New Foster Child

Originally, I was not planning on taking a new foster placement any time soon. A few reasons:

• My last placement (that left in July) was pretty difficult. 
• I thought I'd be pregnant by now and was leaning towards closing my foster license once my adoption was finalized. 
• I wasn't sure I wanted to continue to foster. 

Life doesn't always work out as "planned." I'm not pregnant (yet). The foster care system in my state is not very good. There are so many children coming into care that children are sleeping at the CPS offices or staying in a placement center. Older kids, young kids, newborns, infants - not enough foster homes, group homes, or shelters for all of them. It's really sad. 

I became a foster parent to help these kids and provide a home for them until they could be reunified with their birth family. With all the planning for my Forever Family C, I wasn't sure if I could change my mind-frame into thinking "temporary" with foster care. 

Last weekend changed all of my hesitations when I found out the need for foster homes is huge. There is a high need for foster homes, higher now more than ever. I just can't keep my foster beds closed when I know I have the time / space / energy to help. 

Technically, I'm licensed for 3 foster beds. Little Guy takes up 1 bed. I am open for 2 additional beds (on paper). I've decided to open up 1 of my beds. 

Placement Criteria

• 1 Child 
• Age Range: 6 weeks old Newborn - 5 months old
• Gender: Male or Female  
• Race: Any Race 

I decided to take a baby, instead of an older child this round. All my older placements have been pretty difficult and I can use a break from that right now. It's still fresh with my difficulties from my last placement. My easiest placements have been the babies.

When I finally decided to open up a bed, I started getting excited about taking in another foster child :)  

Placement Calls

My bed officially opened on 9/14 at 10:00 a.m. I was surprised to not get any calls on the first day.... and then no calls the second day. I was under the impression that there were so many kids coming into the system. My placement criteria was pretty narrow though. I heard there were newborns coming in, but no kids in my age criteria. By the third day of waiting for a placement call, I decided to open it back up to Newborn - 5 months old.

Here are the placement calls I received: 

1. 9/16 @ 9am: 3 day old baby boy. -- Said yes, but placed with other foster home. 
2. 9/16 @ 9:15am: 3 week old boy/girl twins. -- said no. This was a hard choice. I don't think I've ever said "no" to taking a child before... But with TTC and with Little Guy, I could have the potential to have 4 children under 3 years old. That's a lot. I know technically I could do it... but I wouldn't want to not do it well. Plus, don't want to take away from Little Guy at all. Ugh. Hard choices. Hoping these two little ones find a good foster home. 
3. 9/17 @ 2:45pm: 1 month old baby girl -- said yes, placed with another foster home. 
4. 9/18 @ 1:50pm: 3 month old baby boy -- said yes, was chosen for placement, then a relative was found and he was placed with them. 
5. 9/18 @ 3pm: asked if I would take a 3 year old girl, when the 3 month old got placed with a relative - said no. This was outside my age range. I felt bad though... They said she was waiting for a foster home for 6 days :(  I am just not ready to take a toddler right now. 
6. 9/21 @ 10am: 4 month old boy. -- said yes. Got chosen as foster placement and now he's here :) 

What's interesting is they are starting to provide the APGAR number for Newborn placements. They didn't do this previously. 

When I receive placement calls, I can't help but imagine my life with this new little person in it. How our family dynamics will change and how things will be for Little Guy and I. It's an "exciting time" in the sense that we're welcoming a new family member into our home. It's also a "sad time" because that means the child cannot be with their birth family.

Here's to welcoming my 9th foster child!