One more meeting left

We attended the 3rd of 4 meetings last night. The meetings are eye opening and yet leave a sense of what will our situation look like. The main feeling we get is every situation is different, how you can create a class for 14 people and talk about any type of focus when everything is different depending on the child, the placement and the birth family- well it's a challenge. Our instructor is very open and honest and does her best.

Last night we talked about discipline, teams of people that are involved in each childs lives, and some great options available to older (15+) children in the system, including college assistance. When we met with our foster consultant yesterdaybefore the class I was left a little disappointed. I knew it was a home inspection, I guess when you throw in a word like inspection I'm prepared for something very thorough. Instead it felt more like a "we just wanted to make sure you live indoors" type of thing. So, of course, I stayed up LATE Tuesday night preparing the apartment and then was left deflated when the only comments we got were just simple make sure you lock up medicines, and have working smoke detectors. Maybe we looked so ready that there wasn't much left to say.

Our FPC (foster parent consultant) did ask a few questions and it was more just a get to know you type of thing. They are saying it could be 6-8 more weeks before we have a placement. She was happy to hear that we were indeed interested in a school age boy (which there are many in the system) and she asked how many. We looked at each other and said two, well you could have knocked me over with a feather when we said that. As the words are coming out of my mouth I'm trying to fathom 2 boys- YIKES! BOYS- I mean, what do they like, where do the like to go for fun, what is the Barbie equivalent for boys? Lots to learn.

Chris our FPC is really interested in a good fit. For the boys she works with she is really looking for forever homes, these kids have usually been in the system for awhile and parents rights will most likely be terminated (by force or voluntarily). So we meet for our individual meetings next week and then have maybe one more look at the home, if neccesary. A placement could happen faster if she finds a good fit. For now we wait and finish our last class next week.

As far as the bedroom is concerned we need to hang the curtains and take down the breakables and anchor the book case. Chris encouraged us to wait to purchase additional decorations, etc till we have a placement so that we can include him in the decisions. Makes sense, and was actually what we were thinking too. We may need to buy a bunk bed if we get two kids. Mostly though we need to go thru the last of the boxes in our bedroom, switch out clothes to winter clothes and store the rest then the apartment is basically ready.

So what do you think about that? Possibly 2 boys and she was curious if we were planning on staying in the apartment much longer. Who knows, maybe she already has some children in mind and maybe it's a larger group of siblings that are in need of us. We just keep the faith and know that the Lord is in this situation.