IHC

We had our first IHC (In Home Consultation) today to get started on our paperwork to become foster parents. Our home inspection went well. She told us we needed a fire extinguisher in the kitchen so Davin went to get the one out of the garage to show her and see if it was the right kind. When Davin walked into the kitchen our resource worker took one look at it and said, "Ummmm...those things have expiration dates." I think the HUGE amount of dust on it gave it away that it was old. Davin said, "I bet it's still good." He checked the date...it expired it 2001. Oops. Time to get a new one. :)

While we were there she tried to convince us to take a teenager and a baby. I know from watching the news that she is talking about a 14 year old that just had a baby (I know the father is Marshallese so I bet the mom is too and that she was taken from her home because the parents allowed it to happen. As an ESOL teacher I have seen this happen more than once to very young girls. It seems to be "cultural".) I had to remind her we weren't an open home yet. I think she was just kidding. I think. One thing we learned is that social workers don't have many reasons to laugh in their jobs so they don't seem to appreciate humor. That is a hard one for Davin because he uses humor so often, but even he learned quickly to give straight answers without the humor.

They asked us if we were excited about starting this journey and were looking forward to it. I looked at Davin to see what he would say thinking he would look at me and we would construct our answer with our eyes (like old married people do) before we gave an answer. When I looked at him he was shaking his head enthusiastically and looking at our resource worker. He said he was excited and looking forward to it. I am still so surprised how gun-ho he is about this. I usually come up with the crazy ideas and he just follows along. He really seems to be excited and on board and this really seems to be a mutual decision for us.

Here we go....