[blankeyquilter]

I am soooo running out of patience! We live in Lenawee County and applied for our foster care license in April 2004 with a private agency. All of the papers were in place and training completed by December 2004. We were told that there were ten families ahead of us in the process of writing the home study. In June 2005 we were contacted to let us know that we made it "to the top" of their list but our application had expired so we needed to reapply. Uggghhh!! An updated home visit was completed in June and we were encouraged to change our age range from 0 - 3 to 0 - 5, which we did. We were notified in July that my husband needed more training. (I completed my training in combination of in person and the internet. He was told he could completely train via the internet but the rules changed while we were waiting.) He completed the training the first week of August. Since I was thinking I was getting the "run around" I contacted our original worker I had and expressed my feelings to her. She told me that there was a slow down in children available because Michigan is broke and not pulling children because it costs money to place them in foster care and pay for their medical, etc.! She also told me that the children that they were getting were teenagers. I then received a call from our social worker that our medical info was too old. I had updated our medical in December 2004 but she did not have those forms. It is a good thing I keep copies of everything I give to this agency! She suggested that she needed to ask her partner if she had them and I told her that if she could not find them to let me know. I have not heard a word from her since. Tomorrow will mark three months since we got the call that we "made it to the top". I plan to call our worker tomorrow and get an update. Has anyone else had such a long wait? Do you think that it has to do with Michigan's finances?

[JBrennan]

It is not all of Michigan. In Oakland county things moved much more quickly for us. We took our classes in Feb and turned in our applications at that time. We had our medicals in March, our homestudy the beginning of April and were licensed by the end of the month and were immediately placed with a set of twins (3 years old). We still have them . Sorry to read things have not gone well for you. Can't really offer much advice. I don't know how much things vary county to county. Good luck.

[diane beth]

We are just finishing up our hs. It has only been 4 months. We would have been licensed much sooner if we wouldn't have had to wait 2 months for our physicals. Our dr lost his med practice because of malpractice. When your a new patient it takes longer to get in. I think you may be getting the run around. If you don't get licensed soon I would try a new agency. Our sw actually called us and sent us a letter moving us along quicker. We are from Ottawa County.~diane

[Allieloopy]

I have been with two private agencies in Washtenaw county and both times it took over a year to get licensed. We are foster/adopt but I don't think that makes a difference.

We have been with our current agency for over two years now and have had only one placement. They are putting kids in relative placements and giving more services instead of moving kids out of their homes.

The one child we had moved in with her grandmother who is NOT getting foster care payments. So you can see that money is the motivation. The grandma lives across the street from the parents that the child was removed from. Yeah she's gonna be safe now. They don't consider that the grandma RAISED the parent who can't keep her kids safe. Also all of her adult kids have had kids in care. Sheeze.

Anything you deal with in foster care will probably involve waiting and waiting. You have to be good at calling your workers or whoever is involved and create a presence. If they see you or hear from you at least once a month then you are on their mind and they will pay more attention to you. This will also help get your paperwork faster, the quiet people get pushed back, I speak from experience.

I call every so often just to "check in" and I ask about placements or just how the worker is doing. Any excuse I can use to make a friendly call!
I will also drop paperwork off frequently instead of mailing it, that way I can "chat" with whoever is there.

Actually I am considering moving to the State instead of a private agency, it will be more hassle but maybe more kids too. They go to the State first and then the state will call the private agency if they can't find a home. That's why all the teenagers. Oh and if you take kids older than you want just to help out, remember that you may lose out on younger kids, cause they know you will take the older ones now. We took a few problem cases to help out and missed out on some potential adoptive placements because our "beds were full."
We have to be firm to keep our daughter safe and now we will NOT take anyone older than she is, due to past problems.

Good luck!