4 done....5 more to go!

Tonight we finished up our fourth class. So far we have learned about what fostering is, the fostering team, overview of human development, affects of trauma/abuse/neglect on children at a variety of ages, grieving, and loss. The classes are different than what I expected, but have been alright so far. We've heard about a lot of incredible and ridiculous situations that some kids are put through. It's really confirmed our decision to do this - we can't wait to provide a warm, loving home to a child that doesn't have one!

One thing that keeps sticking in my head is something we learned in the first or second class. Initially you think the child will be relieved and happy to leave their broken home and come into your nice, safe home. However, that is rarely the case, if ever. The child is usually resentful that they were taken from their home, and they still very much love their parents no matter how bad the situation was at home. This creates a huge adjustment to work through - we went into this thinking "wow, this will be really hard for us..." when really we should be thinking "wow, this will be really hard for the child that is placed in our home." Even though we will be requesting a younger child (newborn up to 2 years old), and they won't have as much development issues as older kids may have, it will still be hard for a baby/toddler to leave their birth parents and transition into a new home.

Sean went last week to get his medical physical and I go tomorrow. The list of to-do items is slowly getting shorter. The countdown is on....5 more weeks until we have our classes complete and paperwork ready to send to the state!

Finger-printing...Try again, please!

First, thank you for all of the nice comments! Sean and I are so blessed to have such a strong circle of friends to support us.

Today we went to the place where we were to get finger-printed for DCFS, only to find out that as of Feb. 1, they no longer do the finger-printing at that place. I guess maybe I should have called first - live and learn, right? We called our licensing specialist and got the scoop (and a nice apology) and we'll try again in a few weeks at the new location.

Niece & Nephew pictures

My brother-in-law wanted to surprise my sister with pictures of the kids for Christmas. I took the pictures for them, and I was pleased with how they turned out! The kids did really well - that big open room was chilly! Below are a few of my favorites.

What's new in the Schick household?

Ok, so I've been horrible about keeping up with this blog! But now, I have something very exciting to blog about! Sean and I have decided to become foster parents. Sean and I both felt very strongly about wanting to adopt somewhere down the road. Ideally, it would be after we have a child or two of our own. However that's taking a little longer than expected, so we're going forward with the adoption/foster route. We talked to a few foster parents, and we found that our county has a great need for foster parents. We prayed about it for a couple of months, and decided to start the process for becoming licensed foster parents.

To become licensed, we will take 9 classes. We meet once a week for three hours. We've got two classes done - only seven more to go! So far the class has covered basic information - how kids are placed into foster care, the challenges you can expect, etc. There are 17 people in our class - a lot more than I expected! We enjoy the people that are in our class, which is important since we'll all need to support each other as we do this.

We've also completed the first half of our home study. It was basically an interview about us - our childhoods, our families, our marriage, etc. A lot of people ask about the dogs - since they are Rottweilers, can we even have a foster child in our home? And the answer is - YES! Luckily for the dogs... :) We just need to have updated vet records for them.

Next up is getting finger-printed for DCFS - we're doing that tomorrow.

As we progress through our new journey, I'll be posting about it in this blog. My goal is to post at least weekly...we'll see if I can keep up!

NYC

I'm way behind on posting blogs...so I'm going to try to catch up little by little!

Sean got to go to NYC in October for a work event, so I met up with him on Saturday and we stayed just until Monday. Two days in NYC is just enough for me! I'll tell about the trip through pictures!

There was some sort of street fair just a block from our hotel. Sean had to work for a few hours after I arrived, so I entertained myself by walking through the 10 blocks or so of vendors. I came across these goodies...don't they look awesome? I resisted buying any, but I thought they were such a cute idea.

Sean surprised me with a massage, and as I was walking to the spa, I walked right by Tiffany and Co. Didn't go in, just did some window shopping.

We took 5 modes of transportation to see the back of the Statue of Liberty! We walked, took the subway, took a monorail, and then some other sort of subway called PATH or something like that, and then a bus. 3 hours later we were there! :)

And finally, we enjoyed some pretty awesome cheesecake at Juniors in Time Square. I had the carrot cake cheesecake....excellent!

Back at it...

After a break that lasted a few months, I'm back at it taking pictures for friends again. I had two sessions in the last couple of weeks, and one more this coming week. AND then......Sean and I leave for Jamaica!!! One week on the beach, in the sun, nothing to worry about except when to apply sunscreen next. Ahhh..... Stay tuned for pictures!

Miss P - 5 years old

Miss C - 6 months old

The finished product

The deck and screened in porch are pretty darn close to being done! All we have left is the landscaping and the patio on the opposite side of the porch. Here are some picture!








I'm actually headed out there now to enjoy the morning off work! Happy Labor Day!