PRIDE Session 8 (04/22/08)

Session Eight: Planning Change. This session takes a practical view of what to expect during the first hours, days, and weeks of a child’s placement with a family. Participants learn what to ask the child’s worker and how to talk with the child. Participants also have the opportunity to explore how placement will impact their own family.

We definitely learned a lot in this class about what to ask when we are called with a possible placement. We learned the importance of understanding the child's situation. What school the child is currently enrolled in, what the child's noted behaviors are and what type(s) of abuse the child has endured. We especially discussed boundaries. What types of boundaries should be enforced in the home (our home) when the child first comes to live with us.. what is ok and what is not.

Next week is our last PRIDE class, it will be a Pot Luck and we will hear from a panel of foster moms, adoptive moms, social workers etc.... Our instructor told me, privately tonight that she has already spoken to our assigned social worker and we are lucky. She told me that we have been assigned a "good social worker" and that we are fortunate to have her. We are just waiting now for her to contact us.. but since she asked our instructor about us, that means she must have already reviewed our file... so we must be close on her list. Yay! ~ One of the other girls in the class already has her first visit scheduled for Tuesday next week(she has a different social worker). We also have our appointment to get our fingerprinting done, for the background check on Thursday this week.

We thought after these PRIDE sessions were complete that we were done with the classes, but I learned tonight that once we meet with our social worker she will refer us to start our "Adoption Classes" which are called Kinship - there are 6 classes to complete.