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The foster care license is the part nobody glamorizes and it can test your schedule, your patience, and your confidence before a child ever walks through your door. We share what licensing looked like for us as a married couple and parents, from the first online inquiry to the moment the agency lays out the reality: training hours, home study visits, safety requirements, and a mountain of paperwork.

We talk through the biggest decisions and the most common worries we hear from future foster parents. Should you choose a public county agency or a private agency? What changes when kids come from your local area versus hours away across the state? We also get honest about the doubts that show up fast: finances, childcare, home size, inspections, medical costs, and whether you have any say in the placements that come to your home.

Along the way, we share what actually helped us get through it: staying organized with a simple binder system, bringing our daughter into age-appropriate conversations, and building a real support network. Foster parent training taught us about trauma, attachment, and reunification, but our village taught us how to survive the day-to-day, especially when the phone rings and life flips in minutes. If you’re researching how to become a foster parent, foster care licensing, foster parent training, or what a home study involves, this is the candid behind-the-scenes version.

If this helped, subscribe so you don’t miss next week’s story about the first placement call, and please share the show with someone who’s been thinking about fostering. What part of the licensing process would make you hesitate the most?

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You don’t end up with seven kids by accident.

We’re Kelly and Sly—and somewhere along the way, our home became the place where sibling groups land… and where love has to stretch further than the budget.

Hard stories. Soft hearts. Fierce love.

This is Foster the Wallens.

Where foster care meets real life—and no one tells it perfectly.

After more than a decade as foster parents and welcoming over 18 kids through our doors, we created Foster the Wallens to tell this story the way it actually happened—raw, real, and right from the middle of it. From the couch, the car rides, and everywhere this life has taken us.

We start at the beginning—who we are, how our kids came to us through foster care and adoption, and why this season looks different now that we’ve chosen not to renew our foster license. We’re stepping into something new: raising our forever kids… while also realizing we’re somehow parents of an adult with graduation around the corner.

Then we rewind—back to what led us here. The fears we didn’t say out loud. The myths people believe about fostering. The moments that changed everything—like meeting our first placement, realizing how much something as simple as a birthday party can matter, and watching our daughter grow into a more selfless, compassionate human because of the kids who came through our home.

If you care about foster care, adoption, sibling groups, reunification, trauma-informed parenting—or you just want a real, honest look at what this life actually feels like—come ride the roller coaster with us.

Hard stories. Soft hearts. Fierce love.
This is Foster the Wallens… reminding you that even in the hardest moments, love still shows up.

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