Preparing

Our license will allow us to take in two children.  Specifically, we had siblings in mind when we decided to take two.   If anything ever happened to require our bio children to enter foster care, heaven forbid, we would want our kiddos to stay together, so that was the motivation behind our decision.  So many siblings sets are split up because foster families can't/won't take more than one child.  Breaks my heart.

We have a bedroom upstairs that has, until now, been a gathering place, really.  There used to be a futon, night stand and armoire....plus a plethora of children's toys/games/books, oh and a foosball table.  This will now be our fosterling's bedroom. 

The walls are tan...and I'm leaving them tan.  It's neutral.  We never know who we'll get.  We thought it'd be easy to buy gender-specific bedding/wall décor when we got a placement.  Either that, or we'd figure out a way to decorate a completely neutral room.

We sold the futon.  We put the foosball table in the attic.  We cleaned the room and set up the twin size bed I grew up on.  I bought a pack n play from a friend, in case we got a baby.  I just had no idea how to really prepare.

The room was essentially ready to go...were we?

The Wait

Once we received our letter of approval, we anxiously awaited the call that we were needed.

I really hadn't had a reason to sleep without my phone being on silent....until this point.  A LOT of calls for children needing a home come in the wee hours of the morning.  There are a multitude of reasons for that, nevertheless, it was time to turn the ringer on 24/7.

I've never gone to bed on pins and needles before.

Just waiting....

Licensed

After the classes.

After the home study. 

After the background checks. 

After the fingerprinting. 

After the reference checks. 

We finally received our approval and we're now official, licensed foster parents as of May 26, 2014.