Becoming Foster Parents

As I mentioned, we had already filled out our paperwork to become foster parents with San Diego county, and a couple of years after Nicklas was born, we decided to continue in that route. We both really thought that would be a great way to have a second child and sibling to Nicklas, AND to help a homeless baby. We wanted one who was younger than a year old thinking we would bond better with her and that she would have gone through less trauma. The good thing with fostering/adoption was that we could decide the sex!

We took all the necessary classes where we learned about being foster parents. The program was called PRIDE (I believe it stands for Parent Resources for Information, Development, Education), a 6 week, 3 hrs each time (total 18 hours) course. We also had to pick another few classes, totaling 6 hrs if I remember it right. All the classes were through Grossmont College, San Diego. Following is a summary of the classes:

Part 1

The first class was about introducing the participants to foster care and adoption. Child welfare agencies are established to protect children and meet theirs needs. They are mandated through legislation by local, state and federal governments, and focus on reducing the risk to children and ensure their safety and well-being. One such way is to place the child in foster care. This provides the child with safety and protects him/her from risk and harm. The long term goal is permanency for the child either by reunification or adoption.

There are many reasons children and families need foster/adoptive services. Some of them are because of alcohol and drug abuse, medical circumstances, physical and/or sexual abuse, neglect, and emotional maltreatment. A child welfare agencies responsibilities are to protect and nurture children, strengthen families, and provide children and families at risk with services and support. We were told that as foster parents there are five competency catogories: Protecting and Nurturing, Meeting developmental needs and addressing developmental delays, Supporting child/birth family relationships, Connecting children to safe, nurturing relationships intended to last a lifetime, and Working as a member of a professional team.

Some of the challenges of fostering is to first of all make the decision to foster. Also, managing the impact on one's own family, sharing decision making with the agency as well as biological parents who still have certain rights even though the child/children do not live with them any more. (To our amusement, we have learned that we cannot have the child's hair cut without the biological parent's agreement. Another issue is that the biological parent still is in charge of is when a child needs surgery. He or she has to sign the paper work the doctor's office send home with you). As a foster parent you also have to help children with their behaviors, such as sadness, anger, abuse, and help them understand their actions and feelings.  

Part 2 - to be continued