This is my bio kid.

As we get further into this process of becoming foster parents I have found that I have to introduce Alea more and more often as my bio or biological child instead of just my child. It really isn't anybody else's business if she is my bio kid or not but in the foster care circles it is just more expected that you distinguish so people know how much you have in common with them. It reminds me of hanging out with Danica's in-laws. When you meet them and they find out you only have one child (because they all have 3 and Danica has 4) they look at you like you aren't a true parent because you must not know anything about parenting and kids if you only have one kid. The foster care people aren't judging like that but if you are someone like Haley who introduces her 3 bio kids and then her 2 'other' children people kind of give her a nod of approval because of how much she is doing to help foster children even when she could have just said she already had her hands full. I think it also comes up a lot because if you are at an event where pictures are being taken people have to know who the FCs are because their faces cannot be shown in photos.

Today Alea and I visited two day cares. (We are visiting one more this afternoon.) I explained at each place that we didn't have a kid yet that we were looking for care for but that we were about to become an open foster home and that I wanted to check out my options before the situation arose that I needed care for a child/children. At the first place the man listened to me explain about how we didn't have a kid yet but that we would probably be open soon. He said, "Okay. Then who is this?". He said it in a fairly nice way. I think he was just trying to figure out the situation. I automatically introduced Alea as my biological child. He said, "Oh!" like everything made sense now as to why she was with me if I said I didn't have a kid that needed care yet. Whew. It gets kind of crazy.

By the way, one day care was a possibility and the other was a no. I have high hopes for the one this afternoon. She sounded so nice and with-it on the phone.