Book Review - Success As A Foster Parent: Everything You Need to Know About Foster Care

I read the book Success As A Foster Parent: Everything You Need to Know About Foster Care by the National Foster Parent Association. I found this book to be very useful for foster parents. It talks about getting into the foster care program, and all the steps required to join. There will be background checks, safety checks of your home, and many many visits from the organization to make sure you are a good fit for the program.
This book also goes through a list of "developmental milestones" and lists the ages at which a child should hit each stage. This is very useful because the child isn't with one parent from the beginning who knows to watch for these stages. Foster children go from one family to another and nobody is really there as a constant to watch for these milestones. Knowing what to expect from a child at each age will allow a foster parent to watch he child's development and make sure he/she is developing as they should.  If not then steps can be taken to find out if there is a medical issue or something else going on.
The rest of the book is focused on the purpose of foster care, and ways to ease the trials of it. The book reminds foster parents that even though a child may not be appreciative, they are still doing a service for the child and her/his family. It reminds parents to stay focused on their purpose of joining the program, and reminds them that even if they want a young child, sometimes the need is for someone to foster a teen. It's okay to be a little discouraged by this, but it doesn't take away from the importance of the work in any way. It reminds parents to stay pretty open minded with children, to remember that they come from a different background than the foster parent, and so there are going to be problems as they learn to live together. But it is possible to make it work.
Overall, this book was very useful. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is part of the foster care program, or thinking of joining. It's a fairly short book and a pretty simple read. But it contains lots of information that is very helpful.