Sumum yeah have been having a ball, although we have all the equipment from when our own kids were little, we have decided that we want to start afresh with the foster babies, so have spent a small fortune on a cot carseat and buggies!
Comtessa, we are a bit unusual in the length of time it took for us to be approved, it should be about the 6 month mark from the start of your application (so after the pre course) for us we did the prep course and passed that in Jan 2009, initially we were told that they wanted us to wait a year as our youngest was only 2 at the time, so we appealed the decision, and we were then allowed to apply in the June, however my parents offer us their business at a really reduced rate so we took 4 months out to think about that as financially it would have been very beneficial, but our hearts were not in it and we both felt sad that we wouldn't be able to apply to foster any time soon after taking on the business, so we politely declined and got back in touch with the LA, they assigned us 2 worker, one of who left just afterwards, so that took another couple of weeks to sort out another worker, she then went off sick so we waited on her coming back to work, then it was christmas, then there was various sickness bugs that went round, so finally we got the assessment started at the end of Jan this year. We were initially looking at going to panel at the start of July but they needed the slot for a permanency placement, and then our social workers were on holiday as were some panel members. That is the long answer - the short is about 18months lol