[Sosaweet]

Hi everyone! My husband and I are in the early stages of researching and thinking about becoming foster parents. I just got off the phone with DCF, gave them my information and we are going to an open house tomorrow night to learn more. I am so excited and a little nervous about taking this first step! We are on the younger side (25 and 29) and just married this year. So they said they may recommend we wait until next year, which would be fine with me because we could take the time to fully prepare. But then again, they might give us the green light to start now! We will find out tomorrow. If anyone has advice for us who are just starting out and have never parented before, please give it! Right now we are thinking of taking infants and toddlers 0-2 as I do have a lot of child care experience with this age range, but we shall see about that.

[Sosaweet]

So the meeting went great! I was so surprised to hear that their greatest need is for families to take newborns. Here I was thinking they were going to laugh us out of there for wanting babies! We do have to wait a few months to start the classes due to the length of marriage requirement. But I am going to start doing all I can to prepare now. Once we start the classes they said it should take 10 weeks to get licensed and then we will get a placement right away. So it shouldn't be too long now.

[parenting-over-40]

Welcome to the boards. Congratulations on your decision to become Foster Parents. My agency would make you wait until you had been married a year. So, that is pretty common it sounds like.

As for what to do in the mean time. . . . ask if there is some paperwork you can start working on now. That is the part that slows most people down. I would also encourage you to read as much as you can about fostering and parenting the 0-2 age group. There are some great books out there. Of course, read here and post questions to learn more.

Congratulations again on your decision.