#10 – The Information

When Andrew and I decided to foster and or adopt, we went through Heartland for Children. Back in 2020 during quarantine, they offered online foster care classes. It was zoom meetings for three Saturdays instead of going to face to face classes during the week after work. This made it very easy to get our foster care licenses. This type of class option is still being offered now. I encourage anyone who has thought about fostering or adopting to check out this information. There was a lot paperwork, interviews, background checks and a home inspection. After all of these things were completed, they issued us our foster care licenses. During the process, you are asked what ages and how many kids you want to be licensed for. Whatever age and amount you deiced on is what you set your house up for. The people are very helpful and are very grateful for all of their foster families. Once licensed, you will eventually get a call from placements. They will call you when they have a child or children that are in need. They will be able to give you some information most of the time but not always. You as the foster family have the right to say “yes” or “no” to the placement. If you say “yes” the child or children could be brought to you as soon as same day. Sometimes they will have a few things with them but most times they will not have anything. As the foster parent, you should be prepared for this either way. The person bringing the child to you may or may not be the caseworker, but they will have more information about the child for you. Once the child is with you, it is now your job to love, support, take care of and keep them safe. You will be assigned a caseworker and a guardian. Any services that you or the child may need, they will be able to get for you and them free of charge. Depending on the age of the child, you will receive a stipend for each child in your care. You will still need to be able to cover most things for them because this will not cover everything they need. All their health insurance will be covered by the Medicaid. If any situations arise that you need help with, questions answered, anything at all, the caseworker and the guardian are your people. Heartland for Children not only deal with foster care, but they also do adoptions. There are many children on their website that are waiting on someone to adopt them right now. Their website is heartlandforchildren.org. This website has a wealth of information about their foster and adoption process and a gallery of pictures of the children waiting to be adopted. The child or children must be TPR’d, termination of parental rights, for them to be adopted. Adoptions through the state are completely free as well. Once adopted the child continues to get an adoption stipend for a specified length of time, health insurance for free and in state college paid for. They have these services in place to continually help the families after adoption takes place.

This is just a snapshot of the information on fostering and adopting from our experience and point of view. I hope anyone reading this will follow that nudging in their heart a become a foster or adoptive family. I cannot begin to tell you how rewarding it is! If you are reading this and want to reach out to me with questions about our experience, please do.

All children deserve to be loved and feel loved.

Love makes a family.

Love & Blessings,

Amanda

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