Saturday, December 10, 2011

HOME STUDY DAY

So the big homestudy day finally arrived. After a week of cleaning ...followed by children and dogs immediately re-messing.....the house looked pretty much like it always looks! Mrs. Cristal arrives safely at our house at 1:30. We begin with the walk -through where she tells me that even though my kitchen knives are locked with a child proof lock , an older child would be able to figure that out and they really need to be in the tackle box locked with a key on top of the fridge with the prescription meds. OK I am thinking we are not off to a great start. But she checked the bathrooms, bedrooms, gun safe, cleaning supplies, fire extinguisher, exit plans for fire, emergency numbers, and animals  and found no other problems. Actually we even convinced her she needed some guineas along the tour. LOL 
Then we come the part where we all sit down at the table to talk and fill out paperwork (again). The girls are dismissed to their room to watch TV while Lee and I are interviewed for about 2 hours or so. Then the girls are called down to the table to be interviewed while Lee and I are banished to their room (cause we could hear from our own room). Lee and I used this opportunity to check all text messages on Haley and Sam's phones and to change their phone background to a picture of their parents! (they really appreciated this)
After about another hour or so we are called back to the table and the girls are re-banished to their room, only this time she wants to interview Lee and I separately. 
Then somewhere around 5:30 she called it a night. Said our assessment would be a pleasure to write and ,although the final decision belongs to DCFS, she sees no reason whatsoever why we won't be opened as a foster home. Then she informed us she has 45 days to write the assessment and to expect it to be done sometime around February . All in all it went very well! 
Now I just have to get the caseworker at Washington county to return my messages so I can schedule 3 hours worth of training, schedule physicals for the entire family, and find out who and when to turn in the rest of the paperwork I have filled out.
We expect to get our first foster child around February or March. And while we are remaining open for adoption to the right child, we plan to be foster parents to however many children need us, first.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Preparing for home study

We have one more class on Dec 3rd and the Saturday classes will be finished! And our home study is scheduled for Dec 9th. We did find out our area 1 caseworker is resigning tomorrow. Hopefully this will not be a major setback for us. We have to start working with someone from DHS who we don't know at all and doesn't know us now. But before that happens we have to pass the home study and get through the final class. In preparation for the home study I now have the safest home in the world. (ridiculously so) As per DHS policy my kitchen knives are locked up, medications are locked up, my deer are getting a combination lock put on their pen, my cleaning supplies are locked up, LOL I am a bit surprised my kids don't have to be locked up! And in addition to that we now have a chore chart, house rules, fire/tornado plan, and emergency numbers posted all over the walls! Fire extinguishers and smoke detectors are good to go.... Now assuming I have time to actually clean my house again, and Lee has time to clean the garage again, I think we are as ready as we can be!

Monday, November 7, 2011

TURNING 95!

This weekend was largely spent preparing for and celebrating my grandma's 95th birthday! 
Things I've learned about living to be 95:

1- your grandchildren can do no wrong.....great grandchildren even less than that!
2- you prefer vegetables to cake
3-you have the unique ability to say random things to people that should (if said by anyone else) be offensive , but from you they are neither intended to be, or taken as offensive.
A-asking people at wal-mart where to find the nigger-toes (chocolate candy)
B--yelling at the guy stocking potatoe chips cause he is obviously putting them out of your reach on purpose
4-if your heater stops working you have no problem calling your son in Oklahoma ,who was the last one to mess with it, at 5 am.....(he then in turn calls your granddaughter in kingston LOL)
5- you love visits from other people and their pets, but nothing is gonna compare with your cat (and you didn't even used to be a cat person)

My grandma had a huge part in raising us, as she lived next door our whole childhood. She was always the favorite babysitter, cook, nurse, and problem solver growing up. I owe her more than I could ever repay and it's because of this I don't mind 5 am phone calls to help her, or taking her shopping and watch her yell at the chip stocker. I pretend to like vegetables too when I'm over there! I know that to her nigger-toes will always be chocolate creme drops and she is in no way a racist. And her cat really is quite great!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

And the classes begin.....

And we have now completed sessions 1,2, and 3 of the required training. I am loving the classes. they are very informative and not at all boring like we had heard from some people. We did change our goals somewhat from the beginning --adopt only--- to our current --foster care---status. We plan to remain open to potentially adopt a foster child that comes into our home and is unable to reunite with their parents. However, we want to help as many children as possible , as soon as possible and we want to avoid being put on a waiting list for kids whose parental rights are already terminated. The current need in our area is more for foster parenting so thats the route we chose.
We had our first meeting as a couple with our class teacher who is also gonna do our final home study and write up the recommendation to child and family services on whether or not to open us as a foster home.  It did not seem to go well. It was very stressful and I was so nervous and felt "put on the spot". I am a little afraid I did not answer some of her questions like she wanted and I am currently pretty upset about it. Hoping and praying that this meeting today does not interfere with the process. She gave me no real feedback on the meeting so I am possibly just assuming the worst, but I'm stressed all the same.  We both want this so much and I just hope it all works out in the end.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Porter animals






Our animals are an important part of our family so..I thought they should be a part of our blog! First is Otto, We adopted him last February from the CARE rescue center in Springfield MO, and this picture captures his personality perfectly...high energy always on the go. Next is Munchkin we adopted him several years ago at the shelter in Eureka Springs AR, He's the guard of the house, the children, the other animals, he's anything but fierce...unless you're a wild animal trying to catch a chicken! The next one is Sadie she's the only girl dog. And this one is fierce! She has taken out several ankles over the years! Scooter is the chihuahua and the first dog I ever had in my house. He sleeps about 23 hours a day and loves to cuddle! Then there is an assortment of chickens, turkeys, and guineas that keep the bugs out of the yard and provide fresh eggs daily. Last but not least are Reno and Janie our sweet deer. They have come such a long way since we got them. Taming down very nicely.  And this is our animal collection!

Monday, September 26, 2011

CLASSES

We got a letter over the weekend inviting us to register for PRIDE training. PRIDE training is a 27 hour course done over several weeks that you must complete before you are eligible to foster or adopt. I am very excited to announce we have officially registered for the classes that begin in October in Harrison! From October 8th thru Dec 3rd our Saturdays will be spent training. I am told this training is very informative and interesting, so we shall see! This will be the next huge step for us!  Lee is ever so excited (insert sarcasm here) that it just happened to fall during deer season. However, he's giving up the biggest part of his hunting season to prepare for our future son. What a great dad he is and will be! 
Now all I have to do is figure out how to have 3 birthday parties for the girls and plan for Christmas while giving up every Saturday....:)

Thursday, September 22, 2011

The newest adventure

Lee and I were married in October 2004 after dating a whole 2 months and 4 days!  He brought to the marriage a lovely 6 year old daughter and I brought 2 lovely daughters ages 4 and 8 . Believe it or not our blended family blended very nicely and even now at ages 11, 13, and 14 they don't refer to each other as step-sisters but only as sister. 
Recently Lee and I have felt a calling to foster parent and adopt another child. There's so much red tape to get approved, so many mountains to be moved, and such a realization that without fully relying on God, I would lose my mind in the process. 
Our journey to adoption/ fostering began officially on July 19th at an inquiry meeting with DHS. At said meeting I asked tons of questions and brought home my first packet of paperwork to fill out....thus beginning the process! This is the part I would describe as akin to finding out you're pregnant. Sure the stick has 2 lines and you're happy, BUT  the irrational "what if's" kick in immediately and you don't wanna tell people before you're reasonably sure everything is gonna be ok. After background checks are notorized and fingerprinting done and so on, we get to fill out a form telling dhs what kinds of children we will or will not accept. (big advantage over a pregnancy here) So Lee and I happily discuss what we think we can and can't handle on issues like race (any is fine), gender (boy),age (2-9) ,birth defects , etc.
Then step 2, the home study, happened on August 3rd. More paperwork. In fact I got a stack bigger than the first to fill out! Initial home study went well. There was a couple things we had to do like get a septic test done and put up or lock up all things sharp (including kitchen knives). She took our background checks and said they should be processed in about 2 weeks. About 5 weeks later we had background checks back!  Now for the next mountain. Classes are offered Tues and Thurs. Classes are required to adopt thru the state. Lee drives a truck Mon- Thurs. and cannot afford a 6 week vacation to take classes.  I find out Harrison has weekend classes. Our caseworker gets midsouth to forward our info to Little Rock where they schedule the classes for Harrison. (yeah that might make your head spin if you overthink it!) As it stands now we should get an invitation to a Saturday only class in Harrison within the next few weeks.  In the meantime we have to form a full support group of babysitters and support people. Each member of said group has their own huge packet to fill out. And references and tons of other paperwork. 
And then there's the waiting....lots of waiting (probably more than if we were actually pregnant) to hear what our next move will be. So now we wait for an invite to the required  classes. And we learn patience. Which just so happens NOT to be a skill I was born with! And we know that ultimately God is in control, and it will all work all like it's supposed to, and we keep the faith that our foster children and our future son will all arrive someday not too far away!