Two Down, Two to Go!

We have successfully survived the second day of PRIDE training (concluding a little early even this last Saturday!). My mom, Patrick's mom and Patrick's sister joined us for their required attendance to help us with babysitting needs. It was an interesting class for sure. We had a new instructor join us and spent a good portion of the morning sharing stories about her personal experiences as a Foster Mom. She certainly has a good idea of what it takes to care for these children. She is in the process of adopting her current foster child. She is two now and "Mama Tricia" got her when she was eight months old.

In between classes this last week, we went and had our fingerprints done ($88.40 later!) and we also worked on our homework for the next class. Patrick made some oreo balls and sausage balls for us to take to class with us as our contribution to lunch - we decided as a class on a pot luck style lunch that would allow us to continue to work through while we ate. It really worked out very well!

We spent the entire day on the 19th going over the difference between discipline and punishment and the punishment restrictions CPS has for foster parents. Of course, we are not allowed to spank our foster children. We can't restrain them in any way (unless they are posing specific harm to themselves or others) and we can't lock them in their room. The things these children have already been through to get to this place would really dictate that this is common sense. It appeared that our fellow classmates agreed. We were given some appropriate forms of punshiment for breaking rules, etc. Of course, each child is different and will require a different approach. It is very interesting to me how the state determines what the "best practices" should be. I don't agree with all of them, but of course, we must follow them.

We are looking forward to next weekend and hope to continue to learn more and more about this process.

Thanks again fo your continued love, prayers and support.

PRIDE Training - The first day!

This last Saturday started at 7:45 am as we got up, got dressed, fed the animals and hopped in the car to Fort Worth for Day 1 of the PRIDE training. We were both a little nervous about what to expect and what information we would learn and the people we would meet. We got to the building off Lancaster in downtown Fort Worth, got out and walked into the room and discovered we were going to have a very full class - there wasn't one seat left after everyone got there! We sat at a table with a lovely couple looking to foster/adopt. The husband is from Germany so I embarrassed myself with the very little bit of German I do know. The other person we sat with is going through the kinship program. She is going to be adopting a family member. It is an interesting mix of individuals. After some (tedious...I mean fun!) paperwork, we got started on our first lesson. We did some teamwork activities intended for us to get to know eachother and to just break the ice. My favorite is the 5 C's. Our instructor asked us to write down our favorite Color, Car, Cuisine, Character and Closet Dream. Then she drew the slips of paper out of an envelope and we went around the room trying to guess whose paper she was reading off of. I was the first one drawn and Patrick's was the second one drawn! I threw everyone off and only had one person guess that it was me. Everyone thought it was Patrick! The best part, my character was Pooh Bear (because Patrick kinda looks like Pooh Bear - in a good way of course) and the class called Patrick Pooh Bear the rest of the day! :) Yes! They also nominated him to be the spokesperson for us to decide how we wanted to take breaks and eat lunches. We of course chose to take breaks as needed and to bring our lunch and work through so we can get through as many lessons as possible as quickly as possible.

Saturday ended with completing 3 lessons - I believe there is 10 total. We took home our homework (shoot, I still have to work on that!) and our mounds of paperwork - thank the Lord we have already done most of it and turned it in. We did get a surprise in that some of the process is a little different than we were originally told, but nothing a little rearranging of schedules won't fix.

We certainly have just scratched the surface. Next Saturday proves to be an interesting one as we dig deeper into our training and Patrick's mom, my mom and Patrick's sister join us for the training class. Nothing like a room full of teachers to make for an interesting lesson!

Still no updates on the dates we might be bringing home our first child. They are required to have our home stuidy complete within 30 days of graudating from the PRIDE class (the last day is May 3rd). So it could be the middle of May or it could easily be June. We continue to pray for an approval of the home study and a fast and easy process. In the mean time, we go to class, clean the house for the fire inspection and keep waiting!

Thanks again for your support and prayers. More to come later!

Getting Closer!

So as we approach the first day of our PRIDE training class (4/12), we are still working on getting the nursery complete and working on our "projects" to keep ourselves busy.
We found out today the social worker who is completing our file has received the packet we sent her. She has already begun working on it (sending out reference forms and setting up our background checks and fingerprinting)! This means of course the deep dive into everything personal about ourselves has begun! We are preparing to bear all....

We have also finished registering for the things that we need that we can at least identify right now. Of course the age of the babies we foster will determine what we really need, but for now, we have some good basics. We are registered at Target and Babies R Us (We are kind of excited to be able to say that actually!) We want to thank everyone who have already "donated" some very essential items to us already. We are very thankful for your support whether it be in items, financially or emotionally - we appreciate it all.

The nursery is almost complete, we are almost ready to invite the City of Arlington Fire Department to do a fire inspection of our home and we are officially 4 days away from the first day of training!

We will be sure to post our experience with the training thus far once we get done with day 1. Till then, thanks and God bless!