Garage Sale Deals

October 4, 2011 By 6 Comments

We were excited to do a little shopping this weekend and get a little closer to our goal of getting our foster care license. We’ve been moving slower than we thought we would, mostly because items we need are a little more expensive than we anticipated. But with a little more saving and a few garage sale deals we’ll get there soon.

We were really hoping to be able to find a crib. Unfortunately, all the cribs we saw were drop-side cribs, which we are not allowed to have because they have been recently banned. However, we did get some good deals on several other items. I’ve had several people ask to see what we got, so I took some pictures of our growing collection of baby items.

First, here are a few items we picked up at a previous garage sale. I never took pictures since we hadn’t yet shared about our foster care decision.

Toy chestStep stool

We got this matching set toy chest, shelves, and step stool. I thought they were cute and very gender neutral, which is a must for us. Plus when I was a kid my sister and I shared a room that was decorated with balloons. We got all four balloon pieces for $20. They are going in our non-nursery room for later on.

Ballon shelf

We also got a stroller, car seat, and two car seat attachments. The lady we bought them from just really wanted to get rid of them, she gave us the whole set for only $25!

Car seat set

Again, I think it’s a cute, gender neutral pattern and it looks almost brand new.

Stroller

Now for the items from Saturday’s garage sale. I bought these three canvas pictures a while back at Target for only $1 each. I figured they were so colorful that they would match with whatever we found in the future.

Animal pictures

Turns out that cute, cartoony animals is a pretty popular look. We had no problem finding things that coordinated pretty well. The first item we found was a swing that looked barely used. It has different speeds and plays music. From my babysitting experience I knew this was an item we needed. We paid only $10 for it.

Swing

We also found a bouncy seat with similar animal designs. It still had the tags on it and we paid only $20 for it. We knew that was a good deal because we had seen them in consignments shops for $50.

Bouncer

Then we got a pack ‘n play for a great deal. I hadn’t really thought about getting one, but for the price we couldn’t pass it up. Especially since it had the fun animals to coordinate with the other items we had bought.

Pack n play

It had a price tag of $15 on it, but without us even asking the lady offered to give it to us for only $10!

Fun animal print

We also got a high chair, the kind that is just a seat that straps on to a regular chair, but I’m not sure if it’s going to work or not. We have a high table and I’m not sure if the seat is quite tall enough. We’ll have to see on that one.

We’re off to a good start. We’ve been watching the sales ads to see a crib or crib set that we like. Once we get that I think we’ll be ready to get our home studies going!

Filed Under: Children Tagged With: , , ,

MAPP Lessons: Attachments

July 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Completing a MAPP (Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting) class was the first step on our road to becoming licensed foster parents. The course took place every Monday night for ten weeks, three hours each night. It was so much information over a short period of time. We really did enjoy the class, but I also felt like my head might explode by the end of each class. Since Jesse and I are both people who take time to digest information, we though it might be helpful for us to review some highlights of things we learned at a slower pace. Plus there were extra reading materials given out each week that I didn’t have the brain power to work through at the time. So, as I review I thought I would share some of the fascinating and helpful things we learned.

Maslow's Hierarchy of NeedsMost people are at least somewhat familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. We understand the concept that higher level needs cannot be thought about until lower level needs have been satisfied. The lowest level needs are physiological and survival needs. One can’t think about their need to make friends and feel good about themselves if they are worrying about getting enough food for their next meal.

The same idea applies to the way that a child works through the stages of development. When a baby is born, the baby must fully rely on the fact that someone will be there to take of him. The baby learns to trust that the same person(s) will be there every time he has a need. Obviously, for a child to be coming into the foster care system that trust has been violated for one reason or another. Development of that child is pretty much on hold until he reestablishes at least a basic level of trust in a new person.

Erikson's Psychosocial Development

When we talk with people about our foster care plans, people tend to tell us that we will just have to learn how to not get attached to the children we care for. However, we learned that it is critical that we do form an attachment because it is the only way that the child can learn to trust us or anyone else again. This will probably be the hardest part for us, but know that we can do it.

I can’t imagine how scary and confusing it must be for a child to be picked up from their home and their parents and dropped of at a stranger’s house. When this happens the child’s attachments are broken and a grieving process begins. When an adult is going through a grieving process we give them space to deal with their grief the way they feel like they need to. While a child might have different ways of expressing their grief, we need to recognize that they are grieving and be extra patient with the behaviors and other challenges that result.

Filed Under: Children Tagged With: , , , , ,

Foster Care Licensing

July 1, 2011 By 10 Comments

We are very excited to share that we are working on becoming licensed for foster care! This is something that has been on our hearts and minds for a long time now, and we are finally at a point in our lives where we can really make it happen. We still have a ways to go until our house meets all the requirements to be a licensed facility, but we are slowly and surely working to make it happen. Although we have already shared our plans with family and close friends, we’ve kinds been keeping it on the down-low until we got a little further along in the process and had a better idea ourselves about what the process would entail. So that’s where we are now.

HomeBack in January, we wanted to start looking into adoption. We went to an adoption orientation class to see where we begin. Then… mid January we decided that it was time for me to leave my job and work full-time at home with Jesse. Having such a huge life change made us wonder if we should put the whole plan on the back burner for a while. Then, after several weeks of things going really well, we decided we might as well sign up for the next step… taking MAPP class.

MAPP stands for Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting. The class basically teaches parenting techniques and how raising a non-biological child is much different than raising a biological child. The class is required for anyone looking to become an adoptive or foster parent. I’ll have to go into more detail about what we learned later, because we learned SO much. However the most surprising thing that we learned was that God was not calling us to adopt, but instead He wanted us to foster.

The first MAPP class was about how adoption and foster care works and what the differences are. By the end of the first class I was absolutely sure that I wanted to foster, which really surprised me because I was completely against the idea going into the process. The next night at dinner I casually asked Jesse how he would feel about fostering instead. He felt the exact same way I did! I can’t really put my finger on exactly what it was that made me change my heart and mind, but we changed our status from adoption to foster at class the next week.

We were very glad that we decided to take the faith based MAPP class held at Idlewild Church. One of their ministries is called FACES, which stands for For A Child’s Eternal Salvation. The focus of the class was not only to learn how to provide a physically safe home for children coming into the system of care, but also share God’s love with them while doing so. We heard dozens of stories about how children’s lives have been changes through foster care. The main teacher of the class was a long time foster parent who also had both adopted and biological children. She was full of wisdom on how to relate to these kids. I think she said she’s had something like 150 foster kids over the years. They ended up adopting some of their foster kids, some were able to go home to their parents, and some were adopted by other families. She had amazing stories about the impact they are able to have on the biological families that they keep in touch with of the kids they have adopted.

Matthew 25:35-40 … For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“The the righteous will and him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Because of our many health challenges, it isn’t very easy for us to travel much. Therefore, it is not realistic for us to go on exciting missions trips around the world. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t be a light where we are. In fact we want to bring people exactly where we are, right into our home. We are so excited to be moving along in this process and can’t wait until we are approved!

Filed Under: Children Tagged With: ,