog and some of what we are going through in the last few posts.
Wow! That will surely be an adventure! I hope that you will have an awesome experience and I'm sure that any little ones you are able to foster will benefit tremendously from the love and affection yall are able to offer them.
We just began our orientation with Ga. state yesterday! How exciting!!
I am sure you will be lovely foster parents. I think the system is broken, but there are still children in it who need a safe place to be (even if what they most need to be kept safe from is a bad foster home). I think I should have worded things a bit differently on my blog, perhpas semantics, but it would have made my meaning clear. It's one thing to want to save a child, and that is not a bad thing. I think the problems come when wants to be a Savior figure to a child- difference in emphasis. I'm pretty certain y'all are the first rather than the second.
My only advice would be to take what social workers say with a big 'ol salt lick, and pray hard and often.
Keep us posted on how it goes, if you can.
Hi! We have been foster parents and continue to support others who are fostering by babysitting for them (our house is full). The only constant is change in foster care, but we always felt we were part of the solution rather than the problem, and that alone brought us comfort. Here are a few more websites:
www.fosterparenting.com (discussion boards somewhat addictive and very educational)
www.tapestrybooks.com
For fertility issues (helped with us, and no you don't have to be Catholic):
www.popepaulvi.com
They've helped two other friends of ours, too. Give them a call if you want to pursue natural fertility treatment options at the same time as you do foster care. That's what a friend of ours is doing right now.
God bless you on your journey!