Saturday, January 21, 2006

Foster care journey

Mike and I have decided to pursue foster care and eventually adoption. We had our first meeting last night with Tracy, who helps coordinate foster families for our county. She said they have a great need for families like ours and that approximately half of the foster children become eligible for adoption. Right now we are open to taking a girl or boy, ages 0 - 8 years. The ideal situation would be to get an infant or toddler, but we mainly want to have a child that we can love and nurture - even if the child is reunited with his or her parents. Tracy said birth parents have about 4 months to get their act together once a baby is removed from their home before the state pursues a Termination of Parental Rights. This is good for us because I'd hate to grow attached to a child for 8 months or a year only to have him or her taken back to his or her birth parents.

Thankfully both sets of families are supportive of our decision. Classes begin Feb. 6 and by early April we'd be licensed to start caring for children. I'll keep you posted!!

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