Living in Miami FL, I hear Spanish everyday and wish I could say I have learned the language. Instead I just know a few Spanish words and phrases. My favorite Spanish word? Paciencia. Rolls right off of the tongue (pronounced Pah-See-En-See-Ah) and means "patience". I believe that word defines EVERYDAY of the "foster to adopt" process. So what has happened since we graduated from the training course in May?
First, we went through the entire Home Study procedure. We knew that our home would be inspected and that we would have to go through personal interviews, but we were nervous about how it would all take place....and when. Three weeks passed without hearing a word from the agency. That's where the "paciencia" was needed! We were asking ourselves things like, "Have they forgotten about us? Did our paperwork get lost? Did they come across a problem with our finances? Are the other people from our training class already finished with their home studies?" All you can do is wait. Everything is at the agency's pace. They did not give us any sort of timeline (mainly because they don't know for sure) and they did not tell us any requirements or how to prepare our home. Life goes on...then we hear from them again.
We were assigned a licensing counselor that happened to be one of the group leaders in our training class. She (Teresa) said she chose us as one of the couples that she wanted to work with. We were happy to be with a familiar face! By the time Teresa was at our home for the first interview, a month had passed since the classes. We had prepared our home the best way we knew how...and she didn't even look around. She sat at our little dining room table and said that the entire meeting would be my portion of the personal interview. All sorts of questions were asked like, "Where have you lived? What was your upbringing like? How did your parents discipline? Are you close with your family? How often do you see them? Tell me about your marriage...would you ever divorce that person? EVER? How do you confront problems? What are three things you like about your spouse? What are three things you would change about your spouse?" That was the hardest question. ALL of them had to be fully answered. There were pages and pages of questions. The entire interview took over three hours! (Although I'd have to admit we covered other paperwork that was not part of my interview.) The best part of the meeting was finally hearing the requirements for our home inspection. These are some of the things needed in every foster home:
*A first-aid kit (locked in a cabinet)
*Locks for chemical and medicine cabinets (locks must have a separate key)
*Smoke Alarms: One in the kid's rooms and one near the kitchen
*A printed out map of the home with labeled exits and fire escape route. A map should be posted by the main exit and in the child's room.
*A fire extinguisher (2A10-BC or larger)
* Freezer and refrigerator thermometers
*Flashlights: One in the child's room and one by the front door
There are actually MANY more home requirements, but these are the ones that were mentioned to us. (There are full lists you can find online.) I was a little nervous about the home inspection and was sure they would find many things for us to work on before returning for a final inspection. The appointment was made and their only available time to look at our home was while I was working. So may husband waited at home for the inspector to arrive. "What if my husband doesn't remember where everything is? After all, we did have to rearrange all of our cabinets." My nervousness grew. I turned around and saw that my husband was calling. Oh no! So soon? What questions does he have? "Hello?" "The inspection is done...we passed." "What?! It's only been 15 minutes!" "Yep. He looked around, checked the smoke alarms, asked if we had the other items on his list, signed the forms, and left." "Yay! Short and sweet!" Phew.
After a few more months of interviews, tax records, bank statements, home photos, and emails (asking for further explanations from the interviews), we finally received our official fostering license! It was finalized on October 19th. So the next question....How long will it be until we receive a foster child? Well it's been 12 days so far and we do not have a child yet, BUT we did receive our first call yesterday for the possible placement of a boy and girl sibling group. We did not accept simply because we have one room available for two kids. Because of that, we can only accept one child or two children of the same sex. I don't know what the future holds, or how long it will take, but I have a feeling we will be receiving a foster child very soon! :)
