ONE DOWN, EIGHT TO GO

That's right! We began our nine week journey through MAPP this week. MAPP is the name for the fostering classes that we are required to take in order to become licensed foster parents. For some reason actually going to the classes makes me feel like we are officially starting this journey. I guess we are really just starting this leg of the journey with many more to go.

Originally I was told that we would be licensed immediately after we completed our classes and I was led to believe that most people don't make themselves available to foster newborns so we could expect a placement pretty quickly. This is because you either have to be a stay at home mom or agree to take a 6-week leave of absence from work when the baby is placed. Apparently I was misinformed. I am sure this will not be the first time during this process that one county employee tells us something that contradicts what we have previously been told by another. The leader for our MAPP class spoke during the session about the process and described a "possible" 8 week wait following the completion of the class before we will actually be licensed. She also explained that "everyone" wants babies so the wait is longer for those placements. After hearing that it sounds a little less like we will have a placement by Christmas. I am okay with that. We will get our placement in God's perfect timing. I have learned from this not to get my hopes up about anything in this process.

We did learn some other interesting facts that will make this experience a little more of a challenge than we originally expected. I will not elaborate until or if it actually becomes an issue. No need to dwell on it. God doesn't promise us that His will is easy, just that we can do all things through Him.

We do have homework for our next class. We EACH have to write about a 6-page autobiography and fill out a lot of other paperwork. This autobiography will include our entire life's story from birth until now. I love to write so I am not minding it at all. Justin, well. . .pray for him. He does not find joy in activities like this.

As far as little man goes, he is still doing wonderfully. We did finally take him to the doctor and his is now getting two doses per day of a yummy pink antibiotic to get rid of his sinus congestion. All of his teachers at daycare and preschool seem to love him. They go on and on about how much he talks and how cute it is. It is so cute because he doesn't say a whole lot of real words. Mostly jibberish (jargon-for my ST friends). It is so cute that occasionally I catch myself hoping that he doesn't figure out all of the real words. That probably wouldn't work out so well for him in college.