In case you missed it last year, back on July 1st, we announced that we were in the process of getting licensed for foster care. We’d finished the 13-week class and started this and that getting the house ready. We got pretty discouraged that the timing wasn’t right, so the paperwork went undone for months due to knowing it wasn’t the right time.
Being self-employed, income is a very volatile thing based on how much work is lined up and how much I get done so we get paid. We had an excellent June, October, and December to really get a feel for the pattern for months in a row to gain the confidence that it was time again. It just wouldn’t be right to bring someone in to live with us when we are all stressed out about finances, so we put our house in order first.
The trouble: we still didn’t have much in the way of things to care for kids. We had no crib, bedding, books, safety devices, and the spare rooms weren’t anywhere near being ready. Just days after we announced, we painted our master bedroom, re-arranged the furniture, and put in matching desks and a filing cabinet on one wall as our new office – 5 feet from my side of the bed. Talk about a rough commute!
We tried for a couple of months to get a crib at sales and consignment shops, but recent legislation outlawed drop-side cribs. Anyone who had a “legal” crib isn’t ready to get rid of it and anyone getting rid of their crib had one we aren’t allowed to use. Realizing we had to buy a new crib made us save up for it – after Christmas.
The crib arrived on MLK Day and I put it up immediately. That night, we went to Target to get things we knew we couldn’t get at consignment stores or Goodwill. The next morning we went to a consignment shop for baby stuff nearby and went to Goodwill after that. We got an awesome high chair, baby tub, a baby carrier (I picked that one out), and 18 cardboard baby books all at fantastic steals. We also hit Staples for a locking cash box for my refrigerated meds (yeah, try locking up all of a CFers meds, right?) and rearranged the fridge. I still open the crisper drawer half the time to get my meds out only to find shredded cheese.
We got our paperwork filled out as best we can and took our “affidavits of good moral character” to a friend at church yesterday to be notarized and had some babysitter forms filled out later in the day. I think we’re ready to turn in the paperwork after Beautiful’s doctor sends back her medical form saying she is medically capable of raising a kid.
The next step will be to be fingerprinted and have our Family Development Specialist (FDS) come over to review the paperwork and do the “home study” that gets us licensed to foster. From what we understand of the process, the babysitter background checks take 30 days (I don’t believe them that it’s that long) and I would imagine that anything that isn’t ready according to the home study can be fixed in a day or so. I think we’ll be ready by March! Enough words… on to the photos I took last night and you can read Beautiful’s post.
This chair will get a lot of use once again. It was the chair Beautiful’s parents bought when her younger brother was born… 21 years ago!
We got all of the pink, blue, and brown bedding, changing table, and room accessories from a friend of a friend who was getting rid of all their baby stuff. We like that it has both blue and pink since we’re almost certain to have both come through the system.
We had to get a wall decal because we’re not allowed to hang anything from the wall above the crib or use a mobile, either. Something has to go on the wall!
We filled a basket upstairs and downstairs with the books we got, along with some appropriately-placed accessories (note that I found the one pacifier pack that was on clearance AND it’s purple for CF awareness!).
If you would have asked me a year ago if I thought we’d become foster parents, I’d have said that there wasn’t any chance. We were definitely thinking we’d be adopting or even possibly wondering if we’d ever have kids since we were both working so hard and not really excelling financially enough to consider Beautiful staying home. We were using most of her income every month, so it would have been irresponsible to go down to one income.
