Adoption/Foster update

Well, we finally finished all the training. I was petrified on several occasions, but we made it through. Spencer and I finished the last of the paperwork tonight. We will have the FBI checks completed next week. We have a tentative schedule for a home study the second week of February (depending on the criminal and FBI checks coming back in time). We will also have to have the county fire and health and safety inspector out.

If, big IF, we pass all those events, we will be clear to be presented to CPS for cases. Because we have agreed to take emergency placements (when kids are first removed) there won't be much warning, just a few hours. When CPS first removes kids they will send out a bulletin, the agencies respond with foster families they feel will be a good fit. CPS chooses a family, the placing agency (covenant kids for us) will call the family with all the info known at the time and a decision has to be made immediately. So, Spencer and I have made some preliminary decisions and whoever gets the call is going to have to stick with that, if we wait, we may lose the kids.

So, I am thinking it could start as early as the beginning of March. We were pretty restrictive with the type of situation we want to take, because eventually we are looking to adopt. We are looking at single or sibling groups, caucasian, 0-6 years old. Sibling groups are harder to place so we are hoping that will help us since we were picky in other areas.

In the next few weeks we have to basically set up our house in a way that any child 0-6 could be dropped off and we would have what is needed. The older kids usually come with possessions, but not always. We moved furniture around this weekend, we converted our black bed into the crib and moved the twin bed in that room. The other 2 rooms have the full beds now. We might need to move the twin bed back out, it just depends. Still lots of work to do, we are having a baby proofing party in an upcoming weekend. Those of you lucky to live close by, get your tool belts. I will also be having a cleaning party, so we can scour our house of 9 months from top to bottom.

We really appreciate all the gifts, donations, and loans of baby stuff. The prayers and thoughts too. I will do my best to keep updating, we are waiting more, as usual.

Oh - on another note - I have been admitted to begin my librarian licensing process. Add finding a librarian job to the prayers if you don't mind.