Yeah, Erin Did It!

 

(whenever I cheer in my head "yeah, i/you did it!" i picture porter doing this little cheer again.)

I am officially and in every way exhausted. But you know what? I don't care! I managed to finish my 32 hour foster parenting course, move homes, and expand my work duties, survive the month of February, and help assist with my aunt's mission departure. 

But mostly I'm just proud of myself for finishing my foster parenting course. 32 hours in one month is a big commitment. Seriously. I'm really looking forward to getting my life back. 

The course has been worth it. The trainer for the class was really amazing. I'd recommend taking the class from Liz any day. We learned quite a bit about abuse, diversity, child development, this whole crazy fostering and adopting process, and more. The most important thing we learned was that no two children are the same, some people will come from situations and backgrounds you can't even big to fathom, and that every child deserves a loving and understanding home. And that if you can't be open-minded enough and still loving enough to give them that home, you shouldn't try. (If I hear one more story about parents or foster parents or kin that treated their own children better than the foster child, I will seriously go on a rampage. If you want to argue that you have to take care of/provide for your own/love your own first, and then tend to the foster child, you have no business being a foster parent. All you have done is yet again reinforce in the foster child's mind that they are a third rate citizen. This is what the classes have done to me. They have caused my brain to be on a constant argument setting against people I don't even know (yet).)

Anyway, I made it. They told us at the beginning that about 50% of our class would drop out, and most of them would drop out after the sexual abuse class. And sure enough, that is what happened. Tonight out of approximately 50 original people in the class, only about 15 "graduated." I think all but 4 of the 15 are doing "kinship care" and therefore have a more pressing reason to hurry up and get licensed. 

Now I just have a lot of paperwork to finish up, bedrooms to supply and set up, and lots of major life changing events to look forward to. 

But first, I'm going to bed early. Just because I can.