My foster parent friend has a lot of experience helping a foster child reunify back with a birth mother. The social worker or case manager on the case usually puts into action a visitation plan and a reunification plan. A family reunification plan lists out the dates of visits, including how the visits will progress from a few hours, to an overnight, to a weekend, to several days in a row, before the child has completely moved back in with birth family.
This isn't easy work, but it is very rewarding. It is a valued skill of a great foster parent - to know how to work a family reunification plan, and assist a nervous birth parent while parenting an excited foster child. It's also a confusing time for the children. They want to go back home, and it's never easy living in that middle ground - working towards home, but still in a foster home.
How do you best handle that transition period - whether transitioning a child home or into an adoptive placement?
