[lilyiniowa]

How long did it take for you to receive your license for foster care??

We finished up classes in March and haven't gotten it yet. I am in Black Hawk county and know that they are slower than other counties.

I am also wondering if I should make a call and find out what's going on. I hate to be pushy in this stage of it, but will if I have to be. Also do they call you or send something in the mail?


Last ? (for now anyway ) We are wanting/willing to take siblings, how does the foster reimbursements work with siblings. I went to the DHS site and it said that the basic rate is 14.28 for 0-5 years old a day. But then states basic plus sibling allowance is 15.28 a day.

Does that mean the I would get 15.28 (458.40) a day for both or 15.28 X 2 (916.80)

I am just curious. Hubby and I were like that 2nd child will eat more that 30.00 worth of food, let alone clothes, shoes, diapers etc. I have no problem with pro-rating it but if it's only 30.00 extra for the 2nd child WOOFDAH.

[MelissaG]

Hi we are also new to the whole foster care system. We also finished our classes in March. (this part may not help)BUT.... we received our license the first week of April and oddly enough our first placement the end of that week. If I were you I would definately call someone and just ask if there is an issue with your license or maybe you homestudy worker may have some answers for you. In any case call that way they know you're still interested and haven't just given up. They like communication and actually someone should have called you once your paper work was sent to their head offices. Another thing, they will eventually send you your license in the mail along with other paper work concerning classes and support groups. Take it from me join a group, find a trustworthy friend involved in foster care, you're gonna need it whether it be to vent or to exchange quick fixin's; it's something I wish someone had emphasized when we started out.
Now with your last question we have a sibling group and yes you will receive $1.00 extra per child so it will be $15.28/child. The checks usually come at the beginning of each month around the 5-7th. This is in addition to clothing allowances.
In our case our kids didn't come with anything but the clothes on their backs so we went out shopping. Later we took the receipt to DHS and were reimbursed. About a week later we received a clothing allowance they usually give about $75.00- $150.00 per child depending on the situation. Hope this info helps let me know how everything works out
God bless
MelissaG

[lilyiniowa]

WOW that was fast. What county are you in??

We had our last MAPP class on March 23rd. Then our homestudy worker had 30 days(April 23) to get her report done and send to DHS. She waited the 30 days too. Now here we are waiting to hear from DHS. The only calls I have gotten is on april 22 from our homestudy worker and a call on may 19 from DHS.

I will be calling tomorrow and see what is the status of our licensing. I was just afraid to seem too eager.

Thanks so much for all your help.

I didn't think I would get an answer so fast, not many posts in Iowa!!!LOL

[MelissaG]

Well I'm back!
You're right there aren't many of us from Iowa on here but I'm happy to help.
We are in Pottawatamie County. We finished up our classes the 20th of March. Like I said before we receive our license the 6th of April and we had a call for our first placement on the 9th of April. The weekend before Easter. Very fast and crazy week for us. Anyhow we still have our boys and it seems as though they have become fixtures in our home already. They are Great to have around, though. Just so you know I am here if you ever need to chat or have anymore questions. Don't hesitate to email me. I'll send it to you later.
Talk to you later and Good luck tomorrow!
MelissaG

[lilyiniowa]

Sorry it took me so long to get back, my computer was messed up. But thank goodness for my baby brother, he got it going again.

Just an update here. We received our license on Saturday.YEAH!!
I cried, but now am at the excited and scared stage!!LOL Hubby too.

[MelissaG]

I am so excited for you! You may not get a call for awhile, though, our case worker said it tends to slow down during the summer months--since kids are out of school. But don't worry it's unfortunate... but we're needed and you will get the call. Depending on the age you're taking you could very well get a baby lots of Meth babies out there too.
I told our homestudy worker awhile ago that I felt horrible to be excited about someone else's misfortune she said that it was nice to hear someone say something as honest as that. but I don't know.
Hey I meant to ask before do you and your husband have any other children?
Are you just doing foster care or are you fostering to adopt?
That's what we're hoping to do is adopt. Hopefully that will happen soon!
Anyhow I'll chat with you later
Good luck and let me know how it goes
MelissaG

[lilyiniowa]

Last Tuesday (july 6)

two boys R is 4 and L is 3 We are very excited. And they are adapting quite well. They also have a sister that we are hoping to come here too. She is 9.

[lilyiniowa]

ANSWERS TO ????

No we have no children, I can't have any
We are hoping to adopt too.

Pottawatamie......isn't that the Council Bluffs area?

[MelissaG]

That's so awesome, your first placement! I'm so excited for you. How are your days, your daily routine, anything change? I counldn'd believe when we got our boys how much changed. Most for the best but there were a few things we didn't count on like my job not allowing me to switch my shifts so I had to go on call. but anyhow it all worked out and it sounds as though they may get to stay. We won't count our chickens though.
Oh, and yes we're in council bluffs.
talk to you later
Melissa

[beeba7597]

My husband and I have a 7 week old in our home that we are planning on adopting. We are going through the PS/MAPP classes right now and so these forums are helping so much. We are gonna be licensed in September and hopefully get to adopt him in November. We have to have him in our home for 6 months. Keep up the great information.

Beeba

[eightnotenough]

My DH and I just started the process of adoption here in good ole IA. We havent started the MAPP classes yet hope to in Aug (keep fingers crossed).

Iam curious Beeba as to how you got a placement so quickly. This hurry up and waiting is killing me. any advice from any of you as to how to cope.

Iam glad I found this forum it is neat to have someone in the same position .

[MelissaG]

Hi, I too am from IA. I don't know what exactly to say about the whole "hurry up and wait" thing except it will go by quickly, you'll see. My husband and I thought just the wait for the day of our first class, was horrible, but it seemed like our last class was right around the corner and we were licensed. Then we received our first placement the very next week. Everything went by so quickly, we were actually overwhelmed when we did get the call and we didnot feel we were as prepared as we thought we were( clothing, supplies). I guess, one thing I would do to take your mind off the wait is, (depending on the age of the child(ren) you're hoping to take in) get prepared; fix up a room, go shopping, do a scrap book of your family, now, something you can share with the child once he/she come. Just a idea.
Now, I do know that our case worker did tell us that during the summer months things tend to slow down. Kids aren't in school, and so they don't get very many reports. Once school starts up again. She said it will get pretty busy and unfortunately their aren't enough of us (foster families) as they'd like.
Hope some of this helps and keep us all posted. We'd all like to know how it goes. Good luck and God Bless!

[bearsrepeating]

We finished our PS-MAPP classes in the middle of April and finally got our license 2 days ago. I'm really excited, but trying to stay calm, after hearing how long some of you had to wait.

I have to say I'm really envious of those who received calls right away.

The county I'm in is very small (population wise) and we don't even have a DHS worker. We're under a different county's worker. I hope that doesn't mean that we'll be last on the list.

We'd like to adopt eventually - dh prefers one, but is open to 2 if the situation presents itself. I'm happy with either.
--
Teresa

[MelissaG]

bearsrepeating:

Congrats on receiving your license!
I just wanted to write and try to put some of your worries at ease; I don't believe it matters about the size of your county, something that may have caused a slow response is if your dhs worker has a large case load. I know that with one of the workers we deal with, has 23 other cases on top of ours. I couldn't believe having to keep up on that many people and that's just cases not the number of kids in each case. Just try to be patient, we'll all be needed at one point or another, sad but true. I truly hope this helped even alittle and things go better from here on out for you Keep us all posted!

Also for those of you adopting, I would like to know what ages you are hoping to adopt?
Thank you all for your posts I enjoy reading them.
Melissa

[bearsrepeating]

Actually, DHS got us our license really fast, once they actually had the paperwork. Our licensing worker took forever to get it to them. For some reason not all of our references were in at first, but instead of telling us, we found out two weeks later when we finally got ahold of her. I think we were bugging her, but we wanted to know what was going on. Our last reference sent in the form on July 13. On the 30th, after trying for a week, we finally found out that she sent out the paperwork on the 23rd. She was going to call us when she did, but once again it was us tracking her down. Oh well, it's done now.

As for adoption, I would really love another baby or baby/toddler sibling group. I was told it wasn't a good idea to get pregnant again (had 3 c-sections) and had a bunch of complications with my last pregnancy (now 3 years old).

We are open to other ages, though. Our oldest is 8 and while I'd really prefer one younger than my youngest, we are open to taking kids up to about that age. Dh and I had a long talk about what if we don't get a baby, but are fostering an older child who becomes available to adopt. We decided that as long as they were a good fit in the family (and most likely would be by that time) we would adopt them and not "wait" for a baby.