Logistics?

sounds like a good idea to wait for more space. I have a 4 bedroom home but because all my bio kids are teenagers I can not have FC in any of the rooms unless they are the same sex and with in 5 years of their age. I can have up to two infants in my room until they are two. Which is what I did, don't want anymore teenagers. In your case I would wait considering you could only handle holding one baby at a time. Good luck with your future plans Henderfive

I actually don't want any babies. I'd prefer 3+. I figure that there's a lot of folks out there that want 0-3, so I'd rather go with the older kids. I'd prefer an older child to adopt too...and given the space, an older sib group.

we now have 6 bedrooms, but until a month ago had 3. we had our two bio girls in one, two foster sons in another, adopted son in with us. now two fs share our old room, one in the other small one they were crammed into together before, one is a nap/guest room for our daycare, daughters share one, son is in another, and we have one. we also just got a second bathroom. we have a playroom, living room, and the unfinished basement is a 'man cave' for the boys with a foosball table, exercise stuff, and video games. we sold our minivan and bought a full size van that holds 9, if we changed some of the captain chairs into benches it would hold more. all used, of course...our van is a 93 and was only 2000 bucks. the only problem is we don't have enough room to sit down and eat together, but most of the time one or two boys are working or at some practice or something so we aren't together anyway.

Once my 18 yo went off to college, we applied, and were just re-approved to foster again and I can't wait! We have two bedrooms empty, the small one just has a bunkbed in it. The large one has a bunkbed, and single bed (at one time it had 2 bunkbed sets in it). The rooms aren't large, but they are just for sleeping. We have our boys - 6yo (adopted) my 14yo bio, and my hubby's 16 yo bio in one bedroom. My hubby made their beds - basically a box with a ledge inside for the piece of plywood with their mattress resting on top. Under the plywood (in the base of the bed) is their off season clothes, sleeping bag for camping, bb guns/paint ball guns and a plastic box for momentos (school awards, pictures, etc). Each boy gets 2 shelves in the closet, one for shirts and the other for pants or shorts and a hook for their (color coded) towel. Each has a box, a bit smaller than a milk crate for socks, pjs, and underwear. Each boy also has a plastic "shoe box" for toothbrush, toothpaste, deoderant, soap and shampoo and puff. I try to keep extra clothes under the bed, and only keep about 6 outfits out for them to wear. Any more than that, and they'll change clothes multiple times a day and wear everything they own in 3 days! I keep 2 sets of church clothes for them in my room. Our girls (16yo and 9yo both adopted) are in the attic...hubby made their beds, too. Same deal...keep off season clothes and momentos underneath. A milk crate or two for socks, undies, pj's. A shoe box for personal stuff. No toys in bedrooms, no tvs or computers, only a few books and favorite teddy or two. It is best to not allow kids out of sight and playing with each other upstairs or in rooms with doors, we've learned. We also use string lights around the bedroom windows, keeps the room lit up enough, no night lights needed. We also have a door alarm on the foster kids bedrooms. We learned the hard way about foster kids sneaking around at nite. Some kids shower at nite, some in the morning, and my 16yo daughter in the afternoon! Sometimes we just let them get in the jacuzzi instead of a shower. We got a dining room table at IKEA that has 2 inserts and seats 10 to 12 easily for under $300!!!! Dinners always have a starch (rice, potato, pasta, bread) and if we have extra people for dinner I always include two cans of corn and a jar of applesauce to stretch out the meal. In our kitchen we have our cabinets "dedicated". We have a breakfast cabinet (oatmeal, pb crackers, pancake mix and syrup). I found cereal dispensers at Boscov's, (bought 2 of them) and fill them with different kinds of cereal. I buy the super big bag of cheap no-name cereal, but they can't tell b/c I dump the cereal in dispenser. We have a lunch cabinet (oodles of noodles, canned spag-o-s, peanut butter, mac n cheese). We have a LOCKED snack/medicine cabinet. I shop at Aldi's (discount) and use AngelFood Ministries and ALWAYS the Dollar Store for toilet paper, paper towels, soap, etc. We have a 15 passenger van, took the back seat out, and can fit 11 plus baggage. I love having a big family and can't wait to get more!

Thank you so much for your responses! Where I live, its fairly recent that they'll allow fc to share a room with bios. It used to be that they must have a room of their own, period. Something that we've never been able to accomodate. If we pursue fostering while living in our current home, we'd switch rooms with our son, so that he and a fc could share the master bedroom. Bunkbeds aren't allowed until children are 7 and up last I heard...and that's for every child, not a fc situation. I definately need a bigger kitchen, lol!

Our kids can and do share with foster kids, same sex and near the same age. We currently live in a 4 bedroom home...and we have our eye on a 6 bedroom home. But in our county they are often desperate for foster homes. We've had them ask about teens before, and we can NOT do long term care for teens. I won't have them in the room with the younger kids, and my oldest has always said he's fine with foster care as long as he doesn't have to share a room with them (he is not a social person. prefers to get to know you and then talk about deep things...not just "hang out" with groups of other teens). We have 3 girls in one room, and 3 boys in one room (my husband made custom bunk beds for both rooms, with a nice trundle). Our kids love their trundles because they don't have to make that bed and they can push it under the bunk, and have a nice open floor to play on. We will not allow our young children on the top. So they sleep on the trundle bed, so I have no fear of them rolling off the bed. Also, on the top bunk, we made a railing that extends the length of the bed except for the small space where they climb on the bed. It's also extra tall, so it'd be very difficult to roll off. We custom made the bunks just for the safety reasons. I couldn't find any that met my standards. We have strict "no playing on the bunk" rules also. In 2 years, we've not had any accidents so it's worked for us.

There are so many restrictions here on actual housing requirements that quite frankly, its no wonder that there's a shortage of foster homes. As I mentioned earlier, its only recently that fc and bio can share a room, and then its a year in age either way. According to the social worker, its ok if our dd has a room in the basement (its got a huge window, hubby can fit through it, so its really bright and sunny too) but not ok for a fc. Don't get me wrong, I understand that there absolutely should be standards in place...but when they get so prohibitive and whats ok for your bio isn't ok for fc...it makes you wonder how many ppl have shook their heads, threw up their hands and walked away. I was amazed that shaving cream would have to be locked up. I knew that according to running a dayhome (I was a licenced dayhome before my youngest) all medication needed to be under lock and key, but for foster care its all chemicals...including shaving cream. My kids PLAY in shaving cream! lol! We use it for art, and to draw letters, shapes etc in!

Those rules are quite different from ours here in Georgia. A lot of people in our area have BEAUTIFUL finished basements. So it's absolutely allowed here. As for the shaving creme...our schools use it to clean their desks! They let the kids have fun spraying them on the desks, and then spreading it and wiping it off. My teacher friends say it works great!

Our basement is finished too, lol! Subfloor, panelling on the walls, etc. But not acceptable for a fc. :hypno:

we do the color coded towels too for the fboys. they are given 4 towels, washcloths, 2 hand towels and are expected to use only their own. they do their own laundry also. they are to keep their bathroom clean of pee on the floor/toilet seat, hair on counter and sink, and spit or blood anywhere (i know it's gross, lol) with clorox wipes. i do a big clean once a week in there. if they do not do the maintanence cleaning, they will be doing the big nasty cleaning. they are to keep their rooms semi-clean. no dishes, cups, food is to be left there. if i find them they are made to wash, dry and put them away. no dishwasher use. if it stinks in there they will be told to clean it. if they leave the tv on while no one is in there it is removed. they keep all personal items (clothes, shoes, bookbags...anything) in their rooms or in an assigned bathroom drawer. if it is left out in the main house some little kid will take it (we have daycare during the day here.) one of our kids learned the hard way when he left his 200 dollar check laying around and some kid stuffed it behind a bookcase. another lost his wallet for a few days until he found it somewhere weird. when we go eat we give the boys five dollars cash if it is somewhere with a dollar menu. how they spend it is up to them. otherwise we go eat pizza alot to save money. we too do alot of shopping for the kids at aldi and the bent and dent. if they don't eat dinner they are not allowed to eat dinner portions of a snack instead (they will skip the meal and try to eat a bag of cookies or chips instead). alot of snacks i have labeled for the daycare, as well as anything else not to be eaten by them (they will try to cook a family size frozen pizza or meal type thing and eat it themsleves.). i also have the candy in a stash, and soda only comes out on weekends. we drink lots of sugar free drink mix. this turned out really long, lol. i like how some of you have custom beds you made.