Considering Foster Care

 Whenever D and I think about growing our family these days, we get the solid feeling that our family is done.  We don't feel like there are any empty spaces anymore, not like we used to before Water and Earth came home. That being said, we still feel the pull to help kids and we've always talked about fostering.  We're not rushing into anything but we're talking about it more and have found an agency we want to work with.

  We have family friends that foster children in their home regularly and it's been great to get to know the kids that have stayed with them.  There are so many horror stories out there about foster care but in our experience so far, all we've seen is kids that need a safe, dependable place to stay while their family works on being a family again.  I know there are lots of trauma situations that can lead to foster care and that those can affect kids in ways that they  have a hard time processing but we feel that between our experiences with our own kids and the help of social workers, that we could help them deal with any issues that might arise.

  The kids are excited about the idea of "for right now" brothers and sisters and have been asking how soon some one might be coming to stay.  We're in the very early stages now, just getting fingerprinted and starting our paperwork but we've talked about being available for a placement after Christmas.
  The little girl with Sky in these pictures stayed with our friends for four months and got to be good friends with Sky.  We're looking forward to being able to help wonderful kids like her through challenging periods of their lives.
  Have you fostered children?  What advice would you offer to a family just getting started in the process?