Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Moving Right Along: A Foster Licensing Update

We mentioned, forever ago, that we would keep you posted on our progress with getting our foster license. And then, we never did. We didn't because, well, not much was happening beyond paperwork, interviews and classes, so we figured we would update all at once.

I'm happy to say that TONIGHT is our last PS-MAPP class (a 10-week class you are required to take that walks you through all you need to know and all you may experience with foster care). It is an informative class, but it is a 3 hour class for 10 weeks, which gets a bit long, boring, and old. That said, we learned a lot and are excited to put what we learned into practice.

It's exciting to be DONE with classes after tonight because once classes are done, they really try to push you through the process as fast as possible. And we are so blessed to have a licensing worker who is determined to get this done quickly.

We have filled out all the necessary paperwork, which if you're curious, is stacks and stacks of paperwork. They ask questions ranging from personal information, to family backgrounds, to criminal history, to finances. I gotta hand it to them, they are very thorough. I think they now know more information about us than we know about ourselves.

We have also had a few interviews (about ourselves and our marriage) with our licensing worker. They conduct the interviews to put together our home study, which we need before we can receive our license.

All we have left is another interview or two, a house inspection (which our house is all ready for, we are just waiting to get to that part of the process), have our references be interviewed, and then, we wait for our license. They are thinking we should be licensed by the end of the year...YIPPEE!

If you are looking to get licensed, I would say that the process is pretty idiot-proof, it just takes a little bit of time (both time doing things required of you, and time waiting patiently for them to do what they need to do). If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!