My husband and I turned in our application to become foster & adoptive parents in the state of Idaho this week. Its a little unnerving. We've been talking about it for months and now that we're finally on the road to achieving our goal, I'm a bit surprised by the weight of reality. We're being really selective as to what situations we want to be in. Our biggest goal is to find a couple of young children that we can adopt, and the best way to do that is by becoming foster parents. Ideally we'd like an infant, but realistically there are very few of them available. Most of the kids who are available are older or have special needs. Since we both work, a child in our care would have to go to daycare at least 4 days a week. I don't know that that is the best situation for a child with special needs (i.e., handicaps), plus I personally just do not know that I am ready for that emotionally.
So the next step for us is getting our home-study done, which should happen in a month or so. After that is completed and our background checks come back, we'll be on the list. I guess we should start receiving foster placements pretty quickly afterwards. Yikes. I know its a good thing, and I know its going to be very rewarding. But...yikes.