[Annepchef]

A little background first:
My husband and I wanted to to foster/adopt. He was undergoing treatment for metastisized colon cancer. We knew that our current rented house would not be suitable (no heat in upstairs bedrooms, etc.). We were planning to buy a home this spring and work toward our goal as he started to get better. He passed away in January. I still want to fulfill our dreams.
I am currently looking to purchase a home. Would it make any sense at all to start my Foster care classes before I even have the home I will be fostering in?

[pez collector]

Anne-

I am so sorry to read of the loss of your husband. God Bless you for wanting to fulfill your dream.
I see that you live in Indiana. There is an active group of Indiana foster parents on this board. You also might want to post this message under the "Indiana Foster & Adoption" area. I am sure that they can give you some good information about what the state of Indiana requires.
As we were obtaining approval of our adoption homestudy and foster care license, we took classes. They were very beneficial.
Good luck in your journey to help a child!

[LadyBugz]

In our area, they won't even consider doing a homestudy before you've made it through most of the classes. I've seen several people who are waiting to move to get their homestudies completed. I think the larger issue you will be facing is the recent death of your husband (may God grant him eternal glory!) Some places have rules concerning the time frame you are required to wait to allow you time to grieve (I've seen up to 12 months), while others take it on a case-by-case basis. Talk to your preferred agency and tell them upfront why you desire to foster and see if they foresee any difficulties in you pursuing it at this time.

If you are in grief counselling, it will help to have your counsellor's support.

[Tudu]

I am so sorry for your loss. I can't imagine the pain you are going through. Our agency made it clear to us that any major change in our lives would mean we needed to wait 2 years to continue. They considered divorce, death of a family member, and/or move out of state to be big ones. I would contact them and ask or you might have to start over later.

[Annepchef]

I can understand that I should give myself time to grieve. However, I hate that someone would tell me that I cannot move on with my life and our dreams in my own time. Be that through foster care (I want to help a child for however long I have them) or private adoption. I hope that make sense.

[mab_123]

I'm sorry to hear about your loss. I think it's great that you still want to follow your dream so shortly after your loss. I don't know about any rules or anything about time frame for grieving but about the new house thing we were in the middle of looking for a house to buy when we started foster classes and they said that was ok, we found our house right after we were licenced. They just changed the address and got us a new licenced with our new address. Good luck with everything.

[amylauren3030]

Hi,
I too am sad to hear about your loss. I am glad that you are going to do the foster care and I am sure you will be a great foster mom.
I live in Arkansas...we are going to turn in our packet next month. We were told that we could not take the classes until our homestudy has been completed. ????
I have a friend that took the classes before her home study. Does it just depend on the individual case worker? (does anyone know?) It seems like the rules change as they go along sometimes. It is frustrating, but I know it will be worth the wait.
I will be praying for you as you start your journey. Remember, you are not in this alone. We are all in this togeter. I have met some really great folks here and got loads of great advice. There is a foster chat on Tuesdays at 8PM hosted by luv'mall.(If I can ever coordinate my schedule, I plan to attend)
Let us know of your progress. I hope to be able to share that we are licensed soon.

[bjhv5]

I am sorry to hear about the loss of your husband.I know that we started our classes about 1 year after our son passed away they just wanted to make sure we were okay and ready.

as for the homestudy we did not get ours until we finished classes so you should be okay. You can call them and ask them what you should do.
God be with you!!