When did you prepare?

I prepared some, I wanted girls, preschool to young grade school, so I got girl furniture that would be good for toddlers to older teens - but then I was offered and accepted an infant...I had nothing for this age group - so much for preparing ahead:rolleyes: Well at least I'll have the furniture for when she gets older - or if the next one is older than Li'l Singer.

I'm your "typical" planner, everything in it's place type of person. So we started right after taking our first official class. We are now just waiting for our license to come in and that first call. Since my daughter is grown and out of the house we turned her room into a toddler room and moved all the weights to the garage and made that room a girls room. We have a toddler bed and decorations in the one room with a dresser and a bunk bed, dresser and stuffed animals in the other. All my co-workers have been great! They've donated clothing and toys, bottles and sippy cups! I have a crib in the garage if it is needed. Our local appliance guy that fixes old appliances donated an extra refrigerator and deep freezer. I check the local garage sales (you would not believe what you will find with tags still on!) The only thing I would not be ready for if I were to get a call this moment would be for boys that needed something bigger than a toddler bed, but I have a friend selling another bunk bed I looked at today and should be picking up this weekend and putting in the garage as well. I know I went overboard I'm sure... I also have scrap books for multiple ages and sex for their pictures and school supplies ready to go. We have a big age range of 0-10 boys or girls and licensed for 4. So I had a lot to be prepared for. Sorry this is so long but I also think it has helped me deal with the excitement while waiting :)

Our last homestudy meeting is this week and we have to have our children's furniture and the house childproofed for our license. We received a huge book @ our first class and it had checklists. I haven't started even shopping for clothing, carseats, stollers, books, bedding, etc. I know I will start once we are licensed because we will be open for siblings.

I am licensed for 2 ages 0-5, either gender. I was told that I needed to have at least one twin bed set up and was asked how long it would take me to get a crib or another bed if I was called for a placement. I told them about an hour, I'd go to Sam's for a twin and Target or Walmart for a crib. I have plain walls for now, but I have a 7 year old daughter so enough decor and clothes to start us off. Due to my daughter's love of Toy Story I can make a boy for comfortable until I can decorate to his tastes but he'd have to wait on getting the purple bed painted to a neutral color. I stood in the baby section of Target for 30 minutes talking myself out of buying clothes, diapers and other stuff in assorted sixe ranges. I am practicing patience, at least today.

placement specific things, I'd wait, but the necessities, I'd go ahead and get.My mindset is get your must haves when it's on sale so you're not scrambling later and spending a ton of money all at onceThe beds and place to put clothes was required prior to approval here

I wouldn't get much ahead of time every a car seat and bed, I thought I was prepared ahead of time but whatever you have on hand is going to be the opposite of what they need. Murphy's law of course.

We haven't started classes yet as we start at the end of the month. We listed that we wanted 0-8 either gender. But we have absolutely nothing. Our kids are older so we don't have a thing. I found a good used crib, high chair and stuff like that and want to get it. My husbands thinking is, what if we get it and end up with older kids like 5+ and never need this younger child furniture. Which I understand but I also don't want to get a call for a young child and not be able to find something at a decent price so end up buying new and paying way to much. I am almost thinking of telling him I need a dollar amount to get started with, that way I still with only the necessities. But I think because of our huge age range we need to get a toddler bed and a twin bed just in case. Maybe when we get further into things we will know what to do without being so unsure.

I'm in the same boat...our "kids room" used to be a home office so if our agency required file cabinets, bookcases and a desk we'd be set! But since we are also 0-7 we needed to get rid of all that and replace it with a range of beds in different sizes plus a dresser and an empty closet. I'm trying to keep the redecorating affordable so we can splurge in other areas when we get placements. Our agency discouraged us from buying anything until we got close to being licensed. I think they don't want potential parents up in arms about setting up a entire gorgeous room at their own expense and then not passing the home study. We kept the room the same color since its neutral and I thought I'd try a few of those fun wall decals. A friend donated her crib and mattress (after I checked the recall list) and I found a adorable toddler bed at the Goodwill for $24. We also found a used dresser that I'm going to freshen up with paint and plus we are repurposing a few of the things that used to be in the room but I'm making them cuter for a kid's room (hello, chalk paint). I did order a brand new twin mattress and toddler bed mattress. This is in addition to the safety stuff like our earthquake kit, 2nd floor ladder, baby gate, first aid kit, fire extinguishers, magnetic locks on the cabinets with knives and drugs and buying locking garage cabinets for the paint and cleaning stuff. No one can say we aren't committed! :p

A friend gave me some stuff yesterday. I haven't even gone through it all yet. I just don't want to wait until we have the go ahead to get this stuff and not be able to find good deals. We live way out and the nearest town isn't even that big so shopping is limited there too. So I am trying to find used in great shape for good price furniture.

We were required to have beds and dressers before we got licensed. We also invested in car seats for appropriate ages. (we have them from 4lbs to 'ready for college' sizes lol) We did scramble for other supplies when we got our first placement....it's really hard to shop with new kids in tow, and especially traumatized kids....! my advice is to get enough for the first night (one change of clothes each size, gender neutral if possible), have a few bottles, bibs, toothbrushes, etc.

We are VERY early in the foster process, like just now THINK we have our agency picked...but I have already been looking around. Our age range will be 0-2 or 3 so we will need crib and toddler bed. We will get one of the beds that converts to a crib, toddler bed, then a full size bed. Ikea has a cute set for about 300 that includes the convertable bed, a wardrobe, and a cute changing table that converts into a shelving unit. I am hoping to get stroller, playpen, high chair, etc from a sale that my friend knows about...it happens every 6 months or so and it is like a big garage sale for kids things...and if you volunteer to "work" the sale, you get in early to get first dibs. I do not know how any of this will work out in reality but I am hoping... Clothes are easy enough to get... we have tons of second hand stores, malls, etc.... But of course I stroll thru the kids dept of TJ Maxx everytime I go in. Tiff

We should have our license by Monday WOOHOO (was hoping for today, but it didn't happen). Our age range is newborn to about 8, boy or girl. I am getting everything I can now, especially all the baby/toddler stuff. My thinking is even if we don't need it for our first placement, we are hoping to help a lot of kids, so we will probably eventually need it. I would rather have it in storage than try to run out and buy it with a new baby/toddler. For the older kids I'm not planning ahead as much.

Looks like we will be licensed on Tuesday for the same age range! We are picking up all our donated things from friends and family this weekend. Our agency is asking us to write an essay about what we think the first 7 days will be like with our placement. We have no idea what to expect! No bios to draw experience from and such a wide age range leaves a lot of possibilities :eek:

I was just fixing to start a new thread in Foster Parent Support about this :-) Today I picked up a few donated things...pack-n-play, swing, carseat, walker, bumbo chair, toys, a few clothes, and a bouncy chair type thing. I will pick up the rest this week. But now...I am going CRAZY waiting. I just have the stuff sitting in the livingroom right now, and I cant quit staring at it all. How does everyone stay sane while waiting???? I plan on spending the next few days cleaning all the baby stuff (if we don't get a baby at first and it has to be put in storage, I'll just clean it again when we get a baby), and trying to stay busy. :woohoo: An essay?? Wow, haven't heard of that one. We have 5 grown adult children, and I'm not sure I could write one on what to expect. Tell them alot of crying, smiling, pulling hair out, hugs, tantrums, naps, no sleep at night...and thats just yall, that you have no idea how the kids will be lol. BTW, congratulations. I'm sure you are as excited as I am.

I got a lot of the same stuff you did! I'm so tired from hanging and folding all the outfits. Once I took them out I realized they are in no way unisex and there is not one single thing for a boy. Even the bibs are girly! The hubs could not understand the compulsion to hang all the stuff and filling the drawers. He thinks it all should be in labeled trash bags to leave room for whatever clothes the placement might come with. But, the closet was begging to get filled :laundry: I could always take them out when we get "the call".