Christian-Parent.com

by Rachel Paxton

If you are interested in becoming a foster parent, you can either sign up through a private agency, or through your state department of social and health services. For Washington State, you can find what you need to know here.

On their web site you can find who can be a foster parent (no, you don’t have to be married and you don’t have to be a stay-at-home mom), find out how to obtain a foster care license, and find out the training required to become a foster parent. The requirements may differ from state to state.

In Washington State, you are required to attend 27 hours of pre-service training, 8 hours of first aid/CPR, including bloodborne pathogens. This training is provided at no cost to you.

Anyone over the age of 16 who lives in your home must complete a background check with both the FBI and Washington State Patrol. You also have to have proof of having a tuberculosis test within the past year. You can have that test done at your local health department. At our health department the cost of the test is $30.00.

In addition, foster parents are required to complete 36 hours of additional ongoing training during each three year licensing period. All the initial training requires you to attend classes in person, but a lot of the ongoing training can be done online and by watching videos.

During the licensing process, a home inspection and fire inspection will be performed in your home.

It takes a minimum of several months to get your foster care license approved, and in some cases up to a year, so be prepared to “hurry up and wait” when you get all your requirements checked off. It takes time to get the inspections and background checks done.

I am very excited about the future and what is in store for 2012. Praying that I sail through the training part and get to move on quickly to the licensing part!

by Rachel Paxton

Next month I will be attending necessary training classes to become a foster parent. A couple of months ago I would never thought it would be possible. Everything has happened so fast.

My husband and I have been married for 16 years, and have five children, ages 24 to 2. Only three live at home, three boys ages 6, 6, and 2.

Tomorrow is my birthday, I can’t believe I’ll be 42! I’m definitely not getting any younger, but on the other hand I’m not quite ready to have my kids grow up quite yet. For the past 6 years I have been doing nothing but cleaning, cooking, and changing diapers, it seems!

You would think I would be ready to get all the behind me. In some ways I would be glad, but on the other hand I would also miss it. When we had our last baby, I knew that we wouldn’t have any more…mothers just know when they’re “done.”

So it came to a complete surprise to me that I would later want to become a foster parent. Probably about 6 months ago the Lord started bringing to my attention stories of babies and young children who needed foster parents. Not that I’d never heard it before, but all the sudden I couldn’t ignore it anymore. This was happening too close to home, and all around me. I couldn’t escape it.

And like my husband would go along with it…yeah right! After months of pondering and praying about what the Lord wanted me to do I brought it up with my husband. He didn’t come right out and say no…he didn’t really know what to say. I let him think about it for a couple of weeks and then started bringing up the subject up now and then just to see what he thought. Turns out he couldn’t ignore the stories either.

I read a great book called Another Place at the Table, by Kathy Harrison. Foster parenting is hard. It is heart breaking. It is life changing. It is not for everyone.

For years I have been praying that God show me how I can serve Him in ministry. I have tried serving in a number of different areas…youth group, women’s ministry, etc. I enjoyed those activities, but I feel that the Lord wants more from me…to push me beyond my limits to trust Him entirely and put my entire life into His hands.

As I have raised my children, I have realized how much I love children, and how much I love to nurture them and spend time with them. That is exactly what foster children need. According to Kathy Harrison, 90% of foster parenting is cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, and tucking kids into bed at night. I can do that. I know a lot of unpleasant things might come along with it, but someone needs to advocate for these children. They didn’t ask to be neglected or abused.