Foster Care Questions Answered

A few weeks ago we told all of our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram friends and fans to send us their questions about Foster Care. We are an open book and want to raise awareness and keep you all as informed as we can. With each question that we can bring clarity, one more person may become one step closer to advocating, supporting or foster parenting.

Here are the questions we received:

Do I have to own my home to be a foster parent?
I have been asked this numerous times. A lot of people have been told that they need to own their home. This is not true. You need to be able to provide a stable and adequate home for a child. You can rent or own. As long as you have enough room, your living situation is stable and pass the home study, you are ready to go.

I'm a single working mom. So I can't foster, right?
Wrong. Eight of you actually asked this question. Eight! Not sure if this used to be a law or not but it is a very common one. Since it is somewhat of two questions, let's break it down.
Single:
You can be married or single to foster. From what I have heard is that some states will not certify homes that have unmarried people living together, with exceptions to relatives. This may be where the misunderstanding comes from.
Working:
Working outside of the home does not disqualify you either. You will need to find a qualified day care or school for your foster children while you are at work. That's it. Same as you would for a biological child. In some states and counties the daycare can be subsidized, in others, it will be your responsibility (that's where the monthly stipend comes in handy)

My husband is on active duty in the military, will that hinder us?
This one, I had to do my research a bit. After asking around it seems like it really just depends on where you are located. Even within the same state, different counties have different rules and standards. If you are a military family interested in fostering, I would say the first step would really just be to call a local agency and find out the counties rules.

I don't think I could handle dealing with the parents. How do you do it?
Okay, let's get real and personal. This started out as being one of my biggest struggles. Going in, I had no doubt I would love the kiddos but their bio parents, I was worried I would hate not like them.
It takes lots of prayer. LOTS. Being a foster parent has taught me a lot about love and forgiveness and a lot of that is because of dealing with birth parents.
I am not going to lie and say it is easy. It's not. But after praying for them, God has given me a glimpse into what their lives may have looked like. To have a little bit of sympathy for what they must face and feel. The first few months after our placement of Little Man, I was so angry at his parents. Now my heart hurts for them. I pray for them always and think I will continue to even if we adopt him. I went in wanting nothing to do with them and at this point I kind of want to keep them posted somehow after the case is all done and over.

What do I need to do to become a foster parent?
Your first step is going to be to contact a foster agency or your local DCFS (Deptartment of Children and Family Services) they will get you the info you need.To become certified you will need to:

• Complete the Training (we did ours in like 4 weekends at our agency)
• Complete CPR and First Aid certification.
• Everyone over 18 in your home will need to be livescanned (cleared through state and FBI), we needed to have 2 live-scans each, one foster and one adoption. In California, you need to be certified for both.
• Have a completed home study. This included a safety check of your home, with a long list of things that must be done. It also includes an "interview" with each member of the family.
• Have a physical. Include TB test.
• Provide references
• Keep up to date with 15 hours of training annually

I think that covers it all.

I only want babies. Is that possible?
Yes, it is. When filing out paperwork and speaking with your agency, you can be as specific as you would like. You need to make sure that a child would fit well into your family. If an age specification is what you think would be best for you and the child, by all means yes. It is actually recommended that any child placed with you be younger than the youngest child in your home.
Keep in mind when laying out your specifics (age, gender, ethnicity, ect.) that the more you narrow it down, the longer and harder it will be to find a placement.

These are all of the questions we received in the past few weeks. Thank you so much for showing so much interest. These babies need to be fought for and your interest warmed my heart. Please, please continue to ask questions. We would love to answer you privately and post any continued questions and answers monthly or weekly depending on how many we get.

Continue to pray for foster children, orphans, and the families that are caring for them.