Driving away from the shelter, we sat in silence. I didn't have words. A mild panic rose up from my stomach to my throat as my mind replayed images of the 7 year old boy crashing the small plastic animals together. I thought back to that Oprah episode I watched years ago with the young… Continue reading Our Foster Parenting Journey: “We Can Help This One”
Category: Saying “Yes!”
Our Foster Parenting Journey: The Boy in the Corner
When Saturday rolled around, I was ready. When we met Marcus, I brought board games. But I had been told that this child was developmentally like a 3 or 4 year old. I googled and asked friends of kids that age, "what should I bring to meet a 7 year old who is mentally 3… Continue reading Our Foster Parenting Journey: The Boy in the Corner
Our Foster Parenting Journey: The Call
Our licensing worker, Frances', plan was two-fold. I would text the case-manager at the shelter where Marcus had been placed (I still had her contact information in my phone) and she would e-mail Victoria, the DCS congregate care liaison to inquire as to whether any children in a shelter or group home were ready to… Continue reading Our Foster Parenting Journey: The Call
So close and yet so far…
In the next month, we said "no" to just one kiddo who had a number of mental and physical disabilities and health issues that our placement coordinator and I just didn't think we were best suited to handle. This kiddo required full time around-the-clock medical care that we just were not equipped to provide. Then, we got… Continue reading So close and yet so far…
I’m not even racing home anymore…
The short week after labor day weekend was a long one, but we still didn't become parents. That Tuesday, we had another false alarm when we got a call for an 8 year old boy who is Greek like me! We'll call him "Marcus." His mother was in the hospital. The reason for her hospitalization… Continue reading I’m not even racing home anymore…
Another false alarm
The Friday before Labor Day Weekend, we got a call about a 6 year old boy we'll call "Charlie" who was going to turn 7 in October and was in the first grade. Charlie’s mother had been “hospitalized and under the influence of an illegal substance." DCS was called to take Charlie into care in… Continue reading Another false alarm
So that was a little weird…
After a week of waiting for AJ's caseworker to contact us, our licensing worker reached out to the placement worker (the person who matches foster children with foster parents) directly to find out what might be going on. After a number of e-mails back and forth, we were finally given AJ's great-aunt's phone number and… Continue reading So that was a little weird…
Our First “Yes!”
During the licensing process, our Licensing Worker encouraged us to be very honest with ourselves about the children we would be able to parent. What behaviors could we manage? Fire setting? Animal abuse? Sexualized behavior and acting out? Violence? What special needs are we willing to work with? ADHD? Autism? Bi-Polar Disorder? Developmental and cognitive… Continue reading Our First “Yes!”