DHS Stuff Update

For some reason my creativity as taken a nose-dive this afternoon, so I thought I'd bore you all with an update. That's easy enough.

We completed class 8 of 9 this past Tuesday. Yes.. you read that correctly. ONE MORE! My goodness, when we started these classes I thought it would take forever to get through 9 of them, but here we are. It honestly flew by so quickly! I keep asking, "Wow, how did we get here so fast?!" Our last class seems like it will probably be the best. We'll bring snacks, eat cake, and get to ask questions to a panel of foster and adoptive parents, plus some higher ups in DHS. This is what I've been wanting the entire time! I, personally, learn much more from people that can give me real-life examples of what they've gone through, than anything out of a book.

Our last big "to-do" will be completed July 26 (my sister's birthday!) when the ladies come here to do our Home Study. They'll look at our home, make sure it's up to DHS's standards, talk to our kids, yada yada yada. That seems both far off and close by, weird how that works. I'm just ready to be done with this stuff and move on, but the other part of me knows that once we're done with this stuff, we'll be moving on! Exciting and totally frightening!!

Clayton went and fiddled around in the extra closet in Madison's room last night, drew up something, and said he knew what he was going to do now. Fine with me.. just do it so I can hang Emily's clothes up and get them off of her bed. I hate seeing stuff on her bed like that... I'm a "put it away" type of person.

I've spent a lot of time talking to the big kids about what it means for us to become a foster family and answering any questions they come up with. Carter, typical of him, is pretty much like "whatever." He says, "That's good! We can let them stay here forever if they need to!" Madison is more reserved about it. She likes the idea of helping, she is over the thought of having to share space with another kid, and now her only concern is "what if the kid doesn't like it here? What if they're mean?" and things of the sort. I've just explained to her that no matter what, she, Carter, and Samuel are my main concern. No one.. NO ONE will hurt my babies. She feels better knowing that if we get a child that we really cannot handle, we have the option to tell DHS to find them another placement. That isn't something I'd do in haste, or an option I take lightly, but I did want my kids to understand that if push comes to shove - I'll do what I need to to keep our family stable. That's solved her concerns for now, but of course I'm already praying that God will only send us children that we will be able to keep here. I know that being moved around and bounced around is the WORST thing for these poor kids. I don't want to be ANOTHER disappointment to them. I don't want to "try it and see how it goes." We're committed to you if you're in our home.

Things are getting real over here. I am more and more thankful for the other foster families I've met online, and the ones I have in real life. I honestly don't know how people do this with no one to look to for support, answers, and just someone to understand how this feels. So, thanks friends!! All of you!