Where do I begin...(part II)

This isn't a plug for agencies but I would go with whatever agency has the contract in your area. It is just a lot easier. If you want to message me i could tell you who the contracting agency is in your area. That us really all there is. It doesn't get much more specific than the KDHE regulations. What ages do you want and I could help more? These are in the KDHE handbook which you will get in MAPP class. I have had an initial homestudy, a renewal, and an adoption homestudy and they have never been that obstrusive. This includes the state and the agency ( who bith conduct homestudies). My experience has been the actuall walk thru takes about 15 minutes and the paperwork about two hours. They should not be looking in drawers etc. By agreeing to the homestudy you did agree to let them gain access to every room in your property. If i remember correctly three. You could use employees,coworkers, places you volunteer, church staff etc. I think that MAPP is unfortunately just as vague on these issues. MAPP addresses the changes that will happen with your family and a lot of situational discussions about how to handle foster children. The fact that you are worried is a good sign! EVERYONE who sits down the first night if MAPP feels this way. Do all the exercises and ask all your questions to the teacher and you will feel a little better. honestly a lot of questions won't be answered until you take the leap with your first placement. And just remember that they want you to pass! Kansas needs more (quality) foster parents. If things aren't perfect at the home study they won't turn you down they will most likely give you an official corrections request so that you can become compliant. I'm in KS if you want to message me i would be glad to answer any other questions that come up.

We are in KS and have our final licensing visit next week! Our friends who have just received their temp license have already received 6 calls. It took us nearly 4 months to go through the process for fostering. I think there are other steps if you come to a point where you want to adopt. But at the time you can already have the child(ren) in your home. I would love to be in contact with others here in Kansas! PM me if any of you are interested in keeping in touch. I haven't technically completed the process, but everything is done :D

Where is everyone from in Kansas? Just curious :) we are in Lawrence.

You're profile says Al? Are you new to KS?

No I just deleted my personal info and it defaulted to AL

Wow! Cool. How long have you been a FP? We are just outside of Lawrence!!

We got our license in March. We started with respite and we got our first permanent placement in late April. We just moved to our new house and are getting a new license for four kids. What about you? It's so nice to meet other people who are fostering!

I am so glad to meet you too! It's funny, I looked back at some of your posts and saw you are younger than my oldest two DD's :clap: She is in Lawrence and homeschools our two grandchildren. We have our final visit next week!! Friends just got their temp license last week and have gotten 6 calls! There must be a big need around here, which is sad....we are taking girls only ages 5-10. We have two girls at home in elementary school.

I am one of the younger foster parents out there :) No one really said anything about it until our first support meeting and one of the parents asked us if we were the interns who would be babysitting at the meeting. Haha. Isn't it crazy the amount of calls? We had probably 30 calls our two weeks because we are registered 0-17. Those are awesome ages. Our current placements are 5 and just turned 7.

Theleastofthese and NewMom13 - great advice and information, thank you so much!! It is great to hear from other Kansans. We live in western Shawnee, so not far from Lawrence. We aren't sure yet what ages we want...or if it even matters to us. We are just at the beginning stages of considering the whole thing right now. We want to get as much info out of the MAPP classes before we make any final decisions. My husband and I both work full time and go to school, so we're taking the process as slowly as possible right now. Congrats to you both on completing the process and good luck, Theleastofthese on your final home visit! I'm really anxious and excited to start the process! It helps to hear from others in this area.

I miss Lawrence! I attended KU for a while but now I work at KState. (behind enemy lines ;) ) We're just outside Manhattan. We've been told we may have a placement within 6 weeks. Our license will be 0-17 but we'll be taking kids 6-12 at least at first, though we've been thinking we might be a good placement for a teen who wanted to go to college. We both work at KSU and would be willing to keep them with us while they went to school as long as everyone gets along well. But we don't have any living bio kids so we're a little scared of the whole "teen" thing. Well honestly a little scared of parenting in general but excited at the same time!

My husband went to K-State and I started there. :) Have you started getting phone calls yet? Our current placement is from around your area. We started out thinking that we would really like the middle school/teenagers and then our first placement ended up being 5 and 6. haha. Its funny because we were more nervous for little ones than big kids. I'm so excited for you because these teens need to see well educated people who are accesible to them! We are blown away at how much the kids observe our behavior and act accordingly so hopefully that will rub off on them :)

LOL that's funny! I work for Kansas Athletics....actually my office is just inside Allen Fieldhouse. I believe Bill Self serves on the board at KVC. What a small world :D I have also thought about the college opportunity, as it's free for the kids that have ever been in foster care. When my bios get older it would be nice to help some teens take advantage of a college education.

We aren't quite ready for calls yet. Our process got a little weird because we started a year ago and had to drop out due to health issues in our extended family. So we just finished our last class and had to redo background check/references stuff. I had a call from the lady who's supposed to be our case worker Friday but had a crazy day and work and couldn't return it. So Monday I'll hopefully get ahold of her and schedule a meeting/walk-through. I hope that we can have a positive impact, or at least be a safe place to rest on our kid's journeys. Theleastofthese...you work in Allen Fieldhouse???? I'm not sure I would ever get any work done but I'm extremely jealous!

We also want to be able to provide a place where the kids can be safe and enjoy their childhood a bit without stress. Over the years we would like to become a safehouse of sorts for the kids to blossom and if needed come back to us for support as they grow up and become adults. Seeing the end result of a youth being able to become a happy young adult is priceless. Yes, it is fun "working". My hubby and I love MBB! We have also gotten interested in some of the other sports but it is a cool environment. Hopefully we can pass some of that excitement on to the kids and get them interested in going to college when the time comes. Whether or not they are living with us.