Having a baby in the New Year? Licensed to foster but unsure of what you need to stock up on? I've created this list of must have baby items that we used for our foster baby from age 3 weeks through 8 weeks until she was moved. I hope you find it helpful! Did I leave something off that you found to be very useful? Leave a comment!
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When we bought our house in 2015 we knew the small third bedroom would be the perfect space for a nursery. We've been piecing together the space for the last few years, so when we became foster parents we had less to do to complete the space. Since we are licensed for newborns and toddlers of either gender, we decided it would be best to have a crib and twin bed in this room. With our fist placement that twin bed came in handy for late nights; this mama was so glad to have a bed to sleep in close to the crib! Also, if we ever have same sex siblings, they're able to share a bedroom and can utilize this space together. The focal point of this room is the Anthropologie day bed we found at Final Cut several years ago. Final Cut is the discount warehouse from Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, and their sister brands. I've shared before about how awesome this store is in Georgia; worth the drive! We also picked up the rug at Orian Rugs and the curtains at Ross a while ago. The rest of this space we pieced together over the last year while we were getting licensed. My parents gifted us the glider that they picked up at a consignment store; new with tags! The antique chest of drawers was my dad's as a baby and also in my nursery in the early 1990's. It's my favorite piece in the nursery since it's a family heirloom. The hanging cabinet and drawers are the perfect size for tiny baby clothes, and it also doubles as our changing table. The diaper storage cart is from IKEA and makes reaching for diapers and wipes in the middle of the night so convenient. We found this beautiful crib second hand on Facebook Marketplace as well as the mamaRoo swing. If you're able, invest in one of these! We love it so much that I have one at home and the rockaRoo swing at my work. If you can't splurge, try finding one on Facebook, babies outgrow things so fast and you can usually find things barely used and half the price!
I especially love the reading corner with the floating shelves. We registered for a lot of books on our Amazon wish list and have loved flipping through them all. Each one is so special and I know the sweet kids who come through our home will enjoy them, too. If you're in the process of becoming a foster parent, don't worry about getting everything right away. There are so many foster care closets and resources around the Upstate that you can utilize to get the things and clothes you need. Just remember, children have to have their own room with a door that latches and their own space to keep their clothes and personal items. The only exception is newborns who in South Carolina can sleep in their parent's room until they're a year old. They just cannot sleep in your bed, so we keep a bassinet in our master for this reason. In my next post I'll share my list of must-haves for newborns. We had a baby girl from age 3 weeks old to 8 weeks old and there are several products that were life savers in those early weeks. I can't wait to share more with you! If you didn't already know, Connor and I became licensed foster parents this year! I've received a lot of messages and questions about the process, so I wanted to share our own experience. We actually started the process last November when we attended an event called Fostering Hope where we learned more about foster care and heard from a panel of former foster children and current foster parents. We learned so much from their first hand experiences, and left the event feeling a pull towards this ministry. We filled out a card saying we would like more information, and by the next week someone from Fostering Hope had reached out to us asking how they could help us get plugged in. After much discussion and research, we decided to go through DSS for licensing, so they sent our information over to Heartfelt Calling who sent us the application and signed us up for Foster Parent Orientation in January 2020. Luckily for us, this orientation was hosted at our own church, so we were able to go right after work. The class lasts 2 hours and goes over the very basic process of becoming foster parents in South Carolina. Next, we submitted official background checks and went to Greenville for fingerprinting. After our application was accepted we were sent a list of Pre-Service Training days; you must complete two 8 hour days of training before your home study. We went to our first training day in late February, which you know is the same time Covid-19 hit the US and effectively shut everything down. We had to pause our licensing process while we waited for more trainings to become available, but in the meantime we were assigned a DSS licensing coordinator who met with us in our home to sign a lot of paperwork and begin the home study process. Finally, in May, pre-service trainings had moved online so we were able to schedule our second 8-hour day over Zoom with 15 other couples. By June, the fire inspector was back to visiting homes (initial inspections must be done in person) and we passed our inspection. By the end of June we had completed our home study, fire inspection, family autobiography, financial documents, and all of our paperwork was sent to the Columbia office for final approval. At this point it had been six months since we officially started the process. Normally, foster parent licensing takes 3-4 months to complete. This timeline is really dependent on how willing you are to get your paperwork turned in and attend the trainings. We experienced quite a delay because of Covid, especially waiting for our fire inspection, but remained patient as everyone was working hard to move us along. We didn't really get frustrated until July when we had done everything for our part, and were just waiting on final state approval to issue our license. We ended up waiting until September 20th to hear back from our licensing worker with the final approval. We continually emailed our contacts at DSS until we got this done. At times, it felt like we were getting the runaround, but we were persistent and it was finally approved. It is now October, and we still haven't received an actual paper license to keep on file. We were very disappointed by how long our file sat on someones desk, but were told that kinship foster families and families with homes open to older children were higher priority. We are so thankful that we are official now! Once we received our license and were placed on the "open bed list," we had received two placement calls and had our current baby in our home within 24 hours. So, the need for homes is great and if you've been on the fence about getting licensed, go ahead and get started! The entire process took just over 8 months for us. We are currently licensed for up to 2 children, ages 0-3 of either gender. We told our family support coordinator that we would prefer a single newborn child, but would also be open to young sibling groups. In our home we have a nursery with a crib and daybed, as well as a spare bedroom with two twin beds, so we have plenty of space to love on these kiddos! Since we became licensed DSS has stopped offering initial foster parent licensing. They are currently only completing home studies for kinship homes and families who are applying to adopt children older than 7 years old or sibling groups. If you are interested in becoming a foster parent I would recommend contacting Fostering Hope who will match you with the appropriate agency, such as Miracle Hill. Please don't hesitate to email me if you have specific questions about our journey!
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AuthorDusti McCraw Archives
December 2022
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