[starfish1215]

I am only 21 and my DH is 23. My DH is still in college to become a fire fighter and has about a year and a half left. I was wondering if it is strange to become foster parents so young and if we could become foster parents when one of us is still in college? We recently decided to become foster parents but much to my dissapointment, there isnt very much info on the web about foster parents. I want ALL of the information I can get on the process of becoming a foster parent, foster children, florida foster care laws, and any personal experiances. I love long messages so anyone please e-mail me at LittleEarthRunning@hotmail.com. I would enjoy talking to anyone that would like to keep a constant pen pal type relationship and wouldnt mind my bombarding them with questions all the time .

[.Ruby.]

Dh and I are on the younger side. Im 25 and he is 29. Our best friends are foster parents as well and they are both 25.

Usually you have to take classes some states call them PRIDE classes some call the MAPP classes. We took MAPP classes every saturday at our home. An instructor/Social Worker came to our house each saturday for about 2 hours, this lasted 7 weeks.

After that you have to get back ground checks/fingerprints/physicals/walk through of your home ect to be officially licensed. In my state (ks) it takes about 7 months start to finish to get your license.

Im sure you would be ok with one of you in college you just have to be able to show that you do have an income coming into your home.

[Prettyboicris]

You arent too young. As long as you can provide a home with stability, safety and security your age will be practically irrelavant. If you check other parts of this site they have Florida specific information. Also at night time around 9pm Est in the chat section of this site there tends to be people in the general chat always willing to answer questions and share resources.

Best of luck to you and your husband

[bamamommy]

I have wanted to foster and adopt since I was in my early twenties too, but we are just now in the process. I am 27 and my DH is 28. We are currently taking our MAPP classes and hope to be licensed by the end of this year. The best thing you can do is call your county's children's services (ours is called DHR) and say you need information on becoming a foster parent. We took a long list of questions and asked away for our first meeting with the social worker.

[chevyjewel]

I was 24 when I first got licensed, I'll be 28 end of this month.

Feel free to bombard the foster care board as much as you'd like with whatever questions come up, you'll get many different perspectives that way instead of just one or two via a few penpals

[Withay]

The Florida Department of Children and Families

This is the State of Florida's foster care website. You will be able to get some of your questions answered here.

In addition, do as CJ said and come here for many different perspectives.

[GaViolet]

My husband and I are on the young side. I am 22 and he will be 23 in October. We have been foster parents for 2 years. You can pm me if you have any questions.

[mountaineermom]

Im 22 and he is 26.... Im glad we did it now, because it takes a lot of energy! But I think the only downside is if you wanted to take older children, usually they want you both to be old enough to naturally parent the child. But we get calls for 16 year old anyway!

[psarahm]

I am 23 and my husband is 26, and we are just starting up classes on October 1st. I'm wondering the same thing! Will we be looked down upon for being younger? This is something i've always wanted to do, though, for numerous reasons... and my husband is very supportive and positive about it! We are looking forward to this journey

[myForeverkids3]

We were 25 when we got our 1st placement and my DH was finishing his masters degree.(married 3 yrs) We got licensed for 0-8yrs to begin with and 2 yrs later took a 10, 11, and 17 yr old. So, we were somewhere around 28 with 2 preteens and a sr. in high school. Honestly, I don't think we were ready for the older kids at that point. We did a good job, but were a little lost as to how to handle the serious "teen" situations. They kind of kicked my butt! I wasn't mature enough at that point to get past the manipulation and took things personally. We took on too much and just about quit fostering all together. My advice would be to take it slow. Don't let them talk you into something that your gut tells you you can't handle.

Also, if your marraige is new, be careful. Becoming parents is a major life change and will bring out the best and worst in your marraige. Becoming 1st time parents with a foster child is even more stressful! Trust me, we did it. Ultimatley, it made our relationship stronger than ever, but not without some bumps in the road.

I think you are doing exactly what you should. Get information and know what you and your husband are facing before you make a commitment. Talking to other foster parents is great. Finding someone in your county would be even better because things are different from one agency to the next.

[Sissy22]

I'm 25 with 17 and 10 year old girls you can do anythiing you set oyur mind too !

[arbuckle17]

I am 27 and my wife is 25. We were probably the youngest in our classes, but I wouldn't let that stop you.

There is however a age difference that is usually required between you and the kids. I can't remember what it was for MT off the top of my head but your local Dept of Fam Services can probably tell you.

You should however take a hard long look at your lifestyle and consider some of the changes you will experience. We were really caught off guard by some things.

My friend base has changed significantly, I still socialize with a lot of my kiddless friends but I can't go out on a whim to play football on Sunday anymore.

My parents are in a dif county and my wife's are in a diff state, so traveling requires permission and a writen a letter from the social worker. We have no idea how we are going to do Christmas .

We love fostering and it has been extremely rewarding, but not having 9 mo to plan is intense.

Originally Posted by starfish1215

I am only 21 and my DH is 23. My DH is still in college to become a fire fighter and has about a year and a half left. I was wondering if it is strange to become foster parents so young and if we could become foster parents when one of us is still in college? We recently decided to become foster parents but much to my dissapointment, there isnt very much info on the web about foster parents. I want ALL of the information I can get on the process of becoming a foster parent, foster children, florida foster care laws, and any personal experiances. I love long messages so anyone please e-mail me at LittleEarthRunning@hotmail.com. I would enjoy talking to anyone that would like to keep a constant pen pal type relationship and wouldnt mind my bombarding them with questions all the time .

[arbuckle17]

You won't be looked down on at all. Our case worker was excited to see a young couple with a lot of energy, haha and we need all of it just to keep up.

[fredalina]

Assuming you can pass all the other requirements (income, housing, etc etc, and i'm sure you can), the only other thing that will come into play officially is that some agencies have a policy limiting the age difference between parents and kids. i remember reading that *one* agency won't allow less than 20 years or more than 40 between the parents and the kids' ages. i read that they do an average for couples. This means that a couple where one was 40 and one was 50 cannot foster/adopt a child under 5. And a couple where they are in their early 20's cannot foster older kids or teens.

That may or may not be an issue in your state/county.

[LLLmom]

My husband and I are relatively young foster parents...29 now. We thought we'd get older kids, but so far, only babes.