[mrsred]

Originally Posted by cbielem

I feel like I have a million questions! Here are a couple that I have right now...

1. My first question is if we should go for fostering right now, or go ahead and do foster to adopt, since we may adopt someday. If we just do the fostering now, does it make it difficult to add on the adopting part later?
Just go straight foster for now, since you really aren't ready to adopt. When you do decide you are ready, as long as you keep your foster license up to date you should just need to have a home study done. Also, if you are fostering a child and he/she becomes legally free and you feel you want to make it permanent, you can do the home study at that time. Beneath family members, you will likely be the first consideration for a permanent placement
2. Our house is small - about 1200 sf with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (we live on a couple acres in a country setting). My son is in the second bedroom in a crib, and we have a twin bed in it (it is a very large room). We have other beds readily available, as well as a bassinet and playpen. We are looking at possibly fostering kids 3 and under (since my son is so young), or up to age 5 if a sibling group. Does anyone know whether we would be able to put 3 children in one bedroom? Cannot say for sure in Oregon, but here in WA it goes by the square footage, that you must have so many sq feet per child. Also, children over the age of six can only share a bedroom with same gender

3. My husband is a hunter, and therefore has multiple guns and a bow. What are the requirements for the storage of these? We do have a gunsafe with a lock - is that adequate? What about storage of bullets?
Your state worker can help you meet all requirements. I beleive everything will need to be secured
4. I am the one who has always wanted to be a foster parent. My husband is agreeing to go to the classes (which means he isn't against it; he would say no if he was), but it is obviously more my passion to do this. Does this make a difference to the SW? As long as he isn't against it, this shouldn't be a huge deal. I don't think this is terribly uncommon

5. When the SW asks about discipline, what are they looking for? Since our son is only 9 months, our form of discipline is saying "no" and moving him away when he gets into something. We don't have older kids to discipline in other ways. We both understand that there would be no spanking, etc. but I'm not sure if there is a right or wrong answer to this... Just tell them you use redirection, loss of privilege, time outs as age appropriate, or something along that line. If you have read, or can read any parenting books (like Love & Logic or 1-2-3 Magic) you can refer to that, and say you plan on using those methods. Social workers love that kind of thing, shows you are

Courtney

Hope that helps, good luck, and God bless!