My child

Jul162013

Sending him to school out of our district

Seeing as I work 26 miles from home – and in Miami traffic it takes well over an hour to get there and back – and Steve works nights and sleeps days, we have to be creative with the school our child attends. In speaking to the case workers on Friday, they suggested that we look into the Hardship information on the M-DCPS website to see what can be done. That or send him to private school.

Honestly, I am in awe of the Cushman School and would give my left arm to send my children there. Literally, it’s a private school and costs far more then my entire undergrad degree each year. Cushman is a K-8 school and one of the best in the county.

Amongst other things, we have to research and interview schools, pediatrician’s, specialists and dentists and purchase booster seats for our cars, furnish his bedroom, buy clothes, books, etc.

From the M-DCPS website regarding putting him in a school close to my job as opposed to our house:

a. Working Parent Hardship Transfer
The parent or guardian of a kindergarten through eighth grade student of a one-parent or one-guardian family unit who is employed, or a family where both parents or guardians are employed, requests a transfer on the basis that the normal school assignment presents a hardship involving before or after-school supervision. Such request shall be in the form of a signed statement from the employer(s) verifying the parent’s/guardian’s employment, work address, telephone number, working hours; a signed statement from the caregiver verifying the hours the student is cared for as well as the address and telephone number of the caregiver; and any other pertinent information setting forth the nature of the circumstances producing the hardship. This type of transfer must be reviewed annually through the Regional Center serving the assigned school. These transfers should not exceed the assigned percentage of FISH school capacity for the current school year.

We’ve also learned about the McKay Scholarship and Step Up for Students as an option for private school.

Jul152013

After the First Home Visit

The post leading up to our first home visit had a crazy amount of views. Y’all are awesome!

So what happened? Great things!

But first, the prep. I do wish I’d taken pictures of the house a week ago bc right now it looks about 100% different. We are… packrats. Not hoarders, packrats. We are aware of it and know it’s a problem. We just like our stuff. Having a deadline of people coming into our home that will change our life and place a child with us was the greatest motivator ever.

Ever.

We rented a storage unit. We created lists of what to do. We decluttered. We cleaned. We cleaned out. We threw out 4 huge bags of garbage. We donated. We organized. Oh boy did we organize.

F and T were prompt and arrived right at 11am. After locking Lola in her crate and Phoenix in the front bathroom, we chatted at first about what we were looking for (age and gender) and we said we preferred a boy and our range remains 5-11 years old. So when I refer to “him” I am making an assumption that we will have a son as our first placement. Yep, we plan to do this a few more times. Thursday night, we finally decided that we wanted a single child instead of siblings. We would rather focus 100% on 1 child then try to scramble and have 2 kids. In the future, I hope to adopt a sibling group still.

We showed them around the house and the back yard. We did the whole “this is what we have now, and these are our plan for safety of our son. The yard is totally fenced in and we do the upkeep (the association takes care of the front yard) so no worries there. They liked the size and we talked about maybe getting a grill and a table with chairs for the yard. In the laundry room, the plan is to install shelves in the empty space over the water heater for chemicals and cleaning supplies. It is outside and has a lock on the door. In the kitchen, we pointed out that we’re replacing the blue cubes that act as a pantry with a cabinet with doors. The wine was on top of the fridge, so OK there. We pointed out the changes we’re going to make in the kid’s room by moving Steve’s desk into our bedroom and totally rearranging the layout. I still want the bunkbeds and furniture from my childhood, but another option is to pass our queen bed down and upgrade to a king bed. We’ll see. They were ok with both options, the huge closet and en suite bathroom. The linen and craft closets – not too much will change except better organization. The family/ dining room we will likely just rearrange the furniture and hang more pictures.

After the tour, we talked for a while asking a ton of questions about school districts (more on that tomorrow), our work schedules, public vs private schools, grants and scholarships for private school, the class schedule, Steve’s work schedule possibly affecting class, safety requirements, the timeline, and so much more. They said they’re going to try to get the adoption paperwork to distribute to the class so we can all be on top of it prior to being transferred to the Adoption case workers and the Home Study being completed.

We also discussed the 2 foster/adoption events we are planning on attending – Heroes for Our Kids Celebration at Miami Children’s Museum and the SFFAPA Summer Fun Picnic at John Pennekamp Park

I know I felt so good afterwards. As we were laying in the bedroom after they left and right before Steve crashed from staying awake way later than normal, we talked some more about what happened during the visit.

I literally couldn’t stop smiling after this visit. It really hit me that I could be a mommy by the end of the year. In fact, when I posted..

“I am going to be a mom. And I can’t stop grinning about it”

..on FB, I received so much love and support from my friends. However, it seemed like some thought I was pregnant, which amuses me to know end since I’m totally transparent about this adoption and my infertility.

+++++

On Sunday, we went to Kmart and looked at booster seats, little boy clothes, bedroom furniture. We also bought plug socket covers. Yeah, I know it likely won’t make a difference, but at least they can’t say we’re not prepared.

Also, I may have just started using a hashtag for all my adoption posts on FB and twitter #CallMeMommy

Jul102013

Orientation! #LongestPostEver

Finally! (Geez Becca, why’d you leave us hanging for over a week for this post?!)

We had our Adoption Orientation on Saturday morning, June 30th and it was pretty much awesome. I may have been doing research for months (years) and knew a lot of information going into this, but I still learned more.

One thing I learned was that while we are certainly welcome to adopt from out of Florida, we won’t get the FL benefits if we do so. We will follow those state’s benefits and adoption requirements. Not all state’s offer health care, 4 years of public college/university and a subsidy like Florida does – so that needs to be taken into consideration. We definitely plan on making sure our kids take advantage of the college part!

We also need to decide about the Lola and Phoenix. He is a crochety old cat and doesn’t take BS from anyone. Yes, after 8+ years, he still claws me on occasion. I really need to have the vet do a full eval on him bc while I don’t want to accept it, I don’t think he has much longer with us. He’s got so many health issues and is so overweight even with putting him on a diet. So, there’s that to consider.

But anyhow, what we learned/ had reiterated…

Children available for adoption have had their parental rights terminated (TPR). They will never be taken away from us bc some random family member came back. Once there is no possible chance at reunification and rights are terminated, they’re available to be legally our children.
Judges in South Florida really don’t like waiting the full 6 months once we have a child in our home and tend to push the adoptions through within 30-60 days. This was a major Holy Moly! moment for us. We could be legally mommy and daddy by the New Year.
After we complete our classes, we’re turned over to the adoption specialists. They will then complete our Home Study, run more background checks, and ask many more questions to ensure we get the ideal placement.
The PRIDE classes are not “parenting” classes, but rather how we will play a role in the kids lives.
Most children end up in Foster Care due to abuse, abandonment and neglect
If we want to travel outside of FL before the adoption is finalized, we need a court order. To go to Disney, Gainesville, or anywhere else within FL, we just need to notify the team.
They would prefer to have one parent stay home with the kids initially, but I will likely use my vacation time for that to get them settled before sending them off to a (likely) new school.
If we adopt younger than 5, we do get a day care subsidy for one year for specific preschools – Gold Seal Approved.

Minimum standards for Foster Homes (which we will follow to ensure approval for adoption):

Minimum 40 sq.ft. per child and have adequate storage/ closet space.. In a perfect world, we’d have a 3-bedroom place with a room for each child.
Max 5 kids per household including biological. No problem here as Lola and Phoenix don’t count. 🙂
Kids of opposite sex over age 3 cannot room together. We’re leaning towards 2 boys at this point, so OK there.
Minimum $200 residual income after all bills are paid. We’re getting finances in order so this should be A-OK too.
2 years of employment verification checks will be performed. Yep, no problems there.
Health history and physicals need to be performed for mental, emotional, physical and any other treatments. Ehh, we should be OK.. My therapy is pretty minimal and I have no problems with Dr. S. telling them all about my sessions.
Pets are also checked as I mentioned above. A-OK as I’ve already told the vet to expect the forms.
Many children have no prior religious beliefs and we must respect their beliefs if they do have religious beliefs. We need to decide on a religion as he’s Methodist and I’m Jewish and neither of us are particularly religious.
We are responsible for transporting them to every appointment, recital, etc in a safe vehicle complete with car seats, seat belts, valid insurance and driver’s license. No problems whatsoever as we never planned on making anyone else drive our kids around.
Foster parents need to complete a basic water safety course. We plan on doing that, being CPR certified, and more.
All medications, chemicals, cleaning products, alcohol, guns/ammo, and anything else that can harm a child must be locked away. We’ve already begun planning where the meds and chemicals will be housed. Most likely in the outside laundry room or a lockbox atop the closet.
Kids must have access to a vehicle and phone at all times. We never plan on leaving them alone, so OK. When they’re at school, they’ll have the phone there.
An evacuation plan must be posted in several places and perform fire drills frequently, working and tested fire extinguisher, 2 ways to escape each bedroom, smoke detectors, working battery flashlights in every room, and a first aid kit in the house. OK except for the evacuation plan and the flashlights, we have everything already.
There is a list of forbidden and acceptable discipline methods provided that we must obey. OK, we haven’t established discipline yet so having guidelines is great.
Criminal and abuse checks ((FBI, FDLE, local and abuse registry) are to be performed prior to PRIDE classes. Done and approved.

We will be an integral part of the team of nurses, social workers, case workers, and others. Even once the adoption is finalized, we can utilize the team.

We have decided that fostering will be too difficult for us to handle. And came to that conclusion separately prior to discussing it after the Orientation. Having a child or children in our home for days, weeks, months or even years then having them taken away would be too hard for us both to bear.

Our initial background screenings went off without a hitch. We had to be checked in both FL and NC since we haven’t lived here for 5 years. Once we passed these, we will have our initial Home Visit – on Friday! – and classes begin on Tuesday.

They have said this is an extremely intrusive journey and they will find everything out about us. And yet, we are still raring to go to become parents.

+++++

So where have I been? We have so much work to do on our current home to get it ready for our babies. We have been decluttering and cleaning and making our little home kid-friendly. It’s making me realize big time how not kid-friendly it is. We only have 2 bedrooms, a family room, a kitchen and a decent sized back yard. I’d much prefer to have at least a 3-bedroom with a larger family room, updated everything including a dishwasher. But for right now, we shall deal with this little place. *le sigh*

Also, I’ve been off work (though you’d never know it) since Thursday, had an interview for an amazing job, working at my part-time job, and in general trying to get the house ready for le babies.

+++++

/end #LongestPostEver

Jun272013

24/7 Foster/Adoption Support Line

I thought long and hard about posting the contents of the emails I’ve received since my mysterious phone call, and decided to do it. For any other prospective foster or adoptive parents out there getting lost in the system and thinking no one cares, here’s proof that there are some truly amazing people in the system.

I have heard about and seen posting of this new outreach number and am quite impressed by the initiative. With so many children in the foster care system, it has been quite disheartening to have such a terrible bunch of experiences just getting information.

Honestly, I am still surprised that my little blog has been read by some folks that will hopefully help make our journey easier.

Also, 2 more days. Or rather, in 2 days, we will be almost done with our Adoption Orientation.

image source: me. 🙂

From KB (the phone caller)

Hi Becca,

It was so nice speaking with you. As I said on the phone I wanted you to have my cell phone number. The number is 786-xxx-xxxx. I am so sorry that you had such a frustrating time getting looped into a PRIDE class, but I am happy that you will have your orientation on Saturday. I am sure you will be able to get all the answers to your questions then, but if for any reason you feel that you need additional supports I have copied in the most amazing team one can ever have. Copied on this email are [TP], [MP], [SW] and [RS].

[TP] is the current President of the State Wide Foster and Adoptive Parent Conference. She is also the person that monitors the Foster/Adoption support line and is a great resource as she has decades of experience as both a foster and adoptive parent.

[MP] is the current President of the South Florida Foster and Adoptive Parent Association and is a mentor to our new foster parents. I know she would love to have you at one of their meetings and can also help to answer your questions from a fellow foster parent perspective.

Also on this email you will find [SW]. She oversees our licensing department at Our Kids and is a wealth of knowledge and supports.

Finally I have copied [RS] on this email. She is our Quality Parenting Initiative program manager and is a great person to know and help you if needed.

Again I am so sorry that you had such a hard time getting connected to an agency but I am confident that Family Resource Center will be a great place for you.

So nice speaking to you again and please let me know if you ever need anything.

+++++

From SP:

Thank you [KB].

Becca – We are all very disheartened by your experience with trying to get into classes here in Miami. We are working very diligently to change our system so that other people do not have this same experience. We have initiated a new informational number for people to call and have been advertising in several different mediums.

The number that interested people should call is 855-786-KIDS(5437). We also have an email address that people can submit inquiries to. It is fosterfamily@ourkids.us.

We have implemented these because of some of the things you experienced – numerous agencies to call and difficulty in reaching someone. The phone line is answered 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. The initial call is to gather information and share basic information about becoming a foster parent. The information is then shared with our recruitment staff. This staff person also monitors the email inquiries and calls the interested parties within 1 business day of receiving the information (call or email). We then refer to the agencies in their area and follow up with both the agency and the prospective foster parent within a week of the initial call (5 business days). This is so we can determine what the experience was for the prospective foster parent with the agencies.

I am sharing all this with you as people who may be interested in becoming foster or adoptive parents are likely reading your blog and I hope that you will share this contact information so we can make sure that none of them have the same experience that you had. I appreciate that you are sharing your very personal experience with the world and hope that we can make the rest of the journey less stressful and frustrating for you and your husband.

Jun252013

Mysterious Phone Call

I mentioned a phone call yesterday on FB that got me more excited about our adoption journey then I have been. Things have been relatively quiet as our orientation class is this weekend [holy shnikes it’s in 4 days!] and not much is really going on. Sure, I’ve been perusing the AdoptUSKids website for my future babies and it’s depressing as hell reading their stories and seeing their sweet little faces.

But anyhow, the phone call. I was driving home and don’t normally answer unfamiliar numbers, but I had called someone earlier and thought she was returning my call. Nope, it was someone from Our Kids that had discovered my blog and read everything – including my frustrations – and passed it along to several other people. Yeah, I checked my site stats last night and there were 40 visits to that post. Whaaaaaaaaat?

We talked for a while and she promised to send me an email with all her contact information for me to call anytime with questions. She sent the email and CC’d a ton of amazingly helpful people.

One specific thing I asked her about was the 3 bedroom thing, but she wasn’t certain. It’s on my list to ask on Saturday. But, regardless, I will finally be claiming the bunkbeds that I laid claim to many years ago. ~~I’m trying to find a picture of it (or have one sent to me) to post bc they’re awesome!~~ The bunk beds! My father built these for my brothers a million years ago.

Clearly they’re being used for storage these days at my folks house. 🙂

Things happen for a reason. We were meant to have these stumbling blocks. She and I discussed this and I firmly believe it.

And…

I don’t believe in coincidences. She has the same name as a good friend of mine whose birthday was yesterday. I mentioned this to her as well… Then texted my friend afterwards to tell her the funny.

4 days. 4. More. Days. Until. Orientation…!

Jun192013

Orientation… and Books

I can finally count the number of days until our orientation on my fingers. And not use any twice!

10 glorious days until this adoption process becomes a reality.

Every time I tell someone at work that we’re adopting, they’re so happy and excited for us. It’s amazing to see/ hear the different responses and reactions that I’m getting. Also, I love hearing the “I’m adopted” stories from friends. It’s so heartwarming to know that we aren’t alone in this journey.

I was in a different Barnes & Noble tonight buying some awesome books for our 11year old cousin and asked the sales folks where the adoption books were. They had three. I asked where the grandparents books were. They had one. Ugh. Really? I was considering getting a book and giving it to my parents at their anniversary dinner – 42! – as an opening to discuss our adoption plans. However, the lack of books postponed it yet again. Maybe I’m just not looking forward to hearing that we should just “have our own babies” again. Even if I could get pregnant, we would still be adopting.

Jun132013

We’re Official(ly signed up)!

(If you’re so inclined to read it, clicking makes it much larger)

This arrived sometime in the last week while we were out of town.

It’s our official invitation to the orientation for foster or adoptive parents.

Thank Ood that it arrived. Now I can cancel the original one on the 20th with the agency that didn’t want to work with us. At. All.

(That’s right, I said “Thank Ood” bc I’m a Doctor Who geek.)

Jun042013

Holiday Cards… It’s only June!

I just got choked up thinking about our Christmas card this year. We haven’t sent one in a while, but this year we’ll definitely be sending them out. I was driving home from work when I started thinking about a Christmas card with me, Steve, and our kids. And all the sudden I got choked up and tears sprang into my eyes.

I was also thinking about how I would have the kids posing with their backs to the camera or in the shadows so I can actually post pictures of them on Facebook and other social media sites. And actually, on here! Thinking of posing them with their hands and arms so that they made like big shadow heart on the ground and I can post that. From what I understand, we aren’t allowed to post pictures of their faces until they are legally our children.

I told one of the parents from school today whom I absolutely adore and she has been so amazing to me this past year and a half. She was so excited that I think she almost started crying when I told her we were adopting.

Kids. Family. I’m going to be a mommy.

Classes countdown: 25 days!

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