Interaction

Ronnie and I are going through a wonderful Agency to help us along this journey toward Foster Adoption. They are a Christian Agency that helps families, like ourselves, prepare to become licensed Foster and Adoptive Parents. This Agency has been there every step of the way and is really helping us to get licensed as quickly as possible. Part of their requirements for families are doing "interactive hours" with Foster and Adoptive Children. Just as student teachers do interactive hours with students before they start teaching, I think it's just as important for prospective Foster Families to have some interaction with actual Foster Kids before they become licensed and bring these kids into their homes. Last weekend we each did our first 5 hours with about 25 Foster Kids and it was a blast:) We got to play with the kiddos, do arts & crafts, take them to the park, feed them dinner, and help rock some babies to sleep. We were definitely exhausted by the end of the night, but it was worth it. There was one baby in particular that absolutely loved Ronnie. He started out holding her at the beginning of the night and she was in Heaven:) In fact, she wouldn't let anyone else hold her the rest of the evening, myself included. It was fun to watch him talking to her, playing with her and rocking her to sleep. It was such a beautiful image and I can't wait to see him as a father. This weekend we have another event to earn more interactive hours. We'll be playing outdoor sports, carnival games, and having a picnic with other Foster Families and their kiddos. Should be lots of fun!

Onto other news... our Home Study is scheduled for NEXT WEEK! We have almost everything ready in our house for the Study, but we still need to buy another bed, 3 mattresses and 2 trundle mattresses. Wow, that's a bit much, isn't it... We covet your prayers as we enter into this next week. The Home Study is such an important step in this process and we are so thankful that we already have it scheduled. It should be at least 3-4 hours and from what I hear, it's pretty intense. But we're really looking forward to it and hope that our Caseworker is happy with what he/she observes in our home. I will make sure and update everyone after the Home Study is completed next week, and I'll also post some pictures once the bedrooms are decorated as well.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. As for us, we have some more preparing to do, so we better get to it!

-Heather