About 9 months after our adoption home study was approved, I emailed our case manager to tell her that some stuff in our profile had changed. She set up a time immediately to meet with us and discuss our new circumstances. She said that we needed to update the home study. Looking back, Husband and I joke that we should have known that something was up because our adoptions case manager is NEVER that reasponsive to our needs.
Basically the first thing she says when she shows up that she really came over to talk to us about foster parenting. Husband and I had NOT planned to be foster parents. Not part of our goal. Just match us for adoption, thank you very much. But our case manager presented it as a way that would increase our chances of getting an adoption match. Not only would it give us some parenting experience (which is a bonus on your home study), but when kids in the foster care system become available for adoption, first they look for relatives, then if no relatives can/will adopt the child, they ask the foster parents if they want to adopt. Non-relatives who aren't foster parents are the last people they turn to for adoption.
Our case manager said, "Your house is all set up for a child. Why not help a kid out while you wait to get matched?"
Husband and I talked it over and eventually agreed to do it. More paperwork, more inspections, more background checks, etc, etc. There's twice as much stuff to do to get licensed for foster care as there is to get approved for adoption. It's a looooong process. But we eventually got licensed for two children, boys or girls, ages 0-3. When we got relicensed recently, we changed our age range to 0-5 years old.
We've had 5 kids in our home in a little over a year since we've been licensed. I'll tell you about them some time. Two of them were with us before I got pregnant, but Elise has met 3 of the kids.
It's been pretty crazy, being a foster parent. Definitely not for everybody. Probably not a good idea for most people. Then again, being a parent to their own biological child isn't a good idea for some people. Hence the need for foster parents.
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