First MAPP Training class

My husband and I have been talking about wanting to foster children for over two years. It's not an easy decision to make. These children have been abused, neglected and they are coming into your home, after being forcefully taken away from their birth parents. In most cases they (the child(ren)) have no idea what is going on. So now, not only is it your job to feed, bathe, clothe, but to also be that child's therapist. My husband and I have only been to one training class so far. The class is for 5 Saturdays, then if you complete everything successfully you will become a licensed foster parent.

Last Saturday, (our first class) we (the students) were learning about potential situations, For example:

There's mom, dad & two young daughters. (long role-playing, acting session into a short story)
So, mom, dad & two young daughters. Mom and dad were high school sweet hearts who are still very much in love. Mom is a stay at home mom, while dad works at a local warehouse. The family has been planning a vacation to Disney world for a few months and the children are really excited! One day dad comes home, and isn't in the best of moods. He tell's his wife, "I got laid off." The wife says, "We will get through this! But we need to tell the children we  can't go to Disney." So the parents go and tell the two young daughters that they can not go to Disney and try to explain the situation. A few days go by, and dad is starting to get really agitated about not being able to be "the man of the house" and take care of his family. The older daughter is a really hyper and emotional girl, who keeps nagging her father, " I want to go to Disney, Why can't we go to Disney!" The father can't take it anymore, and in an instant slaps his daughter in the face. Now that moment of frustration has gone and passed the father feels horrible. The daughters nose is now bleeding. The parents take her to the hospital. She has a broken nose. DCF is called in, the parent's explain the situation, after several hours of waiting while the case worker does an investigation the case workers determines that this was a one time thing and the children are safe to go home. So they go home, emotions are on the fence for a few days. The father decides he can't handle being around the house, It's a Friday night and decides to go have a few beers at a local bar. He gets a DUI on the way home, and is now in jail until at least Monday morning. So now the mother is completely distraught and tries to keep things as normal as she can at home. Sunday morning the kids are really hyper, and mom is about to loose it. She yells at the kids to go in their room. The older daughter yells back at her mother, and in that moment the mother hit her daughter across the face. The daughter now has a busted lip. The mother takes the her to the ER. Now this is the second time in a short month that this child has been abused. This family has gone from in ONE month being a happy, loving, middle-class family to having their whole life destroyed in one week.
The children are put into a foster home, and now it's the foster families job to help the children as well as help the birth family. The "ideal" situation is for the children to go back home to their birth family.

It's amazing, isn't it? How one day everything can be "perfect" and the next your life is destroyed? Just because children go into foster homes doesn't mean the children come from "broken homes" The parents are given a case plan that they have to complete before they can get their children back.

Sometimes it is a lot worse. There can be birth mothers that smoke crack while the baby is in the wound. Children that have been sexually abused since they were babies so, the sexual abuse is all they know.

With being a foster parent you have no idea the kind of situation these children are coming from. All you know, is these children didn't ask to be put into that situation, and you were given the ultimate task of protecting these children from any further harm.

My husband and I are nervous, yes! But the children of our community need us. They need you. They need an advocate, someone to speak for them, because they lost their voice a long time ago.

Well, this is just my first post. Like I've said we've only been to one class. We have four more classes to go then our license!

Also what is exciting for me (Jordan) I can not have children. For the past few days I've been planning and buying things to make our foster children's room! They may not be our children, they may not stay with us forever, but while they are in our home it will be their home. So, until next time...