Making the big bucks as a foster parent

Since as a foster parent I am biased and I'm not an expert by any means I will show the statistics on what foster care rates are and what they 'should' be using a national study, see below, underneath of the study I will put my own thoughts and feelings. 


1st off here is what we are compensated, I don't like saying paid because really it's not payment it is compensating us for the money we are spending and perhaps, a tad for the time we are spending...basically for us we get $99 and some change per week per kid. 
http://www.mfia.state.mi.us/olmweb/ex/fom/905-3.pdf
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A first ever national research study was performed to establish minimum adequate rates for children; the goal was to perform calculations of the real expenses for caring for children in foster care. So how does Michigan rate? Poorly I’m afraid, though not the worst by far. The study found...........

Michigan’s current foster care rate for a child 2 and under is $433/month; the recommendation is $646 plus reimbursement for travel expenses and childcare. According to their calculations Michigan needs to increase its reimbursement rate by 49%. The national data shows the cost of raising a child in the same age range in the Midwest is $750. The group in the worst shape is reimbursement for children 9-16 which needs to increase by 71%!

You can compare this to our nearby state of Indiana which reimburses foster families of the same age $760 a month, compared to $433 is a big difference! 

The MARC study states that low rates can negatively impact the states ability to recruit and retain foster parents which sets off a chain reaction of negative events that has life long consequences for children in foster care. When an adequate pool of foster parents are unable to be maintained children are more likely to be placed in institutionalized facilities which are costly or shuttled from placement to placement, an unstable situation which harms the child and can decrease their chances of growing up in a permanent family. 
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Now 1st let me say I think there should be a special place in hell for bad foster parents trying to make a buck, I truly mean that. Parents that neglect and abuse their kids are one thing but taking in a damaged/injured/abused/neglected child and making money off of them and then treating them the same or worse..... despicable. 


That being said I don't think it matters HOW you provide help or payment to foster parents there is going to be those who figure out a way to abuse it...period. I believe there needs to be more control over the environment provided by foster parents and a higher bar. I feel if they raised the rates of compensation so that more people could afford to do foster care but more  tightly monitored the foster homes it would be a better affect for the kids in the end, I know more than one family that is interested in providing a home to an extra child but can't afford to. I also think that it should NOT be ok for foster homes to be marginally better, if at all, than the homes the kids were taken from. I had a CW tell me that there are only 3 homes she would sit down in, including foster homes.....that is not ok. 


I feel that the costs of taking care of all of the basics for the kids should be covered by the state but not enough to cover all of the extra's we as parents may want to do such as camps, clubs etc. My feeling is that food, shelter, housing, clothing, medical, and daycare should all be covered. Now as for the extra's it should be in line with what the family already does, if we want to take our kids to camp, disney, and every activity each weekend and we choose to foster then we should be willing to do that for those children too and I dont expect the state to foot that bill. I could see for some of the older kids having foundations set up to sponsor such extra activities but not money taken out of the state budget as an expectation.

As for our $99 a week it sounds like a lot, I admit and on a weekly basis no we aren't spending that much money but over the course of the year I believe we do. When you add in things like extra formula as $30/can, or a $30 special probiotic, diapers, wipes, baby swings, bouncers, cribs, gas to and from visits and doctor visits, not to mention missed work, clothes that ONE of our babies is growing out of as quick as I can buy etc it all adds up and quick.  

What I've Been Reading

I am still loving my kindle though finding the time to read can be tough. Even though the voice on the kindle is android I have found I enjoy plugging in some earphones and listening to the books while driving.


Reading:
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
Weigh Down Diet
I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla: Raising Healthy Black and Biracial Children in a Race-Conscious World


Read:
A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet)
A Wind in the Door (Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet)
A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet)
Growing Up in the Care of Strangers: The Experiences, Insights and Recommendations of Eleven Former Foster Kids
Nairobi Heat (Melville International Crime)
Heaven is for Real
Unbroken: A WWII Story
Secrets in the Cellar
Damaged: The heartbreaking True Story of a forgotten Child
My Dad's a Policeman
A wrinkle in time
Tough as nails: One Woman's Journey Through West Point
Ape House: A Novel
Climbing the broken stairs
Call It What It Is
Empty Chairs
Abused--a daughter's story
Pregnant women on drugs: combatting stereotypes
Oliver Twist
Hiding Place -Corrie Ten Boom
Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to.....
Bondage Breaker
Lamb
Green For Life
Smoothie Revolution
Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army form the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender
Harriete Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad
Taming the Nueces Strip - Durham
The War Journal of Major Damon "Rocky" Gause-Ambrose
5 Love Languages - Gray
Power Praying Wife - Omartin
Dare to Discipline - Dobson
123 Magic
When Bad Things happen to Good People - Kuhner
Scientist in the Crib--Science meets how babies brains work--this just interests me
Happiest Toddler on the Block
Millionaire Next Door - Stanley
Love Dare
Home Safe Home (alternatives to toxic laden household products)


'One of these days'
Skinny Bitch in the Kitchen (wholistic eating)
Omnivore's Dilemma
Power Spoken Word
Power Spoken Tongue
Sacred Marriage
Butekyo Breathing Shut your Mouth
The surrendered Wife-Neumans
"Better' - Atu Guande
Woman Power - Schlessinger
Priceless - Ramsey
Proper Care and Feeding Marriage - Schlessinger
QBQ - Miller
Raising Girls - Dobson
DNA of relationships-
The Greatest Words Ever Spoken
Power Praying Wife
Purpose Driven Life - Warren

Torn in two...clone needed

Last week was the 1st for the new year, I had vacation monday, worked 6 hours on tue splitting the day with Jared on account of sick babies and missed the rest of the week as little man was very sick and only I could handle him. Tiny tot started recovering from her bronchitis just in time for little man to develop pneumonia. He was the sickest I've ever seen a baby, scary breathing, even to me.

I don't like the kids being sick, for their case of course and I don't mind taking care of them when they are sick, sometimes it's even nice if they are snuggly and just want extra TLC. However, it is SO hard to be a 'working outside' the home mom when the kids are sick. I never feel as torn or have as much "working mom" guilt as the times when everyone is sick.

Now last night I was so proud of myself, all the lunches were pack, diaper bags were freshly stocked and everything was ready to go for the new week...yeah. Until this morning, Lillian, even after sleeping all night is crying over being too tired and coughing, bring on the nebs and inhalers for her. She was willing to miss 1st day back to school and AWANA so I know she doesn't feel well. It's extra nebs and steroids for me too as my cough is increasing.

I sent the babies to daycare, I need to get some work-work done from home......sigh and I need a break. Today I feel like I really should have taken the full 6 month unpaid parental leave, I dont think I've managed a full week since I've been 'back' to work 6 weeks ago. I feel badly for letting my colleagues down, then I feel badly for having screwy priorities and worrying about work when I should be worrying about my family....and thus the cycle repeats.

Today, I am trying to remind myself of what my grandma always says....This too shall pass. I am trying to tell myself that God has me just where he wants me and if he doesn't that he will make it abundantly clear in HIS time and HIS way.

Now, I've had my coffee, I'm mostly awake and it's off to log onto work from home, which, don't get me wrong, I'm Blessed beyond belief to even have that opportunity :-)

And in an attempt to stay true to my increased efforts in the New Year...not exactly a new year's resolution but I plan to seek God's plan and input into all areas of my life so I will always try to find a passage that speaks to me when so for this post....

Proverbs 16:9 NIV: In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.

Lillian's 1st Cake

Trying to decide if I want to blog more, give it up or what?

Today I discovered pinterest which is addictive, highly addictive!

Often if the babies sleep at the same time on Saturday I try to do something with Lillian. Today we tried a recipe I found on pinterest, you take any cake mix plus any can of pop, mix and bake.

We picked vanilla cake and orange pop, this was fun because she could make it ALL by herself.

Here are her results:

greasing the pan and drawing a picture


mixing it up


it had to be decorated, per her heiness, she wanted cherries, luckily I had some on hand

Update on me

So it seems I have some of my friends a bit worried so I figured I'd do an update so you kindhearted worry warts can rest easy ;-)

A couple weeks ago I had a pretty nasty cold it was also right after we found out the Elliott had MRSA. I took that week, two weeks ago, off work thinking if I rested up from the cold which was kicking my butt and did the right things it would be 'just' a cold. I also figured that would give me the time to find E a new home and get our house decontaminated from MRSA which was an undertaking, the washing of stuff at the Laundromat alone cost almost $50.

I went to the doctor that week for my lungs as well which was a normally scheduled visit. My lung function was down a bit but at that point it was still just a cold and we agreed to watch and wait. I started to feel better on Sunday and was more than a bit tired of ‘taking it easy’ so I decided to be busy and productive, tell my body to get over it and all was pretty good; I was looking forward to returning to work on Monday. My body had other plans I woke up about midnight with severe lung pain on both sides, after some ibuprofen failed to work I woke Jared and asked for a vicodin that I have for lung pain then I decided to go to the ER as the vicodin wasn’t working either.

The ER was a futile trip spent in pain during all the hours of waiting while listening to the drug addict next door yell about he was in fact sober and they should let go of him and let him get back to the mission…fun times, I’d never been so glad for my kindle. Everyone seemed to think either I was having chest pain or back pain, no one seemed to accept that I was having pain from my lungs radiating down part of my back and into my chest….try explaining that when you can’t take a real breathe. I have to admit hours later when the doctor finally came in and told me it was a virus that just needed to run it’s course and I should just continue doing all my normal treatments I completely lost my cool and chewed him out telling him if I could breathe enough to do a breathing treatment I wouldn’t be here in the first place. In the end I said I’d follow up with my doctors and wanted to leave and apologized for being short. He said that he would give me something for the pain and send me home with instructions I could take two vicodin next time and then had the nurse give me so much dilaudid I was loopey the good thing was it stopped my coughing which also served to reduce the pain; I could tell as soon as it took effect as I could draw a breathe without pain.

The next day once I woke up I called my doctors who decided to start me on IV’s which arrived the next day. I was to do on inhaled antibiotic and IV zosyn which I have been on many times over the past about 5 years. The drugs in my lungs are pretty resistant to many antibiotics and zosyn seems to be the one stronghold that really works. I started my IV that night so it did one IV then and one during the night while I was sleeping and then I slept through while it was infusing my early morning one, 3 doses in total. Imagine my surprise when I woke covered in blotchy hives. Zosyn is a member of the cephalosporin family and it looks like I’ve developed a sensitivity to them. This was obviously a big blow to me since I had to stop the antibiotics and then they weren’t really sure on what they wanted to do since it appears that most of the drugs the bugs in my lungs are not resistant to also just happen to be part of the cephalosporin family. It took a day or so and then I started levaquin which is a strong oral antibiotic, initially I protested because it doesn’t normally work for me and the doctor had already passed over it in favor of IVs. I have what they call “intermediate” to that drug meaning basically it works but not as well as it should. Since our options were limited my normal doctor confirmed that was the best course but at a higher dosase and in continuance with the twice as strong inhaled antibiotics I was still doing.

The good news is that this combo seems to be working. Honestly I believe it is the inhaled antibiotic doing a good portion of the work since it started improving before the levaquin but with the type of bugs we CF’ers have in our lungs you never want to treat with only one antibiotic since that allows them to more easily build a resistance.

What one drug reaction wasn’t enough? Ok number two has intensified over the past week or so on the oral antibiotics and I am not scheduled to finish until Friday. I have previously been told I have plantar fasciitis in my right foot now it has intensified greatly and the left foot has started in. The bottoms of both feet have a swollen red nodule present just past my heel that persists despite icing and ibuprofen popping. According to Dr. Google it seems I may have really aggravated the fasciitis or partially torn it…fun. Levaquin has a black box warning from the FDA about tendonitis and tendon rupture but I am pretty certain it is responsible for this recent turn of events. I’m going to give my foot doctor a call on Monday to see if he can get me in. Unfortunately the tendon on my left wrist and foot are also hurting, I’ve had a bad bought tendinitis in my wrist before so I’m pulling out the wrist guards for sleeping to hopefully keep it from getting worse.

So let’s see, cold, MRSA scare, lung infection, hives, and now I’m hobbling like an old woman….ah these are the times of CF.

The good thing is that even if I have to stop the levaquin my lungs don’t feel in too bad of shape. I may be able to stop orals and start a second inhaled antibiotic, that will make for a lot of nebulizer times but if it lets me walk again and breathe easy it will be worth it. Better news is that the MRSA scare was just that, so far, a scare I have not tested positive for MRSA in my nose or my lungs *claps*. Also awesome news is that Elliott is doing wonderfully as the only child in a first time foster family who are thrilled to have him are supporting reunification but also hoping to adopt some day.