PRIDE

Well, I did it. Somehow, I survived my first day of Foster Care training! Surviving the training itself wasn’t the real accomplishment, but surviving being upright and conscious for any period of time was. You see, I was sick since last Tuesday. Tuesday wasn’t so bad, but Wed and Thur  I was in bed with a fever of up to 101. (The doctor said I had Bronchitis, but I disagree. Well, I think I have Bronchitis AND something else. I have had Bronchitis many times and never have had a fever or the other lovely symptoms I have had this time around.) And, as often as I am sick, I never have a fever. So, there is definitely something else going on here. To say the least, I was miserable. Thursday night my fever finally broke so, already having been on antibiotics for a couple of days, I made an effort to go to work on Friday. I only lasted ½ hour before returning home to my bed. And there I stayed until Saturday morning.

Class would be from 9:30-4:30 and this particular day of classes can’t easily be made up. The other sessions can, but they are particular about Sessions 1 & 2. So, off I went with my ‘sick bag’ packed with everything I thought I needed…meds, tissues, water, cough drops, etc etc. I arrived early enough to choose the spot closest to the door for a quick escape, which thankfully I only had to use once. But, we made sure that no one sat right next to me. I shouldn’t have been contagious, but I sounded and looked horrible. Luckily, I only had to introduce myself when the class began, and help present a couple of lines from a group discussion at the close of the day.

So, the class…the real point of this post. The training is called PRIDE (Parent's Resource for Information, Development, & Education) and consists of 27 hours of training, broken up into 9 different sessions. As you know, I have chosen the Saturday schedule of classes. This means that I will do two sessions each Saturday for four weeks, and then one session on the fifth week. The Saturday classes are being held at a church, as opposed to the agency facility for the weeknight classes. This, I guess, was kind of nice. I mean, I’ve been in a church millions of times so I think it came off as a little less intimidating to me personally. On Saturday, there were 21 other people in my class. Four of us were single women, the rest were couples. Being as sick as I was, I didn’t really have the opportunity to mix and mingle with the others in the class. I kept my distance and during lunch, I slept in my car. I’m hoping that this next week I will be able to talk a bit more with others.

Sessions 1 and 2 were basic foundation for the course. We discussed the large team involved in foster care and what it means to be a part of that team. We talked about why children come into care, the primary competencies we need to have as foster parents, and the goal of that child’s time with us. We watched a video and then a couple of video clips and discussed the key themes from our lessons which were displayed. Much more was discussed, but I'm going to have to reference my notes to remember everything. Not a problem though. I have homework to do! So, returning to my notes and class book will happen very, very soon.

I'm still sick (though doing better) so I apologize that this post is a bit all over the place. Hopefully next week I will be able to give you a clearer picture of class, what I'm learning, and how I am feeling about it all.