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Even though we had all our paperwork turned in and contracts signed we really cannot receive cases without a DVN. According to our Licensing Worker ‘The DVN is your vendor number and means you are State approved.” I am learning as much since our classes ended as I was before just in a different way. You just don’t know what to ask, there is so much information. It reminds me of an extremely stupid/dangerous/painful stunt that I pulled when new on the police force. It is hard to imagine once you know more that you could have ever been so stupid or viewed a situation in the way that you did. As a reminder one of my goals was to record our foster care journey on this blog. That is why I have been rather detailed as to requirements etc…lately I have been discouraged so I did not want to discourage others from following this path. That is the last thing I would want to do. I have not been documenting some of the bumps in the road because of that. Now that I am seeing things more clearly I will try to catch up so to speak and will let you know the gory (not really) details so stay tuned.
We signed our homestudy and contracts tonight. We are officially foster parents with Cornerstones of Care/Missouri Baptist Children’s Home. We are signed up for Traditional Foster Care, Respite, and Emergency Care.
Hurray, we had our last Home Study visit Saturday. We passed our physical standards, talked about our marriage, how we plan to meet the required competencies, and answered miscellaneous questions that she wasn’t sure she had the answers to. We were told that they have 120 days to complete our study from our first class which was September 18th. We still have one class this Thursday night which is specific to our licensing agency, Missouri Baptist Children’s Home. After that we don’t have anything else we can do we just wait to hear back about our Home Study. I am searching photolistings of children in the foster care system that are waiting for families. We can receive further information about Missouri children but no one will send information to us about out of state children without a completed home study. We are interested in adopting a sibling group so please join us in prayer that we will rest in God’s timing and have wisdom in preparing ourselves, our home, our schedules, and our family for the challenges in our future ministry to hurt children.
Room #2 has bunkbeds!
Taylor and I went to Overland Park Saturday morning and bought a set of solid wood bunk beds and mattresses ($450) for the second bedroom. Brent set them up that afternoon with a little help from his wife.
While Taylor and I were shopping for bunkbeds Brent took our Dachshund, Ruby, to Ark Animal Hospital for her required rabies vaccination ($58).
I am working on last week’s homework assignment, here are a couple of the questions:
Imagine that a child in your care is going to be reunited with his or her birth family. Jot down your ideas about how you would help the transition.
1. How would you help the child understand why he or she is returning home?
2. How would you help the child manage the loss of moving from your family?
3. What would you do to help the child become attached or renew attachment to his or her family?
We are looking forward to this Thursday’s class where there will be a panel of foster care/adoption “experts” to learn from. Saturday afternoon is our last home study visit!! Please be praying for us there is quite a bit to get in place before then and this is a really busy week.
Well, Saturday, November 1st was our 28th wedding anniversary and we spent it working on the house and being interviewed for our Foster Care licensing home study. Brent, Taylor, and I were each interviewed individually and asked about our parents, childhoods, hobbies and interests, education, schools we attended, etc. We got a quick prescreening of the house for our physical standards and we still need to: get the dog vaccinated, post the emergency numbers and fire escape plan on the refrigerator, get another carbon monoxide detector, and one more bunk bed. Finish moving dressers around, make up all the beds, etc and be ready to show that we are ready to accept up to four children. We are making progress! She will be back on Saturday, November 15th for our last (if we pass) visit.
Thursday night will be class number 8 out of 10 so we are counting down to the end! We were excited to hear that class 9 is a panel discussion with current foster kids, parents, an adoption lawyer, and other experts that we can ask questions.
We were very excited to recently hear from another FCC family that is interested in adopting from foster care!! Let’s hope this spreads like wildfire.
Psalm 68:5-6a “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families…” (NIV)
Ephesians 1:3-5 “How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ. Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.”
I did it again, let the whole month go by without posting the monthly “update.” Here you go!
Outside in Kansas City~It is an absolutely incredible autumn day in the 70’s with the leaves falling like crazy!
I am thinking~That it is getting dark way too early, and my husband must have gotten lost on the way home from picking up Taylor from work.
I am thankful for~The opportunity to spend the day with family at my house after church and have lots of baby holding time. I am also thankful for my mom who cooked a turkey breast and stuffing for us all to enjoy.
In my kitchen~All the dishes from lunch are clean and ready to be put away!
I am wearing~Jeans, floral shirt and socks.
Last creative endeavor~ No time!
I am going~To go grocery shopping as soon as possible, refrigerator is getting bare.
Can’t wait for~ Completion of our Home Study for Foster Care.
Family News~Taylor turns 16 on the 16th and he is very excited about that.
Current Read~ Parenting the Hurt Child by Keck and Kupecky, The Connected Child by Karyn Purvis, David Cross and Wendy Lyons Sunshine, and lots of books about making the most of the space in small homes, storage ideas, children’s rooms, etc…
I am hearing~The sound of the ceiling fan and the computer. I guess you can tell there is no one at home right now besides me. In a few months I may dream of these quiet times.
I am hoping~To prepare for the holidays in a low stress manner keeping the “reason for the season” and proper priorities at the forefront. While surfing for some tools I found: Happy Holiday Planner, Ann’s Amazing Holiday Planner, Household Notebook, Big Holiday Planner from FlyLady.
Around the house~I am very excited about all that Brent and Taylor accomplished on Saturday. They set up a captain’s bed downstairs in Taylor’s new room, tore out the “wet bar” that was in there taking up space, installed another light in my sub-basement laundry room, installed a big shelf in the garage, went to the store and got a piece of plywood cut for one of the bunks so now we have one complete bunk bed ready. We still need another set of bunk beds and bunk bed mattresses for the other bedroom so please keep your eyes open for someone getting rid of a set.
Simple pleasure~I saw Fireproof with Brent and Taylor on Friday night and then went out to dinner, it was very enjoyable. I won’t say who but at least two of us cried at this movie, it is a good one to go support.
Plans for the weekend~More projects around the house. Missions Emphasis Month starts at FCC.
The Abba Fund Blog There are lots of great ideas here about how to finance your adoption and remember the cost to adopt from U. S. Foster Care is only $2,500 or even less. There are 10,000 missouri children currently in foster care.
We had a homestudy visit on Saturday, October 11th that lasted three hours. We worked on a genogram of the family. It was pretty embarrassing when we could not recall middle names, birthdates, anniversaries, etc. for our own family members. Our next visit will be November 1st.
Last Saturday we attended a mandatory Medication Class for our licensing requirements. We went over basic guidelines for managing medications how to measure, handwashing, gloving, interactions, etc… as well as how to use eardrops and eyedrops properly. The instructor recommended www.webmd.com and www.safemedication.com.
Some safety tips to help prevent accidental poisonings are listed below:
- Avoid taking medications in the presence of children, they often try to imitate adults.
- Don’t call medicine candy.
- Use child-resistant closures on medicine and other products.
- Keep all medications in their original child-resistant containers.
- Always turn on the light when giving or taking medicine.
- Check your medications periodically for expiration dates.
- Avoid putting medications in open trash containers because many adult medications can be deadly to small children and pets.
- Be aware that vitamins, particularly those containing iron, can be poisonous if taken in large doese. Children are especially susceptible to adverse reactions from vitamin overdosing.
Make sure you post the poison control number in an accessible place: 1(800)222-1222.
Remember that the best thing you can practice and teach your children to reduce the spread of germs is handwashing. Hand sanitizers can be used when facilities are not available but always wash when you can, there are things going around that are not killed by sanitizers but are by washing with soap and water.
I had mentioned to some of you that we heard from our homestudy contractor that we might not be able to take more than two kids for the first year. At class last night I talked with our trainer, Susanne, and she said there is no guideline to that effect. It can be a recommendation from the person doing the homestudy but it is not a requirement. So we are going with the original plan and have six weeks to get the two bedrooms set up appropriately. Which means some closet space free, at least two drawers per child available in a dresser, bunk beds in each room along with bedding, linens, etc. To make all this space work we probably need to build as many shelves as possible. Please be praying. we really need to be working steadily toward this goal and need provision of the items on our wish list to complete the rooms. Nicci mentioned a set of bunk beds she has that needs work so I will be touching base with her. Alicia mentioned that they might be able to send their futon for Taylor to use. We have one set of bunk beds but will need a new bunky board for the top bunk of that one.
We have a “two-to-three” hour homestudy meeting at our house this Saturday, a required full-day medication class Saturday the 18th, and a full-day CPR/First Aid class on Saturday the 25th so please be praying about those things. We really need wisdom on managing the time we have left and the energy to utilize it well.
Thank you all so much for your words of encouragement and support. I can begin to focus on the inadequacy I feel, the lack of preparation at home, how uncomfortable I am with the training styles (not my learning style at all…just give me a good book), and a dozen other things and get discouraged. Then I remember the desperate need, the call God has given us clearly in scripture, the repeated call I have felt for many years, and my gratitude for all that I have been blessed with and there is no question whether to proceed.
We hope to have good news soon about a new development that will free a substantial amount of time up for Brent! Stay tuned…
“Vindicate the weak and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and destitute.” Psalm 82:3
