progress.

Thought I'd post a little update on the foster care licensing process. Today was our safety inspection, and we passed. Yay!

It's been a busy couple of weeks with finishing house projects in time for today's appointment.

Finished the tiles! Last Wednesday we grouted and then sealed them this past weekend.

Drained & locked the hot tub last Friday.

Fingerprint clearance cards came on Friday! We were told this is the part that takes the longest, but it came just as the rest came together.

Fixed the areas with flaking paint.

A friend came over on Saturday and helped us wire in six recessed lights. It took all day because getting the wires up the wall & through the ceiling where they needed to be was pretty tricky.  Sunday afternoon, Matt & I were able to get the drywall patch in place above the kitchen sink, install the last recessed light and get the new fixture in place where the ugly old fluorescent fixture used to be.

Some process photos on the light installation:

Matt getting the hole for the first recessed light in place, while our friend Matt checked out the light switch where we were drawing power from for the new lights.

I draped sheets over the open cabinets to keep everything from getting dusty. It worked.

Matt looking into the ceiling to help direct Matt G. with sending the fish tape up.

Matt G. working on getting the fish tape to go into the ceiling.

Wires in place for most of the recessed lights, working on getting the three-way switch installed.

Getting the lights wired in.

First testing of the lights. :)

Monday morning, with all the lights installed.  I love it!

We had a few smoke detectors missing, so I found replacements on Amazon and we wired them in on Sunday night.  So nice to have the right amount in the house now!

The half bath, in process.  The sink isn't fully plumbed in yet.  We have to get another part.  The toilet was a little tricky getting in place.  When we put it back after doing the tile, the tank cracked.  So we bought a replacement tank, only to discover that it, too, was cracked!  We took it back and got the current one, which works great. :)

We had to get all the dangerous things, cleaners, chemicals, etc. in the garage locked up.  So we did some rearranging to move those things into the white cabinet, and Matt put a magnetic lock on it.  About an hour before our inspection was to happen, I was adding a few things in the cabinet and dislodged two of the shelves, making everything fall onto me.  Thankfully, I am okay and only have a rather large bruise on my left forearm.  I was a little afraid when things started coming down on me, so I'm thankful it was just the bruise.

Looking the other way in the garage.

Ah yes, this photo was taken six hours before our inspection was scheduled.  Matt cut about 2/3 of the baseboards Monday evening, but we were getting so tired that we went to bed and I had to cut the rest in the morning.  Wow.  So surreal that this was just this morning!

Sitting down enjoying the peacefulness after all the rushing around and completing of projects that we'd been doing up to that point.  That's the paperwork from the inspection I've got there. :)

Baseboards in the front entry.

The front entry, from the front door.

Living room.

Oh yes, and here's that to-do list.  There are a couple things on there that didn't *have* to be done before the inspection.  Like CPR/First Aid, which will be taken care of by the end of the week.

I've updated my last blog post to show the dates we've completed things in the process of being licensed for foster care.  You can see the updated list here. :)

Funny story... we realized this afternoon that we didn't have enough time to get it all done, so we just pushed the sofas against the wall with the baseboards behind them.  The baseboards aren't nailed in yet, but nobody would know that unless they were looking closely.  The inspector didn't notice, and we didn't point it out. ;)  We also don't have the plumbing completely connected on the half bath sink, but that didn't keep us from passing the inspection, either.

It's so amazing that we got everything together in time.  I was praying that there wouldn't be anything else that we'd need to work on after the inspection before we could pass.  And it appears that God answered my prayers as I'd hoped.  I am glad. :)

being licensed for foster care.

We're on quite the adventure here, being licensed for foster care.  It's been pretty all-consuming and has been happening so quickly that it could be easy to forget when we completed each part of the process.  So I thought today I'd write about the process of being licensed for foster care here in Arizona. And then I'll tell you where we are on the journey in parentheses next to each item.  

**I've also updated the list as we've completed the rest of the process.**

I'm a to-do list addict, and so of course I've got one posted on the fridge with everything we still have to do yet.

1. Attend a foster care orientation. In Maricopa County, Arizona, you can go here to find one close to you (they are held often).  (Sept. 17)

2. Select a licensing agency and contact them about moving ahead with them. (Oct. 2)

3. Intake interview--a licensing worker comes to your home to meet you, do a quick walk-through of your home and have you sign on with them if you all agree that it's a good fit. (Oct. 8)

4. Paperwork before starting training:

• Applicant Statement of Understanding (Oct. 8)
• Initial Application (Oct. 13)
• Fingerprint clearance card application (Oct. 13; cards arrived Dec. 4)
• Criminal history self-disclosure affidavit (Oct. 8)
• Foster Care/Adoption Assessment Guide (lots of questions about each of us and how we handle stress, and other information like our budget, too. I can't remember everything this form asked.) (Oct. 13)
• At least five references are required; the licensing agency will contact them. (Oct 13)

5. PS-MAPP training (30 hours of intensive training required for all foster &/or adoptive families) (our expedited Saturday classes started on Oct. 17 & finished on Nov. 21)

6. Required documents:

• Physician's statement for both spouses (Nov. 19)
• Health self-disclosure for both spouses (Nov. 19)
• Current car insurance (Nov. 19)
• Current car registration (Nov. 19)
• Drivers licenses (Nov. 19)
• Income verification for one month (Nov. 19)
• Immunization records for all children in home (Nov. 19)
• Marriage license (Nov. 19)
• Birth certificates (Dec. 3)
• Current rabies vaccination document for dogs (Nov. 19)
• Evacuation plan (must be displayed in the home) (Dec. 1)
• Current CPR/First Aid training certificate (CPR: Dec 10, First Aid: Dec 11)

7. Life-Safety Inspection, completed by the state's Office of Licensing, Certification and Regulation, aka OLCR (this takes several weeks to get scheduled, so our licensing worker applied for it immediately once we signed on)  (We passed on Dec. 8th!)

8. Home study: someone from your licensing agency meets with you several times in your home to interview the couple together and each person in the home individually. (First meeting Nov. 19, second interview Dec. 3)

9. Once everything is together, your licensing agency submits your whole application to the OLCR (the same agency who does the Life-Safety Inspection)  (Jan. 4)

10. After the OLCR issues your license (usually takes about 3 weeks but may be slower because of Christmas), you wait for a placement.

So what still has to happen before we get licensed? (Updated Jan. 5)

• We're now in the stage where we wait for our complete application to be reviewed.  Our agency says the department that issues licenses usually takes about three weeks but that it could be longer with everyone coming back after the holidays.
• The need is huge, so we will probably get a call with a potential placement fairly soon after being licensed. We can say no to a call if it doesn't seem like a good fit. But we could potentially have a child in our home in a few weeks!

Pics of some of what we're doing to get ready for our inspection in two weeks...

Ah, yes, the rest of the tile project, in the entry and half bath, needs to be completed before our inspection.  And new baseboards need to be in place, as well.

All cleaning supplies, chemicals & medicines have to be locked up.  We have a lot of cleaning stuff in our laundry room.  Medicines are in the pantry on the main floor, and we will have various chemicals in a cabinet in the garage.

Changed out door handles on the laundry room and pantry to ones with locks.

Found a couple broken outlet covers & replaced them.

Got fire extinguishers, one for each floor.  They have to be at least 1A10BC rated.

Found a blank plate for a place in our living room that has wires for the built-in speakers.

Have to fix our shower drain and repair the corresponding hole in our kitchen ceiling.  Also as a side job, while we have a hole in the kitchen ceiling, we'll be installing several recessed light fixtures above the sink and counters.

Several of our smoke detectors were broken and/or missing, so we got replacements (in the box there) that will need to be wired into the existing system.

This is outside our front door.  We can't have any flaking paint, so we have to take off the flaking paint and re-paint.  The back patio has the same problem.

More flaking paint outside.

the summer of tiles, part 3.

Okay, back to the Arizona tile job.  When we got back from Michigan, within twelve hours of getting home we had issues at both of our homes... an overflowing septic drainfield in Marquette and a drip in the kitchen ceiling here that turned out to be a leaking drain in the shower directly above the kitchen.  

Besides those issues, Matt & were both sick and it was VBS week at our church and we were teachers.  I'd already mentally prepared myself that we weren't going to be tiling that week because VBS week is exhausting enough as it is. 

Our tile lippage leveling system had arrived during our vacation, so following VBS week, I decided to tackle the tile project myself while Matt was at work.  There are white tabs that fit under the edges of the tiles, red pieces that fit down over the tabs and a tool that you use to tighten the system and bring up the edge of the tile that is lower.  

This is a photo I found online that shows how it works.

Getting started...

More progress.

Naomi took this photo of me putting mortar down.

This is as far as we got before I ran out of the white pieces and had to order more.

I worked a couple of days and used up the white pieces that we'd ordered to get us started.  That night, we ordered more pieces and found out it was supposed to take over a week for them to arrive.

Lunchtime one day.  I was really missing having a table for us to use.

So one Friday, I moved all the non-mortared tiles into the bottom of the pantry, put the other sofa on the set tiles and brought in our little backyard bistro set so there was a little bit of seating.

Naomi & me having a girls' breakfast in while Matt & the boys were at the men's prayer breakfast at church early in August. So much nicer having a little bit of peace in the chaos!

Rue loves the tiles.  And, she kind of blends in.

Now that we had attached tiles in the living room, we moved the fridge from the front entry way into the living room so it was easier to get to the front door.

The week our supplies were due to arrive, we had friends from out of town coming for a couple of weeks.  Although they weren't staying with us, they were at our house quite a bit and we didn't want to have to worry about keeping a bunch of extra kids off certain places in the main living space, so we put the job on hold for a bit longer.

As if we weren't crazy enough, we had the out of town friends and some in-town friends over for dinner one night in the midst of our unfinished tile job.

The day we started school.  Can you tell we were feeling super motivated that morning?

When we were in Marquette, we broke the little tile saw my brother had lent us, and ended up renting a big tile saw for a day.  We were going to rent one here but a friend from church told us he had one that we could borrow.  Here it is on our patio, where we've been using it.

We started cutting edge pieces to get ready for laying more tiles.

Started dry fitting more tiles as we went...

Well and here's how it looks at lunchtime while we've been working on this project.  (The kids didn't know I was taking a photo...)

Yikes, these two corner pieces were *so* tricky to cut properly!

Here's what we got done on the Saturday afternoon when we got back into laying tiles.

We got the kids in on helping get the mortar out of the grout lines.  It helps a lot!

Matt working the tile saw.

Working up to and around the island.

It was pretty exciting seeing the tiles coming into the kitchen!

A shot as we worked our way into the kitchen, around the island.  We had to take a break for making homemade pizza before moving any farther, because we had to move the stove out to work there.

And this is what it looked like after we'd tiled into the kitchen and around the back side of the island.  I put up a barricade so nobody would walk on that bit of kitchen floor that was waiting to set up.

The view of the completed work and barricade, from the door that goes into the garage.

The next day, after we removed the tabs and wiped down the tiles.  SO nice!

On Labor Day, we got quite a bit done...

What happens when non-professionals do tile work... some of them didn't stick properly so we had to pull them up.  Jesse was working on getting up the dried mortar here.  This is one of the areas we have to do before we can grout.

We now have tiles going up to the door into the garage, and in the space where the refrigerator goes.  Yay!!

I love how this looks.

Late on Labor Day, we broke a couple of tiles in the pantry and didn't think we should be cutting new ones outside at that hour.  So we still have those two tiles and one just outside the pantry to put down.

I love, love, love how the kitchen looks with tiles in it.

So that's where we are at the moment.  Very close to having the kitchen done, needing to replace a few loose tiles in the living room area, and then we can grout and move appliances and the rest of the furniture back where they belong.  And then we tackle the front entryway and half bath.  I am especially looking forward to having the dining room table back and the stove & fridge in their places.  I can't wait. :)