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So my husband and I called the FAFS hotline for NJ December 3rd. They picked up right away, took our information, and they said that we would be called about a "Gathering Meeting" (I think is what she quickly called it) by the caseworker in our area/county. It should take about 5-10 business days for them to contact us.
I found our county's advocate's number online, and I decided to call her to see if I could find out any more information a couple days later. She was extremely nice, and said that she would forward our "application" over right away as soon as we got off the phone. She would make it clear that we were very anxious to get started, and they should contact me within the week.
Well, it's been about 4 weeks since we first called, and we have heard nothing. On week 3, I called the hotline to find out what the status of our information was. I saw on our county's website that there was an event listed for the following week, and I wanted to see if that was open to us as well.
I ended up calling 4 times that week. Each time I was on hold for about 10-40 minutes before I just hung up. No one ever picked up. Desperate to see if we could go to the event, I decided to take our advocate's offer of calling her any time with questions, lol. I called her, she didn't pick up, so I left a voicemail.
Fast forward two weeks past that, and we still haven't heard anything from her nor anyone else. We missed the event because no one could tell us about it that we did get in touch with, and the people that are supposed to be able to tell us (our advocate and hotline) never picked up.
We now found out that apparently on the 4th Tuesday of every month is when meetings are held in our county for Foster/Adoption. Now I don't know if we should just attend one if they don't call us back, or what I should.
Anyone else have any insight?
I understand that they tend to "weed out the 'bad ones'" so to speak by seeing who sticks it through in some ways. I know they are overworked, underpayed, and understaffed. However, is it normal to not hear anything??
I get that this process is a LONG one, and this could be just the beginning of the battle.
I think I'm just frustrated because we could have attended 2 meetings by now, and we haven't because no one is telling us anything.
The Gathering Meeting is supposedly a hour long review, and we can fill out our first application at the end of night if we decided to proceed. My husband and I already know for a fact that we are doing this, so waiting months to just sign up is becoming frustrating. We just want to get the ball rolling!!
However, at the same time, I don't want to step on any toes or anything like that.
Help! Any advice?
Thansk!! :]
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This exact situation is why we ended up going with a private agency. In fact when the CW from my agency tried to get information about Pride training dates they wouldn't return her call either. I ended up going to the dyfs office and sitting in the waiting room until someone would give me the dates of the next pride training. Of course they only gave me one option and not any information about weekend dates.
I would just show up at the next meeting. The worst they can do is ask you to leave but I doubt they will.
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This happened to me too. The first time I called, I heard nothing. The second time I called, I got a letter in the mail ONE DAY before an info session. I was away at the time and got home to a useless piece of mail.
It took me almost another YEAR to learn that our county has info sessions once a month on the same day of the week, at the same time and in the same place. I finally got registered for one and was licensed about 4 months later.
Having been to an info session, yes, I would just show up. No one will mind. And it might expedite things. If you hear of any events, just show up.
Once the process began, it went quickly (for me, anyway). But getting that first bit of info was like pulling teeth.
Good luck!
Thank You everyone!!!
I finally found another number/person. Turns out, he's the one that actual recruits people. He said we get to skip the invitation because we're already applied now that we've talked to him! YAY!
What's the problem now?
My husband came home stating that his job is causing him to leave for a couple of weeks starting February 1st. When does training start? February 2nd. :(
I cannot believe it! It makes me sooo frustrated that we could have been done by now with the speed they do, if they would have originally called us back in November!!
Now, we're going to have to wait until the next training, which I believe it is in April or May. :confused:
So upsetting.
The only option we have is that someone suggested that we may try to do another county's training.
Anyone know if you can do this??
The other two counties are 30 minutes away and within the same state. They're even paired together with our county under the same supervision, but they still have different training dates.
Anyone have any suggestions??
I'm guessing my husband can't attend these later, and me just go?
In our county you can do it however you can work it out, as long as you get those hours in. I went one month and my husband went the next. They started our homestudy while we were doing the classes so that it didn't take so long waiting for that. They seemed very flexible in the classes, just making sure you got each required session, but it didn't matter too much if you had to skip and make it up, but like you said, it is nice just to get it done and over with!
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