Our family has some amazing people in our lives! One person I’d like to tell you about today is Tracy. She read on my Amazon Wish List this quote about kids in foster care:

In the world of foster care moves can happen quick…Often a trash bag ends up being the easiest way to pack and move in a hurry. What does that say to a child? (source:  Young Single and Adopting)

And after Tracy read that, she did something about it and bought two suitcases and two duffel bags (among other gifts!) and they were delivered to our house this week! The children who come to us in foster care might come to us with trash bags full of their belongings, but they will not leave with a trash bag!

If you have suitcases or duffel bags in your home that are in great condition, please consider donating them to local foster care or children’s services agencies in your community! After checking into it, I found out that our agency has a nice stockpile currently but they will be doing another luggage drive in the late spring and I’m excited to help them raise awareness for that!

I don’t have much in the way of updates for you today. We are still waiting for a phone call or an email about A that will either continue our wait for her or open up our home to other placements. In the meantime, I’ve begun binge-listening to The Foster Parenting Podcast, which is an excellent resource for people just starting out or considering foster parenting!

Brandon and I have done more work since my last post, preparing a bedroom for foster care, and I wanted to share it with you! We are so excited – only 9 days until our home study will be finished! At that time, on January 19th, our home study will be sent to two places:  the person who puts the final stamp on it at our agency, at which point they will officially “open” our home and we could be called any time after that with a referral, and also to the caseworker of a child we saw on a photo listing back in October and want to learn more about.

Here’s what we’ve been up to since my last post!

We got the twin beds set up in the bedroom, which was a bit of a feat. We got them used from some very gracious friends, but had no assembly instructions and no information on the brand of the bed. Brandon was able to get them together though!

As you can see, we still need to purchase one twin mattress, for the bed on the left, which we will purchase in the next few days. As a reminder, we chose gray because it goes with almost everything. So we will get comforters, throw pillows, and accent items once we know the age, gender, and likes/dislikes of the kids we will be receiving!

We also put a fresh coat of paint on the walls!

I hung up my Easy Daysies Magnetic Schedule, which I reviewed over a year ago. We’ve been told over and over that kids in foster care need a structure and need to see what the schedule looks like. I think this will be a big help!

We got some more cute artwork for the room, another canvas from Big Lots, and this cute printable that I stumbled upon on Pinterest.

I also worked on creating a little Welcome To Our Home Book, which I saw recommended on this blog. It’s something I’ll leave in the bedroom and can easily change the content based on the child and the information they need.

I also added this book holder, filled with lots of books, classic ones like Cordoroy, and also the many wonderful books we’ve received from friends and family that were on our Foster-to-Adopt Wish List! We are so thankful for our friends!

Speaking of them, here are more gifts we received this week:

THANK YOU!

I got some great comments and input after my last post. Do you have any more suggestions or ideas for these rooms? I’d love to hear them!

It’s hard to believe, but if all goes smoothly the next few weeks, our home will be certified as a foster home by the end of the month! We have two more classes to complete and a few more T’s to cross and I’s to dot, but it looks like it’s going to happen, and SOON! I wanted to share with you how we’ve been preparing a bedroom for foster care.

With over a week off of work, I’ve been working on de-cluttering our house, particularly the extra bedroom, preparing it for foster care and for the kids that our agency will send our way! It is so exciting! This room has been many things over the years:  a nursery for Spencer, a shared bedroom for both boys, a “guest” room (though we never had a spare bed in there, just an air mattress – much to the chagrin of our guests!), and a game room. There have been several occasions over the years where we almost re-did it as a man cave for Brandon but it never happened and I guess there’s a reason for that!

We have some awesome friends that you’ll hear about in this post who have helped this room get outfitted for our new family members, whether those children stay for a week, months, or years. We are so grateful to these people and those who are surrounding us with prayer as we get ready for this new adventure! The first friends you’ll hear about are Jacob and Brenda, who work with us at our church. They are giving (GIVING!) us a set of bunk beds that their daughter hasn’t used! Those beds will be set up as twin beds tomorrow. You’ll see pics in Part 2!

We decided to purchase gray bedding for the beds for the in-between stage. Gray is so chic (yeah, I said chic) and looks great with almost every color! So depending on the age and gender of the kids we have placed with us, we will get some decorative pillows and accents for the room – how cute will these look, paired with a hot pink, sky blue, or bright orange pillow set? Also, these blankets are super warm, and will work under a printed comforter that we’ll pick out with the kids.

On the dresser, which had been upstairs in the bonus/play room (kind of randomly holding craft supplies), I have a little basket with some toiletries, new toothbrushes, an extra throw blanket, extra nightlights, and a few other things, including the book , which my parents gave us at Christmas.

I don’t expect the kids to use hotel shampoos and soaps, I just want them to have something that is THEIRS right away and we will pick out their favorite scents and colors later. An awesome friend that I’ve never met in person, Jennifer, ordered some items from our Foster/Adopt Amazon Wish List — a Tracfone, which I’ve seen recommended for kids’ phone calls with their biological parents [See my update on this here], and a box of individually wrapped toothbrushes! How sweet is that??

I also found this cute little print at Walmart ($3.97!) and thought it was perfect for the room, with the gray and yellow!

Today we worked on peeling off the car decals we’ve had on the wall since Miles was little. Man those things are sticky! They also peeled off a lot of paint, so we’ll patch those spots this week. The final awesome friends that you’ll hear about today are Tom and Jenny, who saw that I wanted this wall print for the bedroom and said “GET IT! We’ll reimburse you for it and you can consider it an ‘open for fostering’ present!”

Perfect, right? I have my eye on another print of the same size at Big Lots that says “So many of my smiles begin with you” to go on the other side of the window.

This week we’ll be finishing up the beds and also my clothing stash. I have so many friends (Renee, Carrie, Rachel, and Angela) who have blessed us with hand-me-downs for the boys and now our future foster children! We have an incredible amount of clothes on hand — so much that I’m not sure where to keep them all and I was able to get together two bags and a big box of clothes to take to our foster care agency, who wants to start a clothing swap for their families!

Ready for Part 2??

Been There, Done That foster parents, do you have any suggestions?