Where I am in the process

In my last post I talked about a woman that needed someone to take care of her daughter while she is incarcerated.  The end result in that matter is that the little girl ended up going to the grandmother, which is a great thing for all parties involved.  The hardest thing is that grandma lives out of country and therefor had to take the little girl with her and the mother will not get to see her little girl again until she is finished in prison.

There was a twist to the story in the sense that the mom might get extradited out of the country and be able to finish her sentence in her home country and that would be great for her daughter as well as for the new baby due in May.  If she does not go to her country when the new baby is born, she is going to need someone to take the new baby for her until she finishes her sentence and is able to go to her home country.

I talked to her before she was incarcerated and gave her my information if she needs me to help with the new baby when it is born and she was going to pass the information on to her lawyer.  I doubt I will ever get a call and I hope for her sake that she is sent to her home country and does not have to have her baby here and be separated from it.

In regards to my status on becoming a foster parent.....

I had to complete a financial statement and send it in to the foster care agency that I am talking to.  The reason why I needed to complete a financial statement is because I am a full time student and do not work.  The agency wanted to make sure that I have enough money to support myself and my boys and am financially able to be a foster parent.  I let a week or two pass before I called the agency to see if they received my paper work.  I left a message for the woman I spoke to last time and got a phone call yesterday from the woman that I will be in contact with from now on.  I am going to refer to her as CW (caseworker) from this point forward.  CW told me that she is sending me a packet in the mail that will have all the paperwork I need to fill out and have ready for my orientation on January 10th.  I will then be in PRIDE classes till the 29th of January and have my 32 hours completed and be able to start the next phase in the process.

I need to have some references and I have spoken to three people so far and am hoping that is enough, if not then I have two more people that I can talk to about giving me a reference.  It is really hard to get references when you haven't lived somewhere very long!!

I am really excited about all of this and am hoping that since I will complete my PRIDE classes in a few weeks instead of 9 weeks like I would have if I would have gone through the state that all of this goes a little bit faster.  I am so excited to start the process and be able to open my home to a little love bug.

How long did it take you from start to finish to become licensed?  How long did it take you to get your first placement?

I would love to get as much information from you guys as possible :)

Also, what is your experience with going through the state or going through an agency?  At first I was going to go through the state but they don't even know when they are going to be offering PRIDE classes next and they seem to move at a snails pace compared to this agency.


Merry Christmas everyone!!