I've had quite a few of you ask me what our timeline is, and when we will be expecting a child in our home. So I thought I'd take a moment to clarify a little bit on how this process will go. More or less. Because if I've learned anything from watching my friends travel on this journey, it's that things with foster care don't always go as planned. That's about the only thing we can plan on. HA!
This is not an end all be all explanation, as I'm going off of what I know right now, and what I've been told by our friends and our agency. I'm sure there will be a lot more to learn as we get deeper into this process.
But to start things off, in order to be a foster parent, you must first get licensed with the state. They don't just throw babies at anyone who wants them (thank goodness). There is a lot of training and preparation involved. When getting licensed, you can either go directly through the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), or you can get licensed through a foster agency. We will be getting licensed through the agency 4Kids, which is a Christian foster placement agency that our church supports.
Through 4Kids, our first step will be to take licensing classes, which will take place over the first 3 weeks in February. During these classes, we will learn about the foster system in Texas, and we will be trained in how to effectively parent children who come to us out of their broken situations. It will run the gamut from discipline to grief to attachment to CPR/first aid training, and so much more.
Then comes paperwork. With our particular agency, a prospective foster parent must attend the first class (which is a basic intro into the foster care system) prior to being able to fill out or turn in any paperwork. Which, when you think about it, is smart. They want to make sure that you know what you're getting into before you jump into all the legal paperwork stuff. And so while I know some of the things that will be needed (copies of drivers' licenses, SSI cards, marriage license, pay stubs, budgets, inspections, etc...), we cannot start to get these things all together and turn them in until after our first class on February 2.
After all of the classes are completed, and all of the necessary paperwork has been turned in (which includes fire inspection from the fire marshall and safety inspection from the health inspector), the next step is to get a home study. This will be our "file" that CPS looks at and determines if our family wound be a good option for each child that is needing a foster home placement. I don't know a whole lot about this yet, but from what I've read in other blog posts and from poking around online, the process is a long and stressful one. But I know that my God will bring us through this victoriously, because He is faithful to deliver on His promises. Every time.
Once the home study is complete, everything gets turned in to the state, and we wait to be accepted and licensed. And one the license comes in, our home can officially be opened to waiting children.
So to answer all of your questions, after we go through "the process," I think realistically we could expect to get a child placed in our home sometime in the spring or summer of next year. Assuming all goes as planned, which...in foster care, there's really no such thing as a plan...
So I guess basically, I don't know. That will probably be our answer to most everything, huh? :) But I'm OK with that. Because the Lord knows, and that's all I need to rest on.
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