Our 1st Placement

I have shared some basics about our first placement before, but do you know how hard it is to share information about a foster child without compromising privacy laws? It is hard. So, lets do this again with the full story. 

We were licensed on a Friday. It was a complete surprise to me. You see, once they submit your home study and all your paperwork, it can take awhile. The exact amount of time varies depending on several factors. For us, the average wait time was 10-12 weeks! After already working towards this for over a year, that was a lifetime. 

Building our first crib.

As soon as I got the e-mail, I grabbed my phone and called our licensing worker to tell her to put me on the list immediately. I couldn't believe we would have a child for the weekend. 

Imagine my shock when she told me we wouldn't go on the list that day. She said she still needed to do one final home visit to detail the process. I will admit, I was not happy. As a matter of fact, I think I told her as much. Poor girl.

We scheduled a visit for 8 am Monday morning. I begrudgingly admitted having one last weekend as a family of two would be nice. All I could do was dream about the child that would be in our home as early as Monday. Little did I know, our baby was born that Friday. 

Monday morning, bright and early, our licensing worker was at our house. We went over our age preferences and the details of the placement process. It was short and sweet. Imagine my disappointment when she informed me that she had a couple more appointments before she got back to the office to add us to the official placement list. It was pure torture to think I had to actually go to the office and pretend work while we could become parents at any moment. 

I kept the diaper bag packed and in my car
so that we would be ready at a moments notice.

I got word that we were on the list around noon that day. It was a long afternoon filled with lots of calls for potential children. I think I got 5 or 6 calls for different children. They either found other placements or biological family for the children. 

I started my drive home discouraged when my phone rang. It was an odd call. It was a restricted number and I kid you not, all they said was, "Hey, this is DCS. Did you still want that baby?". 

My mind jumped to the last call we had received. It was a Hispanic baby girl that has just been born that day. Her parents were incarcerated. My heart jumped out of my chest and I nearly screamed at them. Of course I still wanted "that" baby. I restrained myself though and nicely said that I was still interested. I had to sound like a semi normal person to the people that might decide to give me a child, right? The man on the phone told me to get ready because a case worker would be calling me immediately with details of when and where I would be going. 

Before I even made it off the freeway, my phone was ringing again. The woman on the phone gave me the name of a hospital, her name, and a phone number to call her at. Then I was off to pick up my baby!

To be continued...