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Monday, May 12, 2008

Home Study

Tonight we have a social worker coming for a "home study." This is the last step in the foster care application, so (hopefully) after today we could start taking in kids at any time. It's been a long process (partly our own fault for taking so long on the paper work), and it's exciting that it's finally coming to a close. But I'm also nervous. Last week was tough with my own kids and I kept thinking "How am I ever going to do this? I can hardly keep up with my own kids." But amazingly, sometimes adding a couple more kids to the mix actually makes it a little easier - the kids play together and keep each other busy so they're not bugging ME so much. The problem is when the kids don't get along and they're fighting and whining all day. Anyway, I am having nervous doubts, but I know it's just the natural feelings that you get when you're starting something new.

I sort of feel like we're being sent out onto the mission field. We've been planning and thinking about it for a couple years, and now, here we are. After tonight I imagine it could be anywhere from a matter of hours or days, up to months before we get any kids because you just never know what's going on out there. We have a somewhat specific criteria of kids we'll take, due to our current family structure. We're only taking kids ages 1-5, mostly. They need to be able to share a room with our little girls. And probably we'd take boys on the younger end of that, but the older they are, the less likely we are to take a boy. Also, there were like 9 other families that have just completed their applications (one of the licensing lady's told me that when we were trying to schedule our home study), so that's another reason it might take some time before we actually start getting kids. But then again, it could be tomorrow!

Anyway, we'd really appreciate all the prayers we can get, especially as we begin this process. We went through a lot of training and classes, so we feel somewhat prepared, but it's one of those things you never know quite what to expect until you're in it.

Some people think we're crazy taking in kids right now, when we already have kids of our own. The thing is, I feel like, we already have kids, our house is child proof, we're used to the messiness, we have lots of toys and clothes, so it seems natural to me to just add a couple more. Yes, it will make things a bit more chaotic (ok, maybe a lot more chaotic sometimes), but overall, I think this is the perfect time for us to do it. I don't want to wait until my kids are grown and gone, and then start all over again. Besides that, I love the idea of exposing my kids to the concept of giving and reaching out. I want them to be involved in the process. It will be somewhat of a sacrifice on their part too, but I think they will learn that other kids don't have it as good as they do, and that as part of our community, there IS something we can do to help those in need around us.

That's all for now... we'll keep you posted.

1 comment:

  1. that's great jeannine! you should probably be raising support too, huh?

    ReplyDelete