Florida requires anyone who wants to become a foster parent or to adopt from the foster care system to take MAPP (Model Approaches to Partnerships in Parenting) classes. The only information we received when we signed up for the class was that 1. This was the first step. and 2. The time and location of the class. We arrived at that first class with no clue what to expect from the classes themselves or the process as a whole! Boy, were we in for a ride!
We had class from 9 AM – 4 PM for six Saturdays. We started off with a big room full of people and then dwindled down to just four couples by the third class. Three couples, including us, were there with the intention of adoption. Only one couple had a desire to foster. Florida doesn’t do “foster to adopt”. You are either licensed to foster with your goal being to support reunification of the child with the biological family or you are licensed to adopt and can only be placed with children who have already had parental rights terminated. Our MAPP instructor was very blunt and straight forward. She cursed a lot (to prepare us for kids cursing at us) and talked a lot about children pooping in our shoes in the night. In addition to exposing us to the myriad of heart breaking reasons children are removed from their biological parents and how the trauma impacts them, our instructor probed into our own hurt parts, loss and grief. The classes were emotionally exhausting!
There was a thick stack of homework to do each week before the next class. At the same time, we had a long “to do” list of things to prepare for our home study, which would start once we finished the classes: fingerprints, proof of financial stability, health physicals (for us and our pets), inspections of our home by the health and fire departments, fire extinguisher certification, piles of paperwork and much more. (People are always amazed when I tell them someone from the health department came over and checked the temperature of our refrigerator!) Because we stayed on top of these chores, our home study moved very smoothly once we finished the classes.
Our case worker was wonderful. She was very organized and experienced. She had all of the documentation we had been collecting during the MAPP classes, as well as the answers to our homework and family profiles we completed during the class and had clearly familiarized herself it prior to our first meeting. She met with us at our house twice. During the first visit, she toured our home – inside and out, met our pets to ensure they were friendly, checked to that we had all medication and chemicals locked up and took lots of notes about our plans for our future child’s bedroom. Then we sat down and she asked for some clarification on some of the information we’d already submitted and questioned us on everything from ways we were disciplined as children to what we saw as strengths and weaknesses in the other to our favorite hobbies. She interviewed us for about two hours. She sat with us for about an hour on the second visit and just had a few follow up questions for clarification.
A couple weeks later she sent us a first draft of our home study. We sent her a few small corrections (such as my mother’s name). We approved the second draft. Then we waited for my FBI background check to come back. My husband and I were fingerprinted one day a part. His background check came back in days. Mine took about six weeks! Once my background check was returned, she was able to get the appropriate signatures on our home study and we were approved to adopt from the foster care system! The whole process from starting MAPP classes to approval took about two months.
My advice to those just starting the process: Be prepared for a lot of work! Be prepared to be stretched emotionally. You are going to be expected to share very personal information, think about things you try to keep hidden and hear stories about children that you will never be able to erase from your brain. Stay organized. You are going to have tons of papers building up during the process. Make a checklist (if you aren’t provided with one) to help you keep track of everything you need to do. Don’t freak yourself out. They aren’t looking for perfection. They are looking for people who can provide love and stability for a child in need.