answer:I have experience as a foster parent of two beautiful girls. I have to say the screening is well worth it to care for the kids and its required so to weed out those that have issues in their past which oculd potentially risk a child’s safety. I had to be fingerprinted, cleared by the fbi, show my financial statements to prove I could financially take care of myself, get 3 letters of reference, go though a certaim amount of hours of training because raising a foster child can be different than one of your own, they have seen and been through things that could make the hair on your arms stand straight up. I went into this with the expectation that I would see many come and go in my home but the first 2 girls placed with me never went home. I didn’t go into it with the hopes of adopting but with the want of helping kids at a time in their lives when they needed it. The first little one placed with me is now 3 she is the light of my life and has been with me since she was only 3 mths old. She was born addicted to drugs and spent the first month of her life in the hospital because she couldn’t hold down food because of the withdrawals then was moved to a special nursery where they help wein them from the drugs. She was still on a medication to help wiht the detoxing when I got her but she was over the worse of it. But now at 3 she is a happy healthy, smart little girl whom you would never know she went through such a hard start with life. My second I picked up at a mere 2 weeks old directly from the hospital (did you know that as different times there are actually many babies just waiting for some to take them home from the hospital because they were put into foster care at birth and have now placement) Well she came with a lot of genetic medical issues that slowly crept up on us one issue at a time. When it was getting alot I let the deparment know to start looking for a more suitable home since I was a single person and had to work and she needed a 2 person family which required someone to be home with her with all her medical issues. What would have happened if I didn’t keep her is that they would have put her in an institution for the rest of her life. Which is really sad to think about so I could bear to see that happen to an innocent child whom I already loved so I decided to keep her. I ended up loosing my job but did get a decent adoption subsidy for her which we primarily live on. My older one that I have had going on 3 years 8/29 will be adopted officially on 8/1 by myself I am so excitied to have her be an official part of my family not that she was already because she is. My youngest was adopted at just a little over a year old last year on June 30th. A friend of mine had 7 foster children in and out of her home before she adopted the child she has now but she went into it with the hopes of adopting but they all were either reunified with their bio-parent or were placed with a family member. I say go for it, but be prepared to fall in love and want to adopt them especially if they are with you a while, you can’t help but love them. I know I can’t. All of the background checks and everything you go through is well worth making a difference in a childs life.