Moving Right Along!

YAY! We have our second (and final) home check on Wednesday March 3, 2010. I am excited for more reasons than the obvious. First, we have a couple of small projects to finish this weekend, and this gives me/us the push to get them done. Second, I REALLY need motivation to clean and do laundry before my sister and the girls come on March 5!

So last night in PRIDE we discussed the importance of being there for the birth family and fostering not only the child but the entire family as well. This is a topic I have had a really difficult time with. It’s very hard for me to put myself in their shoes, because their shoes just don’t fit my feet!

I’ve never been a parent; I’ve parented in a sense of the word, but never my own, full time, biological children. They had us do an exercise where we closed our eyes and thought about the most important child we know. I thought of my niece Erica (sorry to pick favorites, but come on she’s adorable!). Then they said now think of how you would feel if you needed to take care of that child. Then how it would feel to be incapable of caring for that child in the full capacity it requires. Then imagine someone else caring for them and how that would make you feel. Then imagine if that person caring for that child didn’t want ANYTHING to do with you. The feelings you arrive at, in most cases, are the same feelings the child’s biological family will be experiencing.

That REALLY hit home with me. When I thought about not being able to care for Erica, I thought of how it would break my heart to never talk to her again, or see her face again, and it wasn’t her fault, it was my fault for not being equipped to care for her.

We live in very slow/bad economic times. My husband and I are beyond lucky to have great jobs, a nice home, and friends and family that love us. It’s sad to think that there are people who thought the same thing of their lives, but when the economy weakened, they lost EVERYTHING! They and their children are homeless, and in poverty. It’s very sad to think of how scared they and the children are.

This became a little more long winded than I had expected, but I wanted to be sure I wrote down some of how I was feeling, so that I can reflect upon it later.

Next week I will blog about our home study and the questions and answer portion.