Tonight, Steve and I started classes at DCYF to become foster parents for (and perhaps adopt) a child in “state care”.  We’ve toyed with the idea of foster care or adoption for a while.  In Rhode Island there are a couple thousand kids at any time in need of more than a place, they’re in need of a home.   

In advance of the first of the ten, 3-hour sessions we received our course outline, I reviewed it immediately.  I work at an agency that does similar work to DCYF and so I had a heads-up on the content of the classes.  I’ve spent the last four years learning the language of the child welfare, adoption and foster care system.  The staff who delivers the sessions was just trained in a new model for the classes; hoping that the caring adults who endure the 30-hour model will  be better prepared to make the long-term commitment of fostering. 

I expected that there would be a roomful of couples and maybe a few single folks sprinkled in, all committed to taking care of kids who may otherwise not have a safe, nurturing place to live.  I expected that the trainers would be tentative, but passionate, in their presentation since we are their first class with the new curriculum.  I expected that there would be at least one person in the room who would monopolize the group discussions and we would know WAY more than we would every need to about her by the time the evening was over. 

And, as I’m encouraged by the Daily Prompt from Word Press today to describe a time when everything turned out as I had hoped;  I hoped that tonight’s session would live up to my expectations.  It did!  Thank you to all the folks in the class and the DCYF staff who are committed to our success.