Foster2Forever

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YES, IT DOES GET WORSE!

What a week!

I am still very nervous about what going to happen to Lil Bit, our 5-month-old foster baby. His case worker called me last Friday to tell me that they were going to send Lil Bit to the family member that has his other 5 siblings.

Since then, I have spoken with our attorney, and it all comes down to whether we, as foster parents, have standing for a court case. Foster parents can ask a judge to be considered as an option for placement if the child has lived with them for a year. Even though Lil Bit has lived with us less than 2 months – he has lived with us for 20% of his short life. But that doesn’t hold up in court.

We will have to prove that placing Lil Bit with the family member will possibly “endanger or otherwise cause harm” to him. Did I mention that, as I understand it, this family member has 6 children of their own? I know that the State is not recommending this placement; however, the family member does have an attorney & is requesting a sibling placement. I am meeting with our attorney tomorrow.

The worst part of all this is that I took Lil Bit to the doctor on Tuesday because he was getting a cough – and, turns out he has RSV! He was admitted to the hospital & is in isolation! I’m thankful I went ahead and took him before he had gotten worse! He has been doing well in that he is still getting plenty of oxygen; however, he has been fighting a fever & severe congestion.

Please keep Lil Bit and our family in your prayers!

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THE DOWNSIDE OF BEING A FOSTER PARENT

We have been so blessed as foster parents to have such beautiful, wonderful foster children! It has been “pure joy” to open our home to neglected children. But now comes the hard part – I received a call today that CPS has found a home with a distant relative for our 5-month-old precious baby boy that we’ve been fostering for the last month and a half.

The toughest part emotionally has to be that since CPS did not foresee any family members for this baby, we were asked, “Do you want to keep him?” Anticipating his membership into our family, we have been searching for a name to fit this beautiful dark-haired, blue-eyed baby and had decided on a combination of family names. (Another “J” name for another boy which means God rescues & a middle name to honor my husband’s late uncle that passed away before we started dating)

I don’t blame anyone. I can totally understand why someone would want this beautiful creation. He is so perfect! He only cries when he’s wet or hungry and now only wakes once during the night. Did I mention that he is BEAUTIFUL???

I’m extremely disappointed and have contacted our attorney to see if we have any say at all. Right now I’m feeling quite nervous and have butterflies the size of 737s in my stomach. I know, however, as the impending date of February 9th draws closer, losing this little angel will become more difficult to deal with.

Until then, I must focus on being the best parent I can be for this child and the others in our home.

Romans 8:28 “all things work together for good to those who love God…”

I will keep you posted as more details unfold…

Hugs to you!
-penelope

Read more about our adventures in fostering by clicking the fostering label.

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On Becoming a Foster Parent

This has been an exciting few weeks! On Tuesday, December 15th, I received a call from CPS asking if we would accept a 4-month-old baby boy to foster. Of course, I said, “YES!” I picked him up an hour later. He is so beautiful & such a good baby! I AM SO BLESSED!

Because the child’s mother has had numerous children removed before & has already had her parental rights terminated, he will be eligible for adoption after all the legal stuff has been completed.

I’ve had a number of people asking me about foster parenting & how difficult the process is. It actually isn’t that difficult to become a foster parent. Our licensing was more complex because we were in the middle of moving to a different county during the process, but overall, the process wasn’t too bad. We are licensed through our state agency as both a foster & adoptive home.

  • The first step is to attend an informational meeting. There are a number being held Tuesday, January 12th in the evening in Houston, Austin, Bryan & Waco. Check HERE for details. This is very informal, but for some reason, attending this meeting is required before moving forward in the process.
  • Next, you would attend a 35-hour parent education training, called PRIDE (short for Parent Resource Information Development Education). Our classes met twice a week for a few hours each evening. Before each class, we had to bring “homework”, which actually were documents required for our homestudy, such as identification, family profile/background form, home layout, desired children profile form, & scheduling FBI fingerprinting, etc. This helped keep the documentation process less cumbersome.
  • You will also need CPR/First Aid training, a home fire inspection (local fire dept) & a home health inspection. (We completed our CPR training at our jobs.)
  • Lastly, a home study will be conducted by a caseworker that will come to your home and interview everyone in the home. For us, scheduling the caseworker took the longest because we lived in a rural county 40 minutes from Bryan. When she finally came, we had already closed on our house & were in the process of moving. We had already boxed up a lot, given away our sofa & had to sit in the dining room for the interviews.

The cost of becoming licensed with the state agency has been minimal with the FBI fingerprinting costing around $50 per person. [Anyone over the age of 18 living in the home will have to be fingerprinted. My stepson will have to be fingerprinted SOON!] We also had to purchase a fire extinguisher for the home.

I hope this post gives you the information you need. If you are remotely interested, I encourage you to attend the informational meeting next week.

James 1:27 says that we are to reach out to orphans & widows in their distress.

Let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to know!

God bless & hugs to you all!
~penelope

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