Tuesday, August 20, 2013

First Social Worker Visit & Eventful Week with the Kids!

Well we had our initial visit from our social worker last night. I started out a little nervous, mostly because I was so excited and have been looking forward to at least talking to someone about Fostering instead of just reading about it online! She came here at 5pm and didn't leave until past 7! It was very informal and basically we just asked questions and she talked to us about anything and everything.

It was definitely encouraging and a more comprehensive view of what fostering will be like. Overall, we (Adam and I) felt more enthusiastic than ever to go forth with it - our main consideration is the fact that although the agency pays enough for Adam to take it on as his full-time job, that is ONLY when we actually have a child/children in our care. So if we didn't have a placement for 3 months - well, that's no pay for three months. So this means we are going to need to think of some sort of part-time or back-up employment which can be done in times of need. It might be that as soon as we are approved we get 2 children for the next three years. Ideal but we can't rely on hypothetical situations like that to support the family!

After our talk we decided that basically we are going to be open to up to two children (three in emergency) and ages 0-18. Whatever we say we want to get approved for is official - so for example if we said that we wanted one child 0-10, that is ONLY what we would be able to foster in the future. So the social worker said it was best to be open to different opportunities and then base our decision on the case at hand, if that is what we wanted.

We finished with her letting us know that she was going to type up all of her report (she took notes and our application form while she was here) and submit it to her supervisor on Thursday. She said they will then make a decision about whether or not they would continue with the assessment and be in touch - she said she would be recommending us!

All in all she was great to have here and I hope that she remains as our assessment social worker for the next step, assuming all goes well. She said she might be but it isn't for sure as of yet. So for now we wait for them to tell us what is next! The process from here will take roughly four months, with weekly visits from the social worker and things like medical examinations, criminal record checks, health and safety checks for our home, etc. We have a three-day training course to go on (as well as lots of other training courses) which we will find out more about shortly.

Meanwhile, I'll be looking after my two crazy kids who keep me so busy that some days I think "what are we DOING??" This week has been insane, Liliana got a bash on her head and has four teeth coming in. We are exhausted! Thankfully this is not the norm and I cannot WAIT for her teeth to come through so this can be over.

Today I'm off to take Reuben to preschool, help out a friend this morning and then need to make 24 muffins for our local church's holiday club (like VBS). Realistically, all I want to do is sleep. Or drink coffee. But mostly sleep.

Please keep your prayers coming regarding our decision to move forward with fostering. It is such an exciting time, and I just pray that we find a way to make the financial side of it work out - there are so many ways in which we feel this is the right time to do this and I feel like we need to do whatever it takes.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Sara! I'll be sure to keep you in my thoughts! I'm Heather and I was hoping you would be able to answer my question about your blog! My email is Lifesabanquet1(at)gmail(dot)com :-)

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