D & K jump right into all of the awkwardness of being foster parents. From handling a little boy’s questions, to sitting in court with the birth parents, and turning down other placements. Within three weeks they’ve been exposed to a lot.
Foster & Adoption Parenting Podcast
Join foster parents T and W as they discuss foster care and adoption. With humor, insight and Christian faith, they share their everyday ups and downs as a foster family with hopes of adoption.
Yay!
I thought you all would get a kick out of this. My eleven year old son often asks if we can listen to the foster parenting podcast.
Also, I’m in Wales, so you are even more international.
Thanks again to both families for the inspiration. We can’t wait to get our feet wet and get certified when we return to the United States in the fall.
Jo and “the Artist” (my 11 year old’s pseudonym on my blog)
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Great job, guys. A joy to listen to and also really powerful. I appreciate so much your heart for those kids whom you can’t take into your home, but also your passion for Scotty’s well-being. You’re awesome!
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Cheers and congrats to you! It is so exciting when you get that first placement call. Ours was for a 5 day old 5 lb newborn- and wow was that scary! He ended up being short term, but we learned alot just like you are. Anyway, we are on our third placment now (plus we’ve done multiple respites) and all is going great. I writing beacuse I completely identify with the phone ringing for more kids issue. We are fortunate enough to have a large home, but we are licensed for only one foster child (we have a bio son of our own and 2 kids is about all I can handle!) But every time CPS comes out they say “so you do realize that we could license you for several more kids?” and we say thanks but no thanks, we feel more comfortable that we’d rather do a really good job with one special needs kid at a time, rather than a decent job for multiple kids. I say stand your ground and only do what you are sure about for now, and you can always add a kid later once you feel ready. Like your state, Texas is short on foster parents also, so I encourage others to become foster parents.
My wife and I have just been working on our first placement as well. It was 3 kids at one for respite care, with the potential to become more permanent, at a date that keeps shifting. Kind of strange how the system works sometimes… Still, it’s not as bad as many people seem to think, I think it’s really something that once you get through the craziness of becoming certified, and if you can manage the large numbers of people on the team, then it’s actually quite fun and enjoyable, and that many people, if not most, would enjoy it.
-Beating all levels of school!!!!! That is hilarious!!!
-We’ve had our foster-to-adopt son for 17 months and every time we leave court we feel the same way…..what just happened? Did ANYTHING just happen? Crazy system is right!!!
-Praying praying praying for you guys!!!
-Pray for US as we go to court on March 22nd and decide if we will become licensed for 2 instead of just 1.
Loved your stories… We are in MI, but are on hold, waiting 2-3 more months until our little one is 1. But hearing your story, really makes me want to open up again, like today;)…… Praying for you guys.
Thanks for all the sweet comments. S – I love your response – thanks for your prayers! When you are ready, take that next step – Michigan kiddos need you! Are you already licensed?
K-Yup, we are already licensed, actually relicensing is this month. We had a baby last summer and transitioned our foster daughter to an adoptive home right before that. We wanted to give our baby a little time to be the “baby” before jumping back in. Counting down the days:)
Thanks for all the podcasts. It is great to hear your story D&K because we’re at the beginning of the process. That said, I hope T & W aren’t taking a permanent vacation
We have decided to become foster parents and are getting to know the different agencies in our area. A few days ago we went to an agency and they were so excited that we were interested.
Today I finally got another agency on the phone (they didn’t return my calls, which I know from earlier podcasts is a warning sign). I was very surprised to be told that they aren’t recruiting new foster parents unless we’re willing to take severely troubled teenagers or have nursing experience. After hearing that foster parents are in high demand I couldn’t wrap my brain around what I was being told. My guess is that this agency is trouble, so we’ll steer clear.
But tell me if what she told me is true – that Child Welfare is not putting many children into foster care now, instead they are leaving the children with their parents and utilizing every resource available to make it work. They also said law requires CW to seek out kinship care first so there isn’t much need beyond that (I realize that this could be specific to our area, but it’s still a huge discrepancy). Is this one of the side effects of government budget cuts? I hope children aren’t staying in situations that they should be removed from.
Thanks
We’re still here. Just busy with other things and nothing new to say for the moment.
It sounds like what you are being told might have something to do with state budget cuts. We have not being hearing that at all where we live.
My wife and I thought about joining an agency such as the one in jendoop’s post, but we didn’t. Turns out that this agency is well-known for being a bad agency, so…
I know there’s demand in AZ, so…
I just listened to all 76 episodes….
okay I didn’t just listen… it took me a week but you get the idea.
I have a 6 month old at home and my second full time job as a telecommuting nonprofit professional. I’m interested in growing our family through fost-adopt
and I needed information about the process that I could listen to while doing my other two jobs. I searched iTunes and Audible for hours looking for an audiobook on foster parenting. I got no where. Luckily I was able to find this very informative podcast… made even more awesome by it’s FREE-ness.
Now I’m off to submit glowing review on iTunes.
Thanks for the information. My hub and I plan to begin the foster care licensing process after we move in a couple of months.
Ok, great podcast! I too am in our first placement. It started out as respite and after three weeks we where asked to take her till the Court Date with the possibility of adoption. We came into this so blind it is crazy all the things we are still learning.