From Zero To Three In Less Than A Month

[Ironica]

I should start from the beginning.

A month ago, we decided to become foster parents (well, more like God decided for us if you know what I mean ).  We were going to go through the certification process and get our house ready by June (our roommate will be moving out at the end of the semester). Three weeks later, we finished the training and thought we could focus on getting our house ready (we were thinking of fostering two kids of the same sex (most likely girls)).  Well, God had other plans.  A week later, the agent who trained us called my lovely wife and told her about three kids (two boys and one girl) who they believe would be a great fit for us and that we would probably get them in a few weeks instead of June.  So, we frantically got everything together as much as we could.  The following week, we were able to take in the little girl just for the weekend.  Of course, we fell in love with her instantly .  After she went home, we finished some more things we had to do to get ready for all three kids.

Now ya all basically caught up (and now know why I haven't been doing much Redemption wise). 

So the next step we are waiting for is the chat with the county social worker.  We are scheduled to see her this Thursday.  We are pretty sure that we will get the kids this weekend.  Please keep us in your prayers that everything will go great this week and that we can be the parents that God desires us to be to these kids.

Also, for you parents out there, what are some good internet filters that you use and what other safeguards do you put on your computer?  I am planning to give each of the kids their our account so I can limit the access to some files.  However, I have had only one good free internet filter a few years ago and can't remember what it was.  Also, there is a firefox add-on that changes all the ads to bible verses.  Does anyone know what it's called?

God Bless

[Master KChief]

thats awesome you guys got into foster care. i myself grew up as a foster child, so i know what its like. good luck.

[sk]

Here's the ad blocker: http://www.illbehonest.com/matt530.php
I've heard of the safefamilies.org filters working pretty well, but haven't used it personally.

God Bless... very exciting!

[BubbleBoy]

Lol, if you are adopting the three first kids you meet, you are going to need a bigger house before long.

Seriously though, this is so cool. Foster parenting is something I might be interested in doing as well (in the future of course), so if I have any questions about it, I will talk to you.

[drb1200]

Thats really cool.

Try using K9 Protection. Its free and customizable for the parent.

[Ironica]

thats awesome you guys got into foster care. i myself grew up as a foster child, so i know what its like. good luck.

That’s cool.  If you have any tips for us coming from the children's end of the foster system, pm me anytime.

Here's the ad blocker: http://www.illbehonest.com/matt530.php

Thanks for the link.  I’ll be checking it out when I get home tonight (I installed it but didn’t have time to see it work this morning).

Seriously though, this is so cool. Foster parenting is something I might be interested in doing as well (in the future of course), so if I have any questions about it, I will talk to you.

My lovely wife found a podcast of a couple who are foster parents (though, I think they did finally make it though the adoption process with the kids) where they have a lot of good information about being a foster parent.  I can post the link tonight if you’re interested.

Try using K9 Protection

Sweet!  That’s the filter I was remembering .  I will definitely download it tonight.  Do you know if I will have to install it on all the accounts like I do with the Firefox add-ons?

how old are they?

The two boys are seven and four while the girl is six.

One of the best part of this whole thing is we now know why God blessed us with a four bedroom house

[Alex_Olijar]

Awesome! May God bless you!

[Prof Underwood]

Just to throw out another possibility...

Instead of putting a filter on your computer to remove the tree of temptation from the garden, you could allow the kids to have full access so that they can learn to make good decisions on their own as to how to use the internet.  Of course you would still want to have accountability for them, and could use a system like is available from Triple X Church that will send you a list of all the websites that they visit.  Then you can talk to them about their choices.

Personally, I would recommend the filter option for smaller children (like the ones you're getting), and the option above for teenagers (who will soon be on their own, making their own choices anyway).  But I just wanted to give you one more option to think about.