Becoming a foster parent is exhausting.
Tanner and I have just completed the 2nd of 8 4-hour classes required to become foster, and hopefully adoptive parents and let me tell you....there is A LOT to do! Will it be worth it? I've been told it is and I really, really hope so...it's so much! But if we're able to help one little person, it'd be worth it all.
Here's the 'short list' of our preparations....
1. Get a home phone
2. 3 first aid kits of 60 pieces each
3. a SPECIFIC fire extinguisher, that's TOUGH to find
4. a crib set up
5. A bunk bed set up
6. 2 empty dressers
7. our kiddos sharing a room
8. a new van that seats at least 7
(bought it Thursday for $3500 big ones and it's AWESOME, we can tell Heavenly Father is blessing us in the process.)
9. Get yet another baby gate for all of our millions of stairs
10. Lock up every chemical and pill or something that looks like a pill, under lock and key
11. Build a railing around our front porch
12. Have an available car seat of every size...just in case we get a kiddo that size
13. Re arrange all of our storage in the basement over 2 more feet so it's not within 4 ft of our furnace (even though there's a wall between the two)
14. provide copies of life, home, health, auto insurance, marriage certificates, W2s, tax returns, pay stubs, CPR training...I know I'm missing something....
15. THEN after all of that, they can decide whether or not we're good enough parents personality wise, so ya we could do all of it and never be placed with a child.
But, what keeps me going? What makes us buy more car seats than one could dream up?
Thinking about where my future child might be right now, when he or she might have had their last meal, how many times he or she might be yelled at, hit at, spanked, completely forgotten, and sadly...worse....
There are little ones out there who need a safe haven, and I don't care how many baby gates I need to find, if I can help just one little person, I'll do it ten times over.