Fostering: first meeting

We just had our first meeting with our homefinding caseworker. I'm psyched, so I'm pretty much going to only write about that right now.

The lady came to our house and was here for two and a half hours. Mostly we talked, but she also did the initial walk-through of our house to give us a general "your home is not an immediate danger to children" pass.

The conversation seemed pretty useful, and the lady clearly has a lot of experience with this. She had us both tell her about our childhoods, our high school and college experiences, how we were disciplined as kids, our current relationships with both sets of parents and our siblings, whether we thought our families would accept a foster kid with love. We talked about how much we can tell people about the situation a foster kid comes from - very little, and only what they need to know - and when we can hit a child - never, ever, ever - and how the process is different if we end up with a foster kid who's part of any American Indian nation. She met the dogs and liked our habit of keeping the dogs outside when people are entering the house and only letting the dogs back in after things are more calm, because that's how they recommend people do it anyway.

We have fourteen pages of things to fill out and compile. We have a sixty-page packet to read. We have to buy a crib and a carseat. We have to move the carbon monoxide detector upstairs, and we have to put a cap over a pipe in the basement, and we have to scrape the peeling paint in the sunroom and then repaint it. I am so psyched.

She already signed us up for the ten-week classes starting in July. They end the last week in September, so we should be certified by October. You guys! This is so exciting!

Do you want to know more about the process? I'll answer any questions you have, if I can!