FAQ

Why did you decide to become foster parents?

This is always such a tough question to answer. We know to many, being a foster parent seems so out of reach and to most of our friends and family, we’re the first family they know that have decided to go on this journey. Here are a few of the many reasons we decided to become foster parents:

We want to help reunite families that need a second chance. People make mistakes and we believe parents that truly want to turn their lives around to get their children back, deserve a chance to try. We hope that our home can be a happy place full of love for kids to feel safe while their parents work out their challenges.

We believe systemic racism exists and hurts.

“According to 2018 data, black children were 13.71% of the population, yet 22.75% of children in foster care were black...White children made up 50.5% of the population, yet they account for only 44.37% of the children in fostercare.” (NCSL.org)

We want to fight back against human trafficking. “In 2013, three out of five child sex trafficking victims saved by the FBI in a nationwide raid, were from foster care or group homes. One in three runaways are approached by sex traffickers within just two days of living on the street...  7 years after being trafficked is the average life expectancy of a female victim. Homocide and AIDS are the top two killers” (HHH Training)

We love so much! Children in foster care have all been through trauma. They’ve seen and experienced way too much at such a young age and we want to give them a place they can feel free to be themselves, feel safe, and snuggle lots of fluffy animals. We are so excited to spend time with these children and their biological parents with the goals of reunification.

Are you going to Adopt?

Adopting is not our primary intention as we believe the best place for children is with their biological families but if that can’t happen, we are open to it.

Do you still want biological children?

Yes!

What was the process like and how did you make the call to get started?

We’ve talked about foster care for years but over the summer of 2020, we felt particularly drawn to learning more about it given the state of the country, the fact that we were feeling really stable in our home life, and plan to hang around Austin for a while. We started out by attending the DFPS virtual Info session to learn more and from there started researching foster care agencies in Austin. We interviewed with 5 different agencies, our favorites being Settlement Home for Children and Helping Hand Home, then we decided to move forward with Helping Hand Home. We made that decision in August 2020 and started our 40 hour training program in September. From there we had 8 Saturdays of classes, an in person SAMA training, 10 hours of online state foster training,  CPR/AED certification, multiple home inspections and visits, and LOTS of paperwork. We completed our trainings right before Thanksgiving and the remainder of our certifications, inspections, and paperwork early January 2021. From there we started our home study where we had about 9 hours worth of interviews, both individually and together and our home study writer had 30-60 days to complete our 50+ page report. She finished early despite COVID craziness AND a freak winter storm leaving her without power or running water for over a week AND was left with lots of water damage to her home, shoutout to Savannah for being the best! After that, we got our drug tests and TB tests and were set up for licensing! Our license day is Tuesday, March 23rd and we are so excited! 

When will you get kids?

We could get a call as early as Tuesday after we’re licensed! We do not have to say yes to every call. It’s important that we’re a good fit for the child/children (i.e. We have lots of pets so if the children are terrified of dogs or experienced trauma with animals, our home might not be the best fit for them)

How many kids will be in your care?

We don’t know! We said we’d like to start with one or maybe two if they’re siblings because we don’t want any sibling sets to get split up. We are technically licensed for four but that’s mainly so we could continue to do respite care for friends.

How long do they stay with you?

It depends! In Texas, children are given a court date with their biological parents every 3 months to check in on their parents’ progress and get an update from the judge on how they think they’re doing. We are set up for emergency placements and because we have the goal of reunification, we think we’d only get placements that have a chance of going home. Some parents will lose rights automatically depending on the severity of the situation. We imagine in those cases, children will go to families hoping to adopt.

What ages are you open to accepting?

We are open to anyone ages 0-9 years old!

What will the kids call you?

We're going to wait and see what comes more naturally! Mr. Corey and Ms. E or Ms. Eleanor are what we're thinking for now but with the respite care, we've seen it evolve to Corey and E which feels a little more casual which we prefer

Do you get paid to take care of kids?

Depending on the level of care, ranging from “Basic” to “Specialized,” foster parents are sent a check monthly for $27-57/day. We are currently only licensed for Basic and will be placing these checks into a savings account.

Respite Care vs. Emergency Placement

Respite care: Essentially babysitting. As foster parents, we can only leave our children with people who have also been background checked and CPR/AED certified. Since Corey and I had to do both for our license, we help out wherever we can with other foster families around Austin so the parents can take a little break while Mr. Corey and Ms. E throw them an ice cream sleepover at our house and play in the backyard :)

Emergency Placement: These calls are made when children are first entered into the foster care system and need a home that day. It also could come up when a foster parent files for removal of a child and they need a new placement. This is what Corey and I are licensed for. Any other placements are usually with the goal of adoption as the children are already in foster care but their bio parents have terminated their rights and the children are up for adoption. 

Foster vs. Adopt: 

Foster care is short term. The goal of foster care is to give bio parents time to get their life together and be ready to take care of their children again. Adoption comes if the bio parents’ rights are terminated and if they can’t find a family member to take care of them.

Confidentiality

A few rules as it relates to confidentiality:

Please no pictures of the kiddos on social media! We might have play dates and lots of cute photos and memories but for the safety and confidentiality of our children and their families, we ask our friends and family to please not share any photos or the childrens’ names on social media

We cannot talk about their backstory or why they were removed from their bio parents’ home

We will only share information as needed. Doctors are likely to get the most info while friends and family just need to know that we love our kiddos and are so excited to be there for them!

Do’s & Don’ts

• Do call them “children” don’t call the “foster children" - Please avoid using the F word, “foster,” around kids in our care. Other helpful phrases to use instead are: Children in your care / children in care; Your kiddos

• Also please avoid talking about our children being in care to your kids. We want them to be treated the same way and we don’t want them to feel isolated! 

• Do call them “Bio” or “Birth” parents, don’t call them “real parents”

• Do call them “children with special needs” don’t call them “handicapped” (where applicable)

How can I help? 

• Educate yourself, your friends, and your family! We are so happy and grateful that you've taken the time to read through this site to learn more about Foster Care and our journey.

• Respite care: All you need to do to be able to babysit for us is submit a background check form to our agency and complete a CPR/AED certification. We can help you with both! The CPR/AED certification is all online right now. It’s a 2 hour zoom class with a 5-10 min in person demonstration. If you're interested in providing respite help for our family or any others, please let us know and we can help you get set up!

• Donate to HHH! They house so many children at the Residential Treatment Center and in group homes and would so appreciate the donations!

• Check out our registry: We are registered on Amazon!