Southwest Missouri

Dh and I live in Jasper Co. and have been foster parents for a year. We requested 0-4. We chose 0-4 as opposed to 5 as we only have one bedroom and wanted to take boys and girls. While boys and girls can share a room until age 6, we wanted to make sure that we could keep the kids long term. We did not want a boy-girl sibling set where one would turn six in a few months and we would have to have them moved. We ended up with three beautiful siblings who stole our heart! You will take the STARS classes while the homestudy process is underway. Once your classes and homestudy are complete, you will begin to get calls. Be prepared, most of the foster parents I know got children within a day or two of being licensed, so be prepared. Don't worry too much about the details. Have a bed and a crib, as well as a few clothes and toys. Since 0-5 has such a wide range of needs, just worry about the basics. If you want, keep a small "foster fund" ready for when you need it. You will probably get a clothing allowence when the children initially come into care, but, it is not much for this age group- $150 per year. After all, our three came only with the clothes on their backs. We split ours up into three $50 increments so we could get seasonal necessities between matinence checks. You also get a diaper allowence of $50 if the children are under 2. Look into WIC also as soon as you get your kids. Foster children under age 5 will qualify. It helps on the basics such as milk, cheese, cereal, infant formula, etc. It sometimes takes a week or so to get an appointment, but it is worth it, especially for formula! As for work, you should be able to get daycare for the children. As for only working two days per week, you may be better of putting them in full time daycare so the state will pay for it. I do not know if they will pay for part-time day care or if you will be able to find a part-time daycare that accepts state pay. You may want to ask. I am a stay-at-home mom and our two oldest kids had not had a lot of contact with other children and were behind developmentally, so we put them into daycare. They loved it! It was very good for them socially and developmentally. You may get a child who needs more one on one time though, our infant stays at home. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. And good luck to you. Summer will be here before you know it!

hello, we live in Stone county, not far from Greene county, our experience was that as soon as we got our licence they started placement right away, they day the licenced us they wanted us to take 2 kids but I only have one extra bedroom and kids over 6 cant share a room if they are of the oposite sex, so we had to turn them down, then 2 days later we picked up 2 little girls. it was a great experience and we fell head over heels in love with them, the sad part was that we dont want to adopt and it looked as if they were heading toward the adoption process so they were moved to a home that only wanted to adopt. That was 2 weeks and 3 days ago and we havent gotten any more calls yet. hopefully one will come soon, it is very quiet around here..we have our own children but they are 17, and then twins that are 14 so they pretty much have their own little lives and dont want to be around mom and dad all the time lol...I hope you get a placement soon...