PRIDE...

We have started our PRIDE classes through DCFS. We have one class and our next one is tomorrow! Glad to have started... but ready to be done! The paperwork is still overwhelming, but doable! Some of the paperwork is not that bad, just time consuming. We are also required to read three different books... they really need to evaluate this list. The books are really boring!! And repetitive. One book was written more for families to help them understand the process and how to offer some support. We actually gave this book to a couple of our family members for Christmas, so this book was good for us to read! The other two are very similar. More like self help parenting books. I really don't like self-help books, they are sort of boring and there is no story to them I would much rather attend a class/conference! Which is what we are going to be doing! We have a friend from church that works for a child welfare agency and is keeping us up to date on upcoming child training courses (these are classes that would offer extra training on trauma, child abuse etc...). I also attended the Hearts-at-Home moms conference this past weekend! It was amazing, of course!!! I picked up a book about caring for "that child" / the hyperactive child! I believe this will be of a benefit. Luckily this is not a required reading so I can skip around and read at my own pace! 

We are also trying to find time to enjoy this nice weather, and each other! We try very hard to spend lots of time with Jaxon! Luckily the weather was very nice last Wednesday and the boys spent most of the day outside! Jaxon was very excited about this! I never thought that I would ever say this.. but I am actually excited for baseball to start! 22 more days until the Chiefs home opener... we already have our tickets!!! We also have our tickets for the 2015 Midwest League All-Star league game! 

Jeff is also going to be going to Man Camp! Its a guys church retreat in Michigan. Our church has 20 guys going! He is pretty excited... some of there "selling" points is that the will get to grille their own steak and eat bacon! 

Jaxon and I are planning on spending quality time together.. we are going to paint pottery in Peoria! I am pretty excited.. I think Jaxon is too! We also might grille out a steak... but prob will skip the bacon! 

Jeff and I also got to go see Eric Church last night.. it was a lot of fun! So we are spending time together also! We also have gotten really involved in our church! I LOVE our church! I am so glad that God has placed us there! Lots of great friends and wonderful support! 

Overloaded

We have been overloaded on paperwork and more paperwork. Or as the agency likes to call it "homework" I feel like all I have been doing is answering the same questions over and over again. I am pretty sure it would have been easier for the agency to just sit down with one very long interview and get all the questions out of the way.

We are officially done with round one of classes. Those were the easy ones! In addition to the foster care PRIDE classes, our agency requires us to take additional classes. These classes are supposed to better prepare us for the children that will one day join our families! Glad that'd done!! Though, the next classes are 9 sessions and three hours each session.

Now those of you that know us probably thought that we had already started the PRIDE classes. Well, there was a miscommunication with our agency, and they never actually registered us for those classes. So, after I looked at the scheduled, I had to get creative... We are taking the classes with some mild adjustments (we are jumping in on 2 different classes for our sessions... its complicated, but it worked).

Mostly that's pretty much where we are in the process! Just lots and lots of paperwork and more classes! I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed at times! I am really stressed out over all the paperwork that we have to complete. Its just writing, and a lot of it.

Jeff's brother is going through the process, though not sure their plan is working out the way they had hoped for. They had a child in their home and was hoping for another but has fallen through... I think? For one reason or another its not working out how they wanted. They never keep us updated and let us know how the process is working out... I feel like I can't even offer support without getting yelled at.

This was what I was afraid of... there situation was totally different from ours. They were doing the route of foster with hopes of adopting, this is what our agency calls a huge "legal risk" The parents still have legal ties to the child, and they working toward terminating rights. Though, they would ne in the very early stages of that. The parents may still have visitation and some say over the child. So depending on the family situation, they could still work to get the kids back. Our agency would be trying to potentially help the parents out at this point. Of course, there are some situations where they would be moving more toward termination of rights... each case is different!

There are varying levels of legal risk in our agency. Some just like stated above, and others where there is minimal risk, and even others where there would be none. Since we are not going to be foster parents to the child, we are going to be their forever family... there would be very very minimal legal risk to none.

I want to offer support to my sister-in-law, but every time I try to ask how things are going or how she is doing, she just gets mad and tells me (in a harsh tone) that she does not want to talk about it and has lost trust in the whole process. I wish she would talk to me, I might be able to offer some insight into things since Jeff and I have had to take additional classes (they would not have taken them since they are going through a different agency and a different route). I am just upset and not feeling needed support from certain family because of their situation. I also feel like we have to keep this quiet and we can't be excited about our process and talk openly about it at times (only with certain group of people). I am respecting their wishes about not talking about their situation, but does that mean we can't talk about ours? That we can't be excited? Just struggling with all this...

Do not be terrified, do not be discourages for the LORD your God will be with your wherever you go - Joshua 1:9