The phone is ringing!!!

We got a call this afternoon from the foster agency asking us if we could provide care for a 2 week old baby boy. CPS ended up picking a different agency this time. Please don't be sad. This is good news, the phone is ringing! Someday soon we will have a child, or 3, in our home. Happy Happy Day :)If you are curious on the fostering process here you go:

CPS coordinates all foster care placements through their Centralized Placement Unit. They operate 24-7, and so does our foster care agency.  We could get a call in the middle of the night from our agency's on-call staff.  Weekdays, during office hours, they have a dedicated employee (his name is Jim) who receives all the calls and emails requesting foster care placements. Placement knows what openings our agency has, as they are required to list their available placements on on the DFPS "Extranet", a secure website. This database lists all of the foster homes currently accepting children at our foster agency and all the other foster care agencies in the area. When Placement needs a home, they look at what is listed on the Extranet before contacting the foster care agency. If they need one of our agency's homes, they contact Jim. Jim reviews the information about the foster child or children, then calls us if he thinks we are a good match. He has an hour to respond.

Jim sends a short written profile about us. Most times Placement has more than one family to choose from, so they ask for a written profile to help them in the selection process. Jim calls us back to let us know if they picked us or not. When we are chosen, the child/ren's case manager will call to arrange time to bring the child/ren to our home.