Waiting...waiting...waiting...

Yesterday was three months since our application was received by our agency.

We've waited for the application to be reviewed.
Waited for the background checks to be completed.
Waited for classes to be available.
Waited for inspections.
Waited for the agency to receive our fingerprinting.
Waited for our home study.
Waited for our home study to be turned in and then reviewed.
Waited to sign for our home verification.
And now we are waiting on the state to approve our license.

After we have our license, we will wait for our first call for placements. I'm tired of waiting.

All I can think about is the kids who will come into our home.

What have they been through? How much love are they getting right now? Do they have anyone who hugs them? What will they be like? What kinds of things will they like to do? Will they be angry, or sad, or maybe both? How old are they? Will they be the ones who stay with us forever, or will we be able to reunite them with their birth families?

We have this empty room in our house that can be filled by them. And I have an empty place in my heart waiting for them. And I'm ready for both to be filled.

God has perfect timing and he has the perfect children for us.
But I can't stop checking my phone. Praying for a call that we are licensed, and our home is open.

Our Foster Kid's Room

I wanted so badly to see what other foster parents had set up for their kiddos. I wanted to know how they were keeping it gender neutral. So here is a post for those new foster parents getting their room ready. Here's some detailed photos of what's in our foster room. 

One thing we have decided (the reason the bed looks very bare), is that we are going to take our kiddos shopping to get their own bedding that they like, and we will move the decorations around to match their likes. :)

I kind of really, really love this room. I'm so ready for it to be filled with kiddos. 

Getting Ready for Foster Care

After we turned in our application to our agency in late June, I hit everything full force. I was filling out paperwork like a mad woman, and gathering everything we could possibly need to care for children in our age range.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the many other blogs about foster families getting their kid's rooms together, dealing with the paperwork (which seems never ending), and I especially loved to blogs about all the craziness involved with foster care. 

This post will be a photo blog about our journey so far. 

It all started with this dresser. It was mine when I was a little girl. Somewhere along the way it was painted lots of different colors. So we took it back to the way I remembered it. Plain white. :)

 This was the foster room after doing a little clean up and using some primer over the marks that somehow covered the walls!

 

I did a little online shopping to get one new outfit for each size/gender of the kiddos we could be taking in. I wanted to make sure that they had some clean clothes when they first get placed with us, before we have a chance to go shopping. And OH was I ever surprised when I came across a MEGA sale at Target online!

While on our anniversary trip this summer we did a little shopping and came home with an infant carseat and a new crib. When we were at Target the carseat was marked at $99.99. At check-out we discovered that it had been marked down to $38.98! *insert happy dance here* 

Rylie-bug helping paint the foster room! She's been such a big helper! :)

We obviously had to remove the old deck that was splintering, and was in HORRIBLE condition. We replaced with with two floating decks, and some awesome mulch. All these iPhone pictures don't do it justice. Plus, I have all kinds of cute decorations that need to be put out here! 

We've been SO blessed by donations from friends and family! I'm pretty sure we will have the best dressed kids in town!

There has been SO much more done to our house to get it ready that I haven't included here. We completely redid our playroom, had to rearrange door knobs, fire extinguishers installed, rearrange our cabinets, and pantry to get everything right where they tell you to have it! So much more that I wish I would have taken pictures of! :)

This brings us to where we are now. Waiting.

Waiting for them to finish writing our home study, and get our license ready for signing. 

I'm not good at waiting.

I.am.so.ready.to.have.placements. 

God's timing is perfect. God's timing is what we are waiting on. 

I'm just ready for that time to be here.

PS. Please excuse the poor iPhone quality pictures from this post. :)

I'm going to do a blog that is JUST about the foster kid's room. I'm pretty proud of how I was able to keep it gender and age neutral!