so what are we getting ourselves in to?

We have learned a lot about this process just in the past few weeks. The purpose of foster care is to reunite birth families. So all along the way, that will be our goal. If/when any of the children become available for adoption, that will tickle our socks off. But in the meantime, we are going to simply wake up every day and choose to love and care for our children as best we can for as long as they are with us (and really, isn't that what every parent does? No one is promised tomorrow, and parenting - in the home anyway - only lasts for about 18 years or so. The whole point of parenthood is to love them and teach them how to operate in this world).

We're requesting children ages 0-6. I'm 26, and we thought 20 years was a good amount of age difference. We are also requesting sibling groups. If we get a call for a 4- and 7-year-old brother and sister, we won't turn them down. We just didn't want calls for 17-year-olds when I'm closer to their age than to their parents'. As we get older, we'll raise our age limit.

We have elected to take additional training to become licensed for therapeutic foster care in addition to family (regular) foster care. This means we could get calls for special needs children. Having worked with special needs adults for the past 6 months, I don't know nearly enough about it, but I know enough to be absolutely in love with this population. And Jake is willing to learn :) Therapeutic could also mean behaviorally challenged kids, which is of course scary, but anyone who knows Jake could tell that he was made for this kind of parenting! He's big and scary looking but really he's a teddy bear. He doesn't yell; he just says something a certain way and you know he means it. Really, he doesn't hardly talk, so when he says anything you know he means it.

I have always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. But I have student loans. Those are my responsibility, not Jake's. So until those are paid off, I need to have an income. BUT. If we get pre-school aged children, or special needs children, or 3 or more at a time, I will come home. I will keep my night class, but other than that, I will come home. Things will be tight. But that's where our faith and creativity come in :)

We will be putting a bunk bed (preferably with a trundle) and a crib in our 2nd bedroom. So yes, we could potentially have 4 children in one bedroom. Is that cruel? Heck no. Ever been to Europe, or a big city, or the U.S. 30 years ago? It happens. And it's ok. We have a sunroom that will become a playroom, so all they will be doing is sleeping in the bedroom. As the children we take in get older, we'll split up the genders and use the sunroom as a bedroom (the previous owner did this). Or we'll finish the basement. Or something. But as long as we have little kids, there's no reason they can't share a bedroom. And we may only have one at a time anyway.

So there are some random details about what we're getting in to. More to come...