I never made it official here on our blog, but we did get our Foster 101 course completed Saturday! We had priorly been told upon exiting we immediately would be put on the placement bed list (their name for it not mine!) however the trainer told us that chances are we won't be put on it until Monday at the earliest, Friday at the latest whenever "someone" decides to do their job (her words not mine!). We were currently on the list as color coded as yellow which means "on hold" and need to be switched to "green" which is active. I emailed our resource manager Monday to make sure all contact numbers were in place (our trainer told us all to do this) and she got back to me immediately stating our numbers are now updated and all in the placement bed list computer system and that she is forwarding our name to her supervisor so she can have us go green on the placement bed list since we finished our last course. So are we on the list as of this moment? We don't know! I'm assuming within the next few days we will be officially changed to green.
I have had several people inquire into how long our wait will be realistically before we get our first placement(s). We don't know that either! We have a pretty wide age range and are open to up to 2 children, preferably siblings or possibly unrelated children. It all depends on what types of placements are needed and if a child or children fit our specifics we outlined with our home study worker. When children come into the system they immediately go through triage at the local hospital with the child's appointed social worker. While that is all going on a call is put into the placement department and they put all the child's specifics into the bed list: race, age, gender, health, needs, family situation, etc. into the computer system and up will pop the bed list of all available foster homes with beds open in which the child fits the characteristics of what those foster families are open to. The start going down the list calling to find a foster family that will agree to take the child placement. If no answer they will leave messages however will continue on down the list of families until someone calls back or someone answers and agrees to take the placement based on the information they have and that is available. Children are tiered in our system based on their needs as Level I, II, and III. As new foster parents we are able to take in Level I and II children, however Level III children are intense special needs and require extra training if we were open to taking in such children in the future.
Now all we can do is just wait for a call, find out what we can, then decide if we will accept the placement. We were told generally families will only accept 1 out of 4 placements calls so it is not unusual to pass on a child or children we may not feel equipped to care for, may be bad timing for us in our lives, or we may want to be more picky with our age group or gender etc. There is no specific time frame for us to go off of, it all depends on the wave of children that come in to social services needing immediate homes. It was mentioned several times it seems like large floods of children tend to come in all at once so you may not get any calls for weeks then suddenly all these calls suddenly! It is a guessing game so your guess is good as ours! We could get a call today (if we are on the list as green) or next week or next month! We pray for the wisdom when we do receive our first call and for clear discernment on if the placement is a good placement for us or not based on the small snippet of information available.
In other news, Meeko loves cuddling with Mary! She came over yesterday and the pups always enjoy running after her around the house. Unfortunately she tripped and ran right into a wall with her femur and it was already bruising within minutes :( We also had an incident that Tucker got ahold of some raisins that had fallen off of the fridge. I remembered how raisins and grapes are the most toxic for dogs so we considered inducing vomiting. Raisins are more potent than grapes because they are dehydrated so do not have the added water and have been known to cause kidney failure and once it starts not even a vet can stop it and generally euthanizing needs to be done otherwise it's a painful death. We know he did not eat too many as he was only in the kitchen for a little while and there were few raisins left in the box to begin with however we figured he likely ate less than 10 if he even had eaten 1. Our dogs with things they aren't familiar with tend to play with new things in their mouths and spit them out several times and paw at it for a while before they finally eat it. When Brian went in to check on him he had one in his mouth and was chewing like a horse on it! I called two emergency vet offices and in the end decided not to induce the vomiting for fear of creating another problem and just wait and see. It was a long night of little sleep and worrying, however as of noon today he seems his normal spunky self, eating, pottying, and being the clown he normal is!
Prior to the raisin eating episode, Tucker tried out our new wheels! No not for him, we aren't that crazy! My uncle, and godfather, surprised us a few months ago with a brand new Graco double convertible stroller when he found out we were becoming foster parents and open to up to 2 kids at once. We have a single stroller I bought on clearance a while back but this thing is the real deal! It also so happens we have Graco snugride car seats that were given to us that actually attach to this stroller so it's perfect! The stroller is a convertible one as the back seat that faces you as you push can come off and there is a bench seat for an older child under they can sit on as well as a place they can stand and ride on the black back platform. You can also fit up to two snugride carseats clipped into it or any combination so it will be adjustable for us as we have different placements and expand our family. We decided to put it together and make sure it would fit folded up in both of our trunks before the exchange policy ended and it fit perfectly for both of us! Another added blessing we are so thankful for and know will be put to great use!
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