fostering

a while back a thought came to me. it was all about what have I enjoyed during my life so far. you know what has given me real pleasure and growth challenges so far. you know what I discovered?
my family
raising my child and his found brother (..... the tribe of now men that came with them)
art of all kinds (especially music, visual, and lyrical)
beauty (from the amazing to the mondane)
massage ( what a blessin this art is to my life)
business ( the biggest puzzle on the planet thanks to us)
managing and manipulating space (in this context, my home, backyard, a club, a theatre)

ok so with that awareness, I began looking around for something, some way of being that might encompass as many of the above joys as possible and guess what I landed on

BEING A FOSTER PARENT!

I love being part of a larger group, I love young people (they are OUR future)
I love beauty and there was never anything so beautiful to me as that moment when
a light bulb came on for a young person and for that matter any person, you better manage
space well around teenagers because they have lots of everything, time, friends, hunger, clothing, music, noise, dirt & dust, emotions you name it and having the resources to run this complex adventure is the best business training anyone can get (GETTING YO MBA ain't got nuthing on the high finance require in this job)

anyway, I started back in november researching the processes involved in my new adventure, true to my nature, I bought several books after a google and amazon search and started reading other people's thoughts on it.
then I called several agencies and got several recommendations from local knowledgable professionals.

I settled on an agency, signed up for a MAPP class and by now it was almost the end of december. In february I started my MAPP class which allowed me to start the decent into the world of fostering where I could sort through my real feelings, concerns, willingness, etc. several times I quietly thought to myself, I don't know if I wanna give up my new found freedom, life after family and this thought was given tons of validation from my 50 something peers everywhere all the time. this caused me to explore the why of this attitude and what I found from this search, I will write about another time, but I will say it was eye opening and understandable.

so after wavering the proper amount for me, I finished my class, started to manipulate my current space, and envision what flow would work in this space. I thought about stuff like times of day, room locations, the different activities that would/ might take place within these walls day in day out, how an individual might get some alone time, how the group would come together in it and if this space could really handle all I envisioned. MORE LATER time to eat my homemade fried rice :-)