I am in NC and we are adopting as well. You do NOT need to foster first. Our case worker reccommended doing foster-adopt because it just opened up the pool of available children to us to include those for which TPR is not yet complete. However, we don't HAVE to do it that way. We could just have easily done straight adoption. We are near Asheville and are adopting through Adoption Plus, the adoption part of Professional parenting. They are a state-liscenced private agency that was originally started through Appalachian State University. They are fantastic to work with. Everything is FREE. They also have offices in Winston-salem, if that is closer to you. I highly recommend them as they are professional, honest, and hard working. Feel free to email me for more info on this agency if interested at:
lapazfarm@earthlink.net
Happy