A New Kind of Room

There is a new kind of room in the house.  It has two cribs, two car seats, a rocking chair, and a stuffed monkey.  Now don't get too excited, we don't have any adoption plans, but we are expanding our horizons just a little more.  On Friday we had our final home inspection to license for the foster to adopt program.  If you read my post about how intensive the application was for LDS Family Services, take that and times it by three if you want to know what it is like applying to be foster parents.  In addition to the interviews, background checks, etc., Spokane County is especially concerned with your house.  They want you to have beds,car seats, clothing, blankets, etc.  I went to 27 hours worth of training plus a two day CPR certification.  I had to have my external medicines separated from my internal medicines and locked in a box.  I had to have a bath mat and a list of emergency numbers on my fridge.  I had to own a one way CPR mask and have child proof locks on my cleaning cabinet and special cords on my blinds.  I'm telling you--no child is going to have a preventable accident in this house!

We licensed for two children ages 0-2.  The reason we agreed to license for two was so that we could keep siblings together if the situation arose.  I was really nervous to start buying baby supplies. I thought it would be emotional and difficult.  I thought it would be difficult to have an empty nursery in our home.  I thought wrong.

Shopping for baby/toddler clothes was awesome.  My task was to buy clothing for both genders ages 0-2.  Not an easy task.  I've been frequenting my neighborhood child clothing consignment shop--I went a little crazy with the adorable 0-3 month clothes--they're so little! I ended up having to trade them for some older clothing.  I found that little jeans can be just as cute as a newborn onesie.  I've been shopping off Craig's List for cribs, crib mattresses, car seats, high chairs, etc.  It's like a game to see what kind of good deals I can get.

Then has come the task of visiting daycares.  With the foster-to-adopt program there is no guarantee that the children placed in our home will be available for adoption--it is just likely.  So instead of quitting my job as soon as we get a placement and then have the child leave three months later...I'll hold onto my job for awhile longer.  So for now, until we know we will be able to adopt, we'll take advantage of the state paying for daycare.  I feel incredibly guilty just touring daycares.  I always pictured I would stay home and take care of children.  But right now I feel at peace with this plan.

So the room is ready, the background checks are done, the endless training is over...now we are just waiting for our license to go through and then we wait for a placement.  I can't think about it too much or I get a little freaked out--okay--a lot a bit freaked out.  I wish I knew what was going to happen.  I wish I could go to sleep tonight and God would give me a vision of what the next year of my life was going to look like.  But because that is super unlikely, I guess I'll just have to wait it out.  So for now I'm studying What to Expect the Toddler Years, and the American Pediatric Society's Baby's First Year trying to figure out how to take care of a child...

Oh, and did anyone see Inception?  I'm pretty much in love with it.