Just starting, looking for guidance

Melissa~ I am so sorry for you loss. I have been there. Are you planning to foster-adopt or going with an agency for adoption? If you are planning to foster-adopt you should be able to go to your state's DCFS website and download a foster parenting manual. There will be requirements in there such as locking up all medicine and cleaners etc., having outside equipment anchored, pools blocked, fire extinguishers, fire plan posted, etc. Good luck!

Thanks! We are looking to foster, and eventually adopt. DH wants to start out fostering. He said he wants to eventually adopt, but he wants me to know that the babes will be leaving so i wont want to adopt them all LOL I will check out the fostering manual idea, and see what I can find! Thanks!

Question: "We also are trimming our debt by quite a bit, since we are living paycheck to paycheck, we worry that would disqualify us. we know in the next 6 months, we will be in a much better place financially. If we are not great now, will that put us out right away?" We are also a large family (seven inc. me and dh), and according to poverty quidelines, we are poverty level, BUT, we own our home, have no car payments, and can easily provide for our family b/c of this with some money to save every month. Our licensing worker knows this, and she said they just want to make sure we don't need the monthy stiped to pay our bills we have now, that we will be able to use it for the child. So my understanding is if your paying your bills on time, even if your not 'rich' you would still be able to foster. You may want to check with your county just to make sure though! Good luck

I went to an orientation in Dec. and they said they will look at your finances to make sure that you can pay your bills, so if they look at all your bills and your monthly income, even if you have $5 left after all the bills are paid, that's all they care about. Our instructor emphasized that they aren't looking for rich families; they are just trying to make sure people aren't getting into foster care for the subsidies.

We sent in our paperwork today for Special Freinds and the preintake packet. I am so excited. I am wondering, when it comes to finances if they do a full credit check. Our credit was damaged last year after a bad business decision we made, but we were able to recover. And we are almost caught up on DH student loans. I wonder if we are behind but working with the company if that will be a horrible thing. At this point we are able to pay our monthly bills, extra to the student loans to catch up, extra to the credit cards and will have them paid off in 2 months, and we still have money to eat. We have no car payments, and we own our home. I guess i am really nervous because 5 months ago, we were 60 days late on our mortgage, but caught that all up and are over paying now, and we are still considered behind on our student loans. On the credit report they will show behind, until they are caught up, even though we are working with them. On paper we should have about 600 dollars left at the end of the month, not including food, but because we are trying to eliminate what is left of our debt, and catch up on student loans, we choose to have less fun money, and choose not to try to have savings. Getting out of debt is more important. Hopefully the govt will come thru with that rebate check soon, so i will officailly be caught up and paid off on a lot of things!! LOL At what point into the process do they look at your financial situation? last night i was told that the home study is a ways down the road. is it part of that? Thanks for the advice and answers. I am feeling like i am in a hurry, and i want it all done yesterday, but if i have to wait 6 months, so i wont be turned down, for being a little behind on stufent loans, and so our credit is better, I will.

I 1978 I am with same program We have been with them for 2 years nice people always willing to help Do you know who you will be mentoring? If you have any question please pm me.

Melissa~ Our state does not do a credit check. They gave us a worksheet early on where one side listed all income and the other side listed all bills including home and car ins, medical premiums, mortgage, car pyt, student loans, monthly electric and phone, groceries, credit card, etc. so that they can see if you have enough to cover your bills. Your past credit history should not come into play unless those are still bills you are paying and will need to include on your worksheet. As long as you can make the minimum monthly payments on everything you should be fine. Even if the minimum is $100 and you are paying $300 to pay off your debt, only list the $100 on the worksheet because that is what you HAVE to pay each month and in a squeeze could use that other $200 for something else if needed. So put only what you have to pay. Ours was short as we drive older vehicles and have no car loans or credit card debt..........but boy do I feel you on the student loans! :o) We started classes. The licensing dept came to our home and made some suggestions and had a checklist to go over to make sure we met all the safety requirements inside and outside the home. It also had the paperwork we would need to collect and turn it but we had already done all that. Then at the end of classes, the same person came and inspected our house for our homestudy to make sure we had done the suggestions and requirements. She approved us and we were in the computer two days later and open for children. Our first came a week later and he is still with us. So from start to finish it took us 2 and a half months to go from inquiry meeting to licensed foster home. We took the Saturday all day PRIDE classes for 5 weeks. Your AASK may be different. We have not had a lot of trouble with the system, but I am not a shy one either and will tell them what we need and expect and what we were told in class our rights were. Good luck and let us know when you finish! Kim

Thank you for the info. That really helps. On a month to month basis on paper we have lots of money left over. but with the reality of having children, who always know when we will have a little money in the bank, we can count on a trip to the ER or a major growth spurt to take care of that. But we luckily we have the money to cover it. I was even thinking of getting a newspaper delievery job, just until we are thru the training to finsih paying stuff off. we are so close to being done with debt, and i just want it over. LOL I am going to call the CW(?) i met at the last meeting to see what she has to say. Thanks! Melissa