IMPACT Class 4

We are finally done with our certification classes!
This last one was pretty fun. We went over the Foster Parents Bill of Rights, watched a video of a former foster child who is now a Chief of Staff in Washington, and went over some of the basic rules and procedures that we will need to know. We will get a big manual with all of that info in it once our home study is approved. The video was so good. Very inspirational. It showed the importance that foster parents have in the children's lives. It made me feel really good about our decision to do this. Which I needed since I was having doubts last week about my capability of handling the child leaving. I definitely feel like I am following God's lead right now.
The best part of the class was the last hour. They had a panel come in to talk to us and to allow us to ask some questions. There was a worker from CASA (an organization that advocates for children in the system) and two foster families. The foster families brought their foster kids with them and it was SO exciting to see actual kids that we could have with us! It's funny, cause they are just normal kids! I don't know what I thought, but you never would have known the things they had been through by seeing them there in the class.
One of the families had a 6 year old, a 2 year old, an 11 month old, a 4 month old, and a 1 month old! I do not see that in our future! They had such a great outlook about the birth families and the children and losing the children. It was great to get to hear stories from people who were really doing it.
I went to see our case worker before we left and we are right on track. We are just waiting for our last couple of reference letters to come back in. We are proud to announce that we do not have a criminal record and the FBI does not know who we are! T is planning on writing our home study on Friday and submitting it for approval next Monday. It then needs to be approved by her 2 supervisors. Once that is done we will be open for business! I asked her if she had any idea how long we had before we could expect placement calls and she told us for sure by the end of the month, possibly in 2 weeks!
I'm glad we may have a week longer then we thought. I could use a Saturday with nothing to do!