I've only been a foster parent for about seven months, and only have had one foster child, so i probably won't be much help! Fostering wasnt what i thought it was going to be, because of the circumstances of my foster baby's case...thought reunification was the goal, his mother couldnt be found, and rights were terminated when he was four months old (we got him at three weeks old)and i will be adopting him. So i havent really had to work with birthparents (we had a few visits with a bio uncle), havent had to worry much about court dates, and my son was never abused or neglected (taken at birth), so no issues there. Not your typical foster experience, for sure!
But when i got the baby, i was worried about my bio son (who is 11), and the rest of my family...the felt so sure the baby was going to stay forever, and yet *i* knew that anything could happen. If we would have had him six months or a year and then he left i think it would have been very hard on everyone involved.
Katherine
