The Beginning of Our Journey

So, I'm going to try to do a much better job of keeping up with the blog.  I do not want to forget one moment of this journey!

I decided I better get busy documenting before I start forgetting.  We used the picture in the post below in our Christmas Cards to announce to our family and friends that we were going to begin this journey!

We made the decision on November 1, 2011, that we want to be foster parents.  It is something we had been considering for quite a while, but finally decided we would definitely persue it that day.  Because of my job, I knew there was a process to becoming a foster parent, but I had NO IDEA how extensive this process would be!  Oh my!  Someday I might add THE list to the blog so you guys can get an idea of what I mean.

Another thing that Joe and I didn't realize is that we picked the wrong time of year to decide we want to be foster parents!  There is no training at the end of November or at all in December due to the holidays.  30 hours of training are required before becoming a foster/adoptive parent.  We were hoping to have children in our home by Christmas.  We were definitely sad when we realized that was not going to happen.

On December 1, 2011, we went to our first informational meeting that counts as part of our training.  December 1 was also the day Joe and I went out on our first date 10 years ago!  Ten. Years. Ago.  Doesn't seem possible.

The meeting lasted about 2 hours.  I have a picture I would like to add of Joe and I at Froyo after the meeting, but it keeps showing up upside down?  Oh well.  I'll try to fix it and add it later.  The meeting went great and we were able to schedule our first home visit for Thursday, December 8, 2011!!

The home visit also went great!  During this visit they check a lot of safety features like fire extinguishers, child safety locks, where you keep your chemicals and knifes, and other general safety features.  They also measure the space where you want to have foster/adoptive kids, which in our case is our extra bed room, and decide how many children you are licensed for.  They licensed our extra room for 2 children!  Exactly what we were hoping for!

Because we now live in our new apartment in the new residence halls, thankfully we were pretty up to date on most of the codes.  The only concern was that the windows were not made to open for ventolation purposes and emergency exits.  I just got the call that that is okay!  Hooray!  They approved it because they are break away windows that can be broken out incase of an emergency.  And we have a very large ventolation system that cleans and circulates our air.

 Our next step (besides the mounds of paper work) will be attending the training.  Prayers are appreciated that we can register for and attend the training the first 2 weekends in January!  (Another hurdle!)

We are planning to adopt one day, but for now we are just taking it one step at a time.  I hope you guys enjoy following our journey!

Rae