Annual Licensing Inspection!

Went great! I really love my licensing worker...maybe a little too much(laughing) I kept her here for over 3hours(oops)! We talked a lot about the going ons in the dept. We also talked about respite care(I finally qualify to have some!) Of course my mom will always be my respite provider, but these funds will pay her much more than Ive ever been able to(100$ per day for Emily and then another 50$+ per day for the other girls, woo!) We also talked about the desperate need of respite providers who can care for medically fragile children. Ive decided to open up another two beds in our house for respite only with a focus on medically fragile. I'm hoping she can match me to one other family whom I can provide monthly respite. Before I became a mommy and then foster mommy I worked as a daycare provider(I had my own home based licensed childcare) and I worked nights in a group home for medically fragile DD children. I feel especially drawn to this type of work. Unfortunatly, now with the busy lifestyle we live as a young family most of these little ones require much more than we can give them. BUT I feel that being able to provide respite will bring me so much fulfillment and I will be able to provide a much needed break to some of the most deserving of foster parents! Ya! Who knows when this will start, my LW said they are currently working to set up a program(currently our county doesn't have anything in place and she told me our current options are using respite providers in our own home, or having other foster parents we know provide respite for us in their homes) This will be set up similar to the CPU in that social workers will have a list of homes willing to provide respite to those foster parents who request it. Good thing I got the 12passenger van(grin) I'm excited !