Foster Care Training Recap

Wow.  This weekend was good and exhausting and long and valuable and I'm glad we did it (our foster care training weekend).  I think we learned a lot and were able to take a lot away from the weekend.  I feel like we were able to start some important friendships with people who are beginning the foster care process too.  One couple turns out to be our neighbors!  These relationships will be very important once we are in the midst of foster care.

We were also able to learn a lot.  One important thing I began to grasp was about the trauma that kids go through by being taken away from their biological parents and what they know to be home.  They will probably even have to go through the grieving process.  Sometimes it's tempting to think that the kids will feel rescued from their abusive situation or that they will immediately cling to a loving home, but it's not like that.  As a mother, I know there is a special unique bond between a biological mother and child.  And to completely remove a child from his mother, can be traumatizing.  I learned that so many of the acting out behaviors we see in foster children have underlying causes that are actually pretty understandable.  These kids are forced to go through things that most adults haven't gone through.  They have so many mixed emotions to sort through as a child that they don't know how to handle.  Knowing that can help us as their foster parents to be empathetic and offer healthy ways to handle that stress.

I was also reminded that the ultimate goal of foster care is reunification with birth parents.  It's not like we are the good guys and they are the bad guys.  We are seeing the birth parents in their worst days and hopefully they can use this as a turning point to get their life together.  If I keep this mindset in my head that reunification is a goal, then reunification will hopefully feel like a success to me rather than a loss.  However, if reunification doesn't work out then we have to figure out what is best for that child, which is probably adoption.  I think having this mindset will be healthy for me. 

I could probably go on more about the weekend, but I am tired and need to hit the sack.  The weekend was good and I'm thankful we can do it through The Call so we can establish relationships with others in the same boat and also so we can have Christ-centered training and support throughout this process. 

ps- Emerson did great at Nana and Papa's house.  I think he ate a little junk food and stayed up late and played hard and crashed at the end of the day.  Nana's are supposed to spoil a little, yes?  I missed him terribly and it is not good for my heart to be away from him :(  But our reunification was good and we are glad to be under the same roof once again.  Thank you for your prayers!