First Steps

I needed some phone number the other day, and I vaguely remembered having scribbled it in my date book.   Flipping back over the past few months, I saw that I had the monthly foster care info session written down each month for the past 3 months.  February it had snowed out of nowhere (ok, not that snow is unexpected in New England in February, but this past winter was crazy warm-- and one of the TWO time it snowed (the other being the Halloween Blizzard...), it was the night of the foster care info session.  Then in March, I had a hearing run late-- probably not too late, just late enough that doing something else that night seemed exhausting (there's been a lot to learn this year-- I'm looking forward to doing it again next year with 2000% more clue...)

As it happened, the April event was that night.  And, having seen the history of the intent in my calendar, I felt pretty committed to having the third time be the charm.  If nothing else, I write in pen in my calendar, and 4 months running of the same appointment would knock down all that "getting things DONE!" pride that I got for getting my taxes in NOT AT THE LAST MINUTE.

Yeah, it's been a little "CLEAN ALL THE THINGS!" around here lately...

All of which is to say, I went to the info session.  Which was more like a conversation with the recruiter, since I was the only one there.  So, I'm not really sure what her spiel would have been with more folks-- by asking questions more or less off the bat I got her to skip most of the demographic info (because I had spent an hour studying the 2011 numbers in my shiny new RI Kids Count Factbook last week) and basic overview of how the child protective and court systems work.

Most of my questions were either the logistical (lead inspections, how does transportation to visits work, can you let friends and family babysit when needed, how do you get approved to be a child's educational advocate) and broad (have you seen working single people do this successfully, is this crazy for me to be considering???).  I was a bit relieved to be the only one there when she brought up a few "things people usually ask."  For instance:

- "Why would you ever want the kids to return to their parents?  Aren't their parents terrible people?"
- "How many white kids are in foster care?"
- "Can I have a healthy baby to be all mine forever?" (Ok, she didn't phrase it that way, but I got the distinct sense that she felt like she had to manage my expectations in that department because of my race and age-- of course the thirty-something white woman is just pretending to want to foster to try to get a baby.)

The big thing for me is in my own court, though-- I need to settle my living arrangement more before I can take the next step.  Most concrete is that I can't do this living in the firehouse-- at a minimum, I need a second bedroom.  But being some place a little more walkable and with a park nearby would be a good plan too.  I also need to do some network-expanding and getting my own support structures set up-- get a stable local doctor, etc.

One option would be to hold off on this for another couple years, and arrange things to move back to DC, which has the big bonus of family nearby.  But I think I don't want to put this on hold that long.  So, I'm going to start moving towards this.  The next licensing class is in the autumn, and my plan is to be there.