[potentialsinglemom]

Do you keep up with your classmates who were in foster care training with? I try too. It seems that most of them are/have closing/closed their homes.

Are you still holding strong and the majority of your classmates have disappeared from the foster care world?

[RNFosterMom]

We do not keep up with anyone from our training. I don't think it's too surprising that the attrition rate is so high among new foster parents, however. My husband and I have certainly gone back and forth about this ad nauseum. We've been pretty disillusioned by a lot of things we've experienced in the 1+ year we've been FPs -- and the heartbreak when our beloved foster children RU to an uncertain future (to put it mildly) is a lot more intense than we ever expected.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I think many people quit because of this pain, but also because this system has so many flaws, can be extremely frustrating, and we frankly don't always get treated too well!

[arbuckle17]

We don't have contact with anyone from our class or any other foster parents in our area.

Our cw said they are trying to setup a support group next year, and they have a Christmas party for us and all the kids so we are looking forward to that so we can catch up with everyone.

[CaddoRose]

We keep in touch with one family, but because we're in a rural area, they live about an hour away. There were only 5 families in our classes.

[shy_bear]

My middle daughter is 8, we did domestic adoption but still keep in touch with one family from our training. From our fc training we keep in touch with 3 families. 2 1/2 years later one family has adopted 2 kids, one walked away after a RU, and the third will be finalizing on National Adoption Day. We occasionally see some people around town, and depending on who it is we will chat.

[dachshunds4you]

In CA, we kept in contact with one family. They adopted and are no longer fostering.
In TX, we met two families we keep in touch with. One was straight adoption and has a placement now.
We've kept in contact with some people we've met from our foster parent assoc.

I think we're one of the few who has been doing this for 4 yrs. Most have dropped off by either adopting, or just no longer wanting to continue for whatever reasons.

[mommytoEli]

we are only in contact with one family from our very first set of classes. they are now super good friends of ours. since we met, we have adopted 4 children out of fostercare and our son from Guatemala, and they had 2 failed adoptions from foster care and ended up adopting from China. oddly enough they were a straight adoptive home, and we were a foster only home. lol. now neither of us are foster or fost/adopt parents anymore.

[mamachell]

We tried to keep up with other families in our class but frankly, a lot of them didn't even get certified. Mostly because almost everyone in our class wanted to adopt and after going through the class they became discouraged that this could really happen. Most tried other avenues to bring children into their family. Ironically, two of us did get certified and we are both adopting.

[laceyc]

I actually ran into one of the women in our class yesterday. Most of the people in our class were doing kinship...we were the only ones doing straight foster. Most of them have not intention of doing foster, only kindship.

[Yash]

I wanted to, but I lost the email address list. I keep in touch with the two other single women in the class. One, of which, I'm trying to convince for a second time. The other one has adopting and now has found her niche fostering teens.

[excited2adoptsoon]

I really really wanted to. We had about 20 people in our class. I emailed every single one of them and not one of them was fostering or adopting at that point. I was very very shocked. They all had different reasons. I know some people in the class had issues with competition. They thought we were all "completing" for the same babies or children that became available. They may have somehow came into play.

[simplemom]

For us, there was only one other couple who is fostering and we do stay in touch. The other 4-5 couples decided not to do it. We keep trying to get together, but we're just too busy. They have been a great support though!

[potentialsinglemom]

For me, my two close foster friends are done after their placements are gone. CPS and the cpa has really been a disappointment for them. I too have witnessed my share of frustration and disappointment from both entities. But, for whatever reason, I am not yet ready to give up.

[bamamommy]

We have our last class tonight and I plan to get phone numbers from a few people in the class. There are about 25 people in our class so there are some people that we have not had a chance to talk to. One woman in my class has already exchanged numbers with me and we agreed to keep in touch. I guess we'll see!

[elk134]

We keep in contact with one family from our training. After taking the classes for three months, we found out that the family who sat across from us the whole time lives less than 5 minutes from us and me and the mom both work at the same hospital (different departments). What a small world. That is the only family we keep in contact with on a regular basis. We swap babysitting and just complain to each other-or celebrate when needed. It's been great. They have a pre-adoptive placement and will not continue fostering after that. We have a legal risk pre-adoptive placement. No matter how our placement turns out, whether they stay or go, (was looking like they would stay, now not so sure) we will no longer foster or adopt any more either. I would like to provide respite, but that's all I can really handle. Looking back, I wish we had just started with respite first- to get a "taste" of what this world is like. But then again, I know babysitting for a few days is different than living together on a full time basis. This is just too hard!!! I admire those who can stick it out!