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12 Sensory Tools For Your Home

When we became foster parents, we were first time parents. The world of childhood development was a bit new to us. We had read some books, played with younger siblings, nieces, and younger cousins, but had never been in the trenches with childhood development. Foster care throws you in the trenches, and can expose you to a very neuro-diverse array of children in a short amount of time. Since we started fostering, we have had 12 kiddos in care, and one bio child. With nearly every child, we have experienced a “that is new to us” moment, in learning how a kiddos brain develops. This post will hopefully share with you, some of the tools we have picked up along the way, in helping to nurture children with sensory processing needs.

We are by no means experts in this field, but we do have experience. We have had numerous kiddos in our care who have been diagnosed with “sensory processing disorder” and others who were considered to have sensory needs. These terms were new to us initially, but seem to be more common or discussed in parenting and especially foster parenting circles over the last few years. Maybe it is just similar to that phenomenon where you buy a car you like, and then all of a sudden you see the same car everywhere.

Continue reading “12 Sensory Tools For Your Home”

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Enjoy the Time You Have: Being present with your kiddo in the uncertainty of foster care

When you become a foster parent and open your home to a kiddo in need, you are welcoming a child into your home out of love and necessity. The reason you open your home to a child is because at your core you want to love and care for kiddos. The only reason you are able to accept kids into your home is because, unfortunately, there is a need.

When you say yes to a “placement”, you are saying yes to expanding your family. It is an incredible feeling that is very hard to explain. There is so much joy and excitement, there is no doubt that there is a tremendous amount of love, but there is also an underlying fear and anxiety.  The fear and anxiety, initially, is not overwhelming or overbearing. It might give you butterflies or make you a bit nervous, and feels a bit like “falling in love”. But overtime, this can change, and the anxiety and fear, especially around the future, and potential loss, can grow and become overwhelming.

This post will hopefully provide some perspective that helps foster parents, and those who know, love, support, and are allies of foster parents, understand that the fear and anxiety surrounding the duration or ultimate outcome of a placement is “ok”, but it is more important to focus on the present, and enjoy the time you have.

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Foster Parents at the Senate

On November 19, 2019, a grassroots non-profit organization that we are a part of, called Foster Parents Together, were given the opportunity to speak to the Oregon State Senate on Legislature Listening Days. The goal was to voice concerns, experiences, and recommendations to politicians who have the power and duty to improve the foster care system. Often, a missing voice in the conversations regarding fixing the foster care system is the voice of the foster families who live the struggle every day. This was our opportunity to speak.

Aaron, along with other foster parents and advocates from around the state gave over 20-minutes of statements to state senators, the head of DHS, and the director of child welfare, in hopes of working together to improve the system.

The following is the written statement Aaron prepared and the statement to the senate was based on*.

“Hello,

First, I would like to say “thank you” to all of you for giving us this opportunity to speak today on this very important topic.  My hope is that we can work together to improve the state of child welfare in Oregon to benefit the children in care, the foster parents trying to help, and bio-families who need support. Continue reading “Foster Parents at the Senate”

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10 Tips for Successful Foster Care Visits

Visits for Kids in Foster Care

As we write this post, our kiddos are on a visit. Visitation is an aspect of being a foster parent that is quite interesting, but honestly, not that unique in the world of parenting. If you were raised in a family that experienced a divorce, visitation in foster care can be compared to visitations or shared custody between divorced parents. This post is a guide to help foster parents navigate the intricacies of visitations, and hopefully set themselves, their kiddos, and the bio-family up for success.

See our previous post for a discussion on why visits are so important, Foster Care Visitation (Pt. 1)

Visitations can be very hard for kids. It can be difficult for them to understand and process all of the emotions they are feeling. The whole event can be very exhausting, overwhelming, exciting, anxiety inducing, amazing, disappointing, as well as a myriad of other emotions and feelings. All of this can make for a pretty difficult build up and come down for you and your family, if you are not properly prepared for visits.  Hopefully some of the suggestions in this post can help you navigate, survive, or even flourish during visitation days. Continue reading “10 Tips for Successful Foster Care Visits”

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Foster Care Visitation (Pt. 1)

Visitation

I want to spend some time talking about visitations. If you are new to foster care, or even if your own family is going through a separation or divorce, you may be getting introduced and familiarized with the idea of visitations. You might also find yourself experiencing and getting familiarized with emotions and behaviors surrounding visitations. Behaviors both from the kiddos, and the adults involved. I wrote this post with the hope to encourage you during these potentially difficult times. Hopefully, through this post, and others to follow, I can provide some insight on why the children and adults in your life act the way they do, why visits are important, and how to prepare yourself and your family for visits, and be as successful as possible.

Continue reading “Foster Care Visitation (Pt. 1)”
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We Have An Emergency – Foster Care

Emergency Foster Care

Emergency Foster Care Placements

This post is the first in a series of 6, that discusses what Foster Care Emergency Placements are, how and why we decided to open our home to Emergency Foster Care Placements, and our experience as an Emergency Placement Home.

We Have An Emergency

When Ariel left our home for her potential forever home, we needed time to process the change in our family, and reflect on our journey.  When a child leaves your home, even in the best of circumstances, it is a painful experience.  However, as we slowly processed the change in our home and came to terms with our new “normal”, we quickly remembered the State of the System  in Oregon, and the crisis that we are in.  Some people process loss and grief by carrying on with life, by returning to work, maintaining routines, and pushing forward. In the few short weeks after Ariel moved from our home, it became apparent that this is how our family processes change, copes, and continues on in this crazy world of foster care.

After much thought, reflection, and conversation, coupled with the knowledge that in Oregon, children in the foster care system spend nights, weeks, or even months in hotels due to a lack of available foster care providers and beds, we decided to open our home to emergency foster care placements.  We agreed that with only one child in the home, we did not want to sit by with a perfectly good empty bedroom in our home, while children, through no fault of their own, spent nights with strangers (DHS employees) in hotel rooms.

This was not a decision we made on our own though, we knew that just like the decision to become foster parents, the decision to take new placements needed to be a decision that the entire family agreed with. When we broached the conversation with Trevor*, about opening our home to “emergency” placements, to our surprise, he was fully on board. It was amazing to see his understanding of the struggle of other kids in foster care, and his desire to share his home and his family with them. We let him know that for every child DHS called us about, we would check with him first to make sure he was alright with them living with us.

And so, we began opening our home to “emergency” placements. We became emergency foster parents much the same way that we became foster parents. We had the resources, and there was a need.

Continue reading “We Have An Emergency – Foster Care”

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How Would You Rate Your Pain?

Emergency Mamas

We are very excited to share a guest post from Emergency Mamas. It is wonderful to find like minded Foster Parents who also share honest glimpses into their world and the hard work we do as foster parents. Although we are on the same journey, it is very interesting and informative for us read the experiences and perspectives of others, and see the similarities and differences. We hope you enjoy their post and blog as much as we do!

How Would You Rate Your Pain?

You know when you go to the doctor and they ask you to rate your pain, using some numbers and smiling/frowning faces on a little chart?

Typically, people rank much higher than they actually are feeling because the vast majority of us only know moderate pain. If you can sit up, talk to the doctor, and you drove yourself to the office…your pain is not an 8. It might  be a 5. Continue reading “How Would You Rate Your Pain?”

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We Have An Emergency – Pt. 2

Emergency Placement

Brit, 16

Our first call for an emergency placement was for Brit. She was 16, and the Placement Desk could not give us a lot of initial information about who she is or what the circumstances were for her needing a placement immediately, but stated that it does not sound like their were any behaviors or major issues that would make it a difficult placement. It was a Friday, we were off for the weekend, and we felt that we could swing it. We asked Trevor what he thought about having a 16-year old girl live with us for a few days, and before we could finish asking, he said “say yes”.  We did. Then the Placement Desk called back to see what our final decision was, and provide some additional information about Brit and her circumstances.

According to DHS, Brit was a run away who had run from numerous placements, has been homeless for the past few months, smokes cigarettes and uses marijuana. The Placement Desk seemed shocked about the cigarettes and marijuana use, and gave us every opportunity to back out. Those “behaviors” were not what we were worried about… we were petrified about her tendency to run away.  What would we do if she bolted during the night? They suggested “let her run and call the police”.  Not exactly a comforting response. We said yes, for the weekend.

Continue reading “We Have An Emergency – Pt. 2”

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We Have An(other) Emergency – Pt. 3

Foster Care

Carlton, 8

After Brit left, DHS quickly realized that our home was open to all children, not just infants and babies.  The older you are, the harder it is for DHS to find a placement for your, long term or short term.  So after Brit left, we very quickly received a call about an 8-year old boy who needed a home, after being removed from his parents and spending the weekend in a hotel.  We talked to Trevor, and he was more than eager to have a boy the same age as him over for a night or seven.

Carlton came to us confused. In his eyes, his parents were perfect. They loved him and he loved them. He missed them dearly. From what we gleaned from the the news, his story, and DHS, his parents fell into the grips of addiction and made some very poor choices. In his mind, his parent were being framed. In the eyes of the law, his dad may have been robbing banks and convenience stores, and the apartment they lived in might have had needles and drug paraphernalia laying around. Whatever the truth is, we know we had a child in our home who was scared, confused, and worried.

Continue reading “We Have An(other) Emergency – Pt. 3”

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How to Set Up a Bedroom for Foster Care

Once you start your journey into Foster Care, some people become very anxious. When will I get “the call” for my first placement? Who will it be? Am I prepared enough? Am I ready for this journey? How do I set up my foster care bedroom?!

Many people try to channel these anxious thoughts, along with all of the other crazy emotions that come with being an expectant parent, into doing something. They feel the need to prepare, to nest, and to get your foster care bedroom set up ahead of time. It is ok to be prepared!

Foster Care Room
How To Set Up A Bedroom For Foster Care

In this photo, you can see what our guest room/office looked like before we began fostering. This is what it looked like when we got called for our first placement, weeks ahead of when we were officially certified, with Four Hours notice of our first placement. If you are feeling antsy, we encourage you to make a list of things you need, plan ahead, have a game plan, and get ready to be flexible! We thought our first placement would be a school-age kiddo, but DHS called us with a 11-month old for our first kiddo.

Prior to our first placement, we thought we were prepared for a kiddo being placed in our home. Now, after 12 placements, and a 13th coming at the end of the month, ranging in age from 11-months to 16-years (no, we do not have 13 kids, that is how many we have cared for in our home), we feel like we are actually prepared.  Many people have asked us to write a post with tips for preparing a room for a placement.  Given the popularity of our Foster Care Wishlist post, and the request for a room specific post, we decided to make it happen. Here are some steps to go through so that you are more prepared than we were! Also its a great way to keep your hands busy while you wait for the call.

Continue reading “How to Set Up a Bedroom for Foster Care”