Well, I am finally done with my classes. They were quite an eye opener. Foster care would be great to do, but I never got to talk to a “single” person doing Foster care. All the people we spoke with were married. Currently, I am looking to adopt. Here is a link to the kids I am hoping will make a match with me.
Click to access 59_RussellJasmyneAngel.pdf
I am almost done with the application so I can turn it in hopefully by Friday. Then I will be waiting for a home study, then I can inquire about the children. If you are interested in seeing some of the other children ready for adoption here is the link
http://washoecounty.us/socsrv/socsrv_child_adoption_recruit.html
When you get to this page, click on the female, male, and sibling groups to see the children waiting for forever families. Maybe they will inspire you to adopt?!
The most eye opening lesson has been reading a required book called:
- Twenty Things Adopted Children Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew
This book really makes me sit up, stop, and think. I never put the ideas together when thinking of adoption. But it makes complete sense. They talk about the kids needing to go through a grieving process of loss. Similar to when someone in our family dies and we need to morn for our loss. But the kids are not equipped to morn, nor to understand they need to. So the book gives advice on how to help a child go through this so they can bond and attatch with their new family. It is written by a woman, Sherrie Eldridge, who was an adopted child herself. The biggest surprise to me was that if the mom is detatched and cold towards the baby while she is carrying the baby to term, the baby can be born with an attatchment dissorder that won’t allow them to bond to another person. The baby knows if it is wanted even while in the womb. Keeping in mind a mother that detaches herself during a pregnancy could be in defense mode herself. A baby that is taken away from it’s mom at birth can actually be in shock, wich is the most severe level of trauma. You may have a very tender heart, but you don’t smell the same, or sound the same. The baby knows you are not it’s birth mom. The book talks a lot about this and is very, very interesting and helpful.
OK, so I’m not fostering children yet, however, to kind of help me with what it could be like for foster care, I am fostering animals from the Humane Society. I started with one kitten. Her name is Maxine, I called her Maxi.
I had her for three weeks. She was sure cute! And lots of fun to play with. Sammy didn’t much like it, but stayed by the door to the room the kitten was in.
I had to bring her back once she was two pounds. I waited till she was 3 pounds. Then I returned her and they spayed her, microchipped her, and gave her the first set of shots. Now she will go up for adoption. It was kind of hard to do. 
My current foster care is a mama cat and her four kittens. Oh my gosh, are they cute!
I was not going to take them, but I couldn’t handle them in the cage, with both food and litter and a horrendous smell! So I took them home. I washed all four kittens, I couldn’t handle the smell. One had dried pooh on her bottom, so I clipped the hairs and got rid of it. Much better. Mama took them all back just fine. I wish I could bathe her too, but she is not declawed, and she is still lactating. So I don’t want to take the chance. They do make wet cloths to dry bathe cats, so I will pick some of those up and use them on her. But she seems so much happier already. The kittens are afraid, of course. The boys are much more brave then the girls. The girls hide, and I have to really dig to find them. But once I pick them up, they snuggle down to be cuddled. But if I put them on the floor to play, they run and hide. The funny thing is that Sammy isn’t hissing at these kittens.
(you can see the grey kitten in the pic at the top of the page)
I think it is because of the mom cat and the fact that she is not spayed yet. But Sammy is, so he can’t really do much. He is much more relaxed with these kittens, and even rolled around on the floor near the door. With the other kitten he was tense, and hissed a lot. If he can accept them, I may keep one of the female kittens. They are medium hair, black, grey, and two torties. cute as cute can be! The little grey boy is such a sweet heart! Bright blue eyes too. If anyone is interested let me know, I am allowed to help recruit adoption families too. The nice thing is that the humane society will spay/nueter, microchip, and vacinate them. You only have to pay 50 to take the kitten home. But I can tell you when I was interested in taking a free kitten from a friend, I called around and to do all those things would be well over 200. Very good deal I would say. They have five more kittens without a mom that they need a foster home for and another mom with 3 kittens they need a foster home for. They give you all the food, litter, litter box, etc. you just need a room for them. If you decide you want to keep a kitten you have fostered, you get first pick of the litter, and you don’t have to the pay the $50 adoption fee. It is a thank you for helping them out with foster care.
So that is my update. I’ll let you all know how the home study goes when it’s done.
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