[Delcrest]

My partner and I are at the 'waiting stage' of special needs adoption. Home study complete and sending them out weekly everywhere including Upper Podunk and Timbuktu. A co-worker of my partner just got her kids back from foster care (ages 5 and 7) who have been in foster care for three or four years. She is complaining that she does not know how to parent them since they were babies when they were taken away from her. And, that day care is costing her most of her earnings from her meager weekly wage. If that isn't enough, she is pregnant again and is due in September. She says there is no way she can keep this baby as the care for the three children would cost more than she makes. So, she is thinking about sending her two kids back to foster care and giving the new baby for adoption. We would be interested in adopting the newborn, but is this legal? How do we proceed? I surmise that since the child welfare agency has been involved, that she cannot privately adopt the 5 and 7 year old, but reasoning would tell me that the coming baby could be, since she has her other two kids back. Maybe my reasoning is flawed. Any help? suggestions? ideas? We would consider all three if we could get them.