[Sam-N-Tony]

Congrats on deciding to become a foster parent.

Usually the licensing process can take anywhere from 2 months to 8 months. Mine took 6 months to the date, from the date of the first class to actual license.

Understand that fostering does not necessarily mean adoption. They will always have reunification as the first goal and could take years to actually adopt your foster child.

I have never had to deal with racist family members but I would suggest that you take whatever you are comfortable with. You might want to check around on recent threads, there was a long post that dealt with racism. If you are ok with accepting a child of any race and a certain family member isn't, than you need to take that into consideration. Does that person play a huge role in your life or could you do without them. If you could deal with not having a relationship with them then what do you really care anyway.

Unfortunately racism is a part of everyones lives one way or another. You would hope that a person can overcome their own ignorances towards people of different races but don't expect it overnight or ever. Some people come around, others don't.

You can specifically request infants, but depending where you are you might wait a while. Infants that are placed are usually reunified with the parents or a family member takes them. It's not that common to get a infant that becomes available for adoption within the first 1-2 years. It does happen but be prepared to lose this child.

You might want to keep the nursery decorations to a minimum as you don't know the sex of the child you will receive once you are licensed. You might go the classes and decide that you are willing to accept a toddler and won't be able to use some of the things.