foster licensing classes

the time has come to bid farewell to our licensing classes. i've had every intention to write about all the neat things we've learned and the people we've met along the way these past five weeks. it just didn't happen. 

i underestimated my time plain and simple.

the state of arizona requires all foster parents {resource parents} to go through 30 hours of training before becoming licensed to foster / adopt. this usually happens over the course of 10 weeks. we crammed it into 5. holy, we've learned so much! i'm convinced every parent should be offered these classes as part of pre parenting. so much of what we learned is applicable to "normal" kiddos. 

our classes ran for 3 hours every tuesday and thursday evening. there were eight couples and a single gal and all of us alternated bringing dinner each class. our learning stations were set up with colorful cups filled with markers and pens, pretty bowls overflowing with candies and all kinds of pipe cleaners and playdough. we were actually encouraged to play while we listened and participated in the class. i'm a kinesthetic learner so this made the world of difference in me being able to absorb all they were teaching. 

>> ben's brilliant art. overachiever. 

>> my yellow bowl of masa. incredibly underwhelming. 

>> i did manage to knock it outta the park with my pipe cleaner flowers though. ;)

our final class is tomorrow evening. wednesday morning our licensing agent is submitting us to the state for our licens. then we wait. wait for the final approval to foster. wait for the child placement. 

it's wild how quickly this is going now. where before i felt like we had all the time in the world and it was moving slowly now it's going so fast. ...this is so strange.