I am voluntarily withdrawing my license. The thought of home studies and licensing rules and having strangers inspect my home just sounds exhausting. Moose seems completely safe and his home is stable, and should any of M’s siblings go into care I should get a call anyway.
So that’s it! I’m done for now, maybe forever, but maybe not. Foster care is a gamble. If reunification is the goal, you hope for bio parents you can get along with and root for, and an easy transition back for the child. I got that with Moose. If reunification is not possible, you hope for a quick and easy TPR, and a child who is young enough to not remember or is eager for adoption and a forever home. I got that with M.
Even if I had the room, the child care, or wasn’t in school… I’m not sure I’m willing to gamble again. I’ve beat the odds twice, I feel like I should take my emotional winnings and walk.
Mother of All Things 
Blessings on you as you move forward. We thought we were finished too, but now I have another daughter. You never know!
How did that happen?
We decided to jump back in the ring and do international foster care. We got a 16-year-old daughter from Guatemala who is a refugee. She has family here but will be staying with us for the foreseeable future.
Wow! I didn’t know that, what a unique fostering experience!
It’s very very cool. Different from domestic care in so many wonderful ways.
That’s a great plan. Exit while you are ahead, pulling a George Costanza. I wish we would have done that. After we got our daughter, we experienced a world of pain.
Yes but you have such lovely children now!
Thank you I do. And thanks to the heartache of foster care, not a day will go by where I don’t appreciate every little thing about them.