Sunday, December 6, 2009

Who I am and why I'm here.

My partner and I are working towards becoming foster parents. We're currently going through PRIDE classes in our county and moving steadily towards our goal of getting licensed some time this spring.

I've been wanting to share my thoughts on this process in a way that's anonymous enough to be comfortable but also lets me keep in touch with other foster parents whose blogs I read (and many of which I've read for years). So I'm starting a blog of my own, though no guarantees that I'll post with any serious regularity.

Things I might post about include my thoughts about caseworkers and the agency... PRIDE classes... anti-racism and the white foster parent... Judaism and foster care... the things about the child welfare system that drive me insane (and there are so, so many).  I might rant a lot, or I might not. And eventually I hope to be able to tell you about the children in our care and get feedback from more experienced foster parents that will help us in parenting these kids. I really value the online community of foster parents and have found that foster parents are some of the most helpful resources in figuring out how things really work.

My partner and I have both had certain experiences with the child welfare system via our professional and personal lives... and the professional and personal lives of our friends, family and communities...  that have left us both convinced that the system is incredibly broken and dysfunctional. Yet, oddly enough, those experiences have also left us convinced that foster parenting is totally the right thing for us to do at this point in our lives.