Our case worker called me the week before I was suppose to go to Little Rock for The CALL training to set up our final walk through. I told him I didn't want to do the walk through until I got back from Little Rock because we didn't want to be open while I was in Little Rock and Davin was trying to do the fashion show thing with Alea as a single parent. He said we could go ahead and have our walk through and he would just open us when we were ready. We set up our final walk through for the Wednesday before I went to Little Rock. The walk through went well. It only took about 15 minutes. Chris, our worker, said he would put our paperwork in on Friday but the paperwork probably wouldn't get processed until Monday and that we would be open on Monday, October 7th...the date I gave him as the date we wanted to open.
While I was in Little Rock on Friday I got a call on my phone from on unknown number. I didn't listen to the message until about 4 hours later but it was Chris saying he knew we didn't want to open until Monday but that they needed a place for twin 5 or 6 month old boys. WOW! Not only was I not expecting to be open but I wasn't expecting a call and certainly not a call about twins. I called Chris back to see if he still needed someone for the boys (not sure if we would take them or not still) but he didn't answer and I figured (and later found out) they were already placed so that was great!
So as of Friday, October 4th we were an open foster home.
This week kind of went slowly because I was always wondering when the phone was going to ring wanting us to take a child. It never rang. The end of the week was very busy for us so I am glad we didn't get a call. We still haven't had a call this weekend so I am just wondering when it will happen. I am not dreading it or looking forward to it. It just is. We are just in the holding pattern.
After we got that call on Friday about the twins I think Davin and I were both freaked out about what we had done and what we were getting ready to do. After our 24 hour freak out I think we are both doing much better. Everyday when Davin and Alea get home they both ask me if we have gotten any calls. Davin knows I would tell him before he got home but they both like to ask. Alea gets bummed every time I tell her we didn't get a call. It is good to not get called though because hopefully that means a child is not in a situation that requires they need protecting.
Davin and I have decided that I will make the yes/no call about who to take unless I think it is a situation that we need to discuss first (which will probably be the case most of the time).
Haley texted me on Friday and said that we got in just under the wire. DHS at the state level has told their counties and workers they are not to do any more recruitment, in home consultations (the very first visit), or final walk throughs. They are suppose to focus on their open homes because more layoffs are coming down the pipe this week due to the government shut down.
The November training is still going to go on because the head worker, Rasheda, is going to try to do what she can to get these homes open or close to opening. If all recruitment and training stops there will be a big hole in a few months with no open beds because all the current homes will be full.
I don't imagine we will be without a child for very long.
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