Moving Along

Everything seems to be falling into place rather nicely. Not too long ago, we received an email from the agency we're working with telling us we were approximately 4-6 weeks away from becoming verified foster parents and inviting us to attend our very last training to go over the handbook. The next day our homestudy was assigned and scheduled for June 19th. Josh and I made our doctor appointments to get our physician statements and TB tests. Josh's TB test was a little concerning since it turned red almost immediately. Luckily, it wasn't tuberuculosis, rather a localized allergic reaction to the shot itself. Aside from the reports on our required reading for adoption, we have managed to get the last of our paperwork turned in. Our homestudy went smoothly and our age range for 0-2 years was approved. We were a little concerned that they would tell us we had to broaden the range of ages we were willing to take, but honestly, we're not. I don't want to displace my own childrens' birth orders, so ideally I want a child younger than them. Josh and I surprised ourselves by telling our homestudy worker that we would be willing to take in a sibling set of 2 kids. All along I said we can only take one at a time, but in talking about it, we decided two would be okay for a number of reasons. It would, of course, require some immediate reorganization of our home such as buying another bed and a van since 4 kids won't fit into the back of my family sedan. But a minivan is in the plans anyway since the family sedan becomes rather crowded with 3 kids. We won't worry about that stuff unless it happens though because we do have a portable crib available to set up in our room in the case of a sibling set. We were told that assuming we got our inspections done in time, our homestudy could be approved and we become licensed in approximately 5 weeks. We passed our environmental health inspection yesterday. The last thing on our list is the fire inspection. We're waiting for one more item we ordered for our fireplace to come in the mail, and then we'll be ready.