The Process for Foster/Adoption begins

Once we decided that foster/adopt was the way to go for us we decided to get the ball rolling right away. Turned out that in just a couple of weeks from making the decision that our county was offering the required PRIDE class that would take 30 hours to complete over the course of two weekends. We quickly realized that this would take some sacrifice right away from more than just us. Thankfully Nana & Papa are near by and were willing to take Big Sis for the required weekends in Feb. Big Sis realized the sacrifice on her part when she had to miss her dear friend's birthday party from our old neighborhood. But with a little effort we made a special trip to celebrate just a few day past her birthday. And Brian would probably have to make the most painful sacrifice of all and miss the beloved opening race of the Nascar season - the Daytona 500! Thankfully he had his Blackberry and was able to get updates via the wireless web throughout the day.

Once the classes began reality set in. After the first full day of class Brian and I looked at each other and were in amazement that we were now considered one of "those couples". By that I mean we always looked at people who did foster care as a whole different breed. People who had a strength in which we felt we couldn't even come close to. And yet, here we were by the grace of God embarking on the adventure in becoming those type of people. It was rather strange quite honestly as we felt both humbled and extremely blessed over the course of the next 4 classes. Hearing stories of the abuse that takes place in innocent kids lives and the affects of it is enough to outrage a person. We learned so much information that was also applicable to daily living and we came away feeling more educated, better equipped and more confident that this was really something we wanted and needed to do.

Submitting our packet of information was the next step and it was one that included LOTS of paperwork from background checks, fingerprinting, writing biography's, financial statements, personal information and references. It was a paper mountain that would take us almost a month to finally complete and submit. Then our home study would come next as the final process before being licensed.