IMPACT CLASS ONE

Well, we made it through our first class! In true Pope fasion, we were a few minutes late. I thought it wouldn't be a big deal since it was supposed to be a small class. Well, there had to have been over 40 people there! The room was completely packed. They had to go get another table for the back of the room for us. So there was no "sneaking" in like we had planned! Luckily, we were not the last people to get there though!
I had thought that the class would drag by, but it went pretty fast. The information was pretty basic this first class. We went over the requirements and all the forms that we need to fill out. They also breifly went over how the process would work for us all. I think they will go over this in more detail once we are assigned a case worker.

We did learn a lot about how kids come into care and why. It is pretty sad to think of what some kids go through and how many times they can be moved back and forth. I can't imagine what it would be like growing up like that. We did a skit to help us understand how the process works from the time the children first come into the state's care all the way to an adoption. I was the alcholic mother who ran from my problems. The skit was interesting and really did help us get a feel for how the system works.

There are currently over 60,000 children in the DFCS system in Georgia alone. Over 200 are in our county. All those children and only about 20 foster homes. The problem is overwhelming.

The class made me want to be a social worker. Their job is so needed. The turnover rate is very high though due to the stress and how the job will never be done.

There were 4 case workers there that each taught different parts of the class. Like I said before, this class had a lot of definitions. They were trying to get us to understand what we were signing up for and how important it is that we take the job seriously.

One of the tasks we did was to draw a picture of what we felt the perfect child would be for us. Andrew and I had a bit of a difference in our idea of the "perfect" child. Let me show you what I mean...

First, my perfect baby.

Now, Andrew's! Notice the increase in amount of "perfect" children!

I think we are going to have to have a talk!
So all in all, the class was good. We were sent home with a list of things that we need to get together along with 2 25 page packets of questions that we both need to fill out before they will assign us a caseworker or start our home study. Of course, mine is completed. Andrew is supposed to start his today.
I have to say, it feels so good to be on our way. Baby Pope, here we come!