Working in Partnership

Every foster parent knows the meaning of the term "working in partnership," which is expected of us.  The teams and partnership for each child is a foreign concept to those who are not foster parents. Most parents only need to worry about well child visits with the doctor for their child.  I think my family has had plenty of practice with this because of J's medical history.  Now, we are expected to work in partnership with the CPS casemanager, our licensing worker, doctors, therapists, parent aids and any other professionals on the team.  For a young baby, no one expects this team to be too large.  But keeping up with this team has become my third job.  There have been developmental and mental assessments, caseworker visits, supervised visits, licensing visits, and lots of medical checks, including blood work.  Much of my week is spent either in meetings for Cuddle Bug or trying to communicate with various parties.  Oh, and the documentation is never-ending!  I have approximately 1-4 different people (many are strangers to me) coming into my home every single week.  Most of them show up 20-40 minutes late.  Once again, working in partnership means being flexible, being accessible, and doing what I think is best for the child while working within the caseplan.  After 3 months of trying to spread out meetings so I'm not rushing around, I've decided to change my approach.  I will now be trying to plan one day a week to have meetings.  

Keep checking the blog for a couple of new posts on the "Match Meeting" Adoption process.  We have some exciting new developments in this area.