Usually it is the mom, or wife, or woman of the house who starts the ball rolling to foster-adopt. Not always of course, but in reading blogs for the last year from people adopting, waiting to adopt and hoping to adopt, rarely do the Dads start the process.

Here’s how I see it happening at least in our house and a few others I know about:

The mom wants to adopt. The dad says:

"Yea whatever". Or "Are you kidding me?"

The mom starts the paperwork and the dad reluctantly follows suit ... more

Our home study has been canceled again. This time due to illness, so it cannot be helped I suppose.

My house has been cleaned from top to bottom twice in the past month. Scrubbed.

Oh well, now its getting so close to Christmas we’ll probably reschedule for January.

I was going to write about each element of the visit and what it was like for us. On this blog I'd share what kinds of questions were asked, and if she opened my underwear drawers, - but those... more

Dare I say success?

I'm almost afraid to blog about it.

So I'll whisper.

My fingerprints are done.

(again)

After reading MommyLis comment about five sets of prints, I was getting discouraged, but today, on a whim in the middle of the day I drove by the police station.

Me shouting from my car to the toothless bag lady leaving:

Is it crowded... more

I got a very nice letter from our agency on Friday. Enclosed was a new fingerprinting card.

Oh oh.

I was really nervous opening up the letter – what happened to Hubby’s prints? Did he have to go again to get fingerprinted?

After the saga of waiting almost three months, taking time off work, getting a speeding ticket, well- you read it all on the blog - I didn’t think I’d have much luck interjecting a new plea into our normal course... more

This is the final post in a series of foster and foster-adopt acronyms.

If you aren't familiar with these, it'll make your head spin the first time you read a report or sit in a family services plan meeting. (FSP)

Do you need to know all of these? Probably not, but I've come around most of these acronyms in the last five years, and I know some of them intimately!

Soon you'll be speaking in alphabet soup as well!

MAF: Medical Assistance to Families

MAS:... more

You don't have to memorize all these. After a while you can almost guess what they stand for.

Maybe someday in my sparetime I'll make up new ones - we could have a contest!....

In the meantime.. In case you were wondering:

D&A: Drug and Alcohol

DA: District Attorney

DCS: Division of Child Support

DD: Developmentally Disordered

DHHS: Department of Health... more

Navigating the system when you're new is a bit stressful. If you don't know the language, it can really be like stepping into a parallel universe.

These definitions will help you get around when you don't understand a word the caseworker, (CW) is saying:

CACG: Child Abuse Challenge Grant

CAD: Cost Allocation Plan

CAN: Child Abuse and Neglect

CAF: Children, Adults and Families. The program area at... more

In my last post I made up this conversation:

BM is coming after the UA for a visit and then we’ll schedule the FSP. Little Jimmy has been diagnosed with ODD and I”m afraid BM has PTSD. Let’s get the CPA to handle the FCR and then call in the GAL.

After reading, one commenter said her head hurt!

Here it comes, the definitions of the alphabet soup DHS uses. (Opps - DHS = Department... more

When Hubby and I took our first CORE training classes, the teacher spoke in initials.

DHS ADD FAS TPR

What? Wait, slow down. At the end of the evening I went home and cried.

Years later I understand now that I wasn’t alone. Most new prospective foster parents seem overwhelmed by the terminology, expectations, and needs of the children.

In the last class we took, I could feel other parents sinking into despair as their hopes and dreams about fostering children took on a new meaning:

... more

It's the day after Thanksgiving and I'm waiting very patiently for Hubby to come home with his fingerprints done!

Whattya think? Will it happen?

It's been quite the saga, and actually we don't even know for sure they are doing fingerprints this morning, - it could be closed – but I couldn't find the phone number to call, and it didn't say on the web site, so he went off early to try again....

I think I'll sit here and give a minute by minute... more