[kmalay]

Rozenwine,

I have not completed my adoption yet, but we are adopting from Missouri if the TPR occurs which it should. I will share my experience though of the last 9 months. First off unless I wanted to foster, which we preferred not to we basically didn't stand a chance of adopting a child from my own state and we were willing to go as old as 10. We are from IL. Secondly the best states I found that were willing to adopt to someone out of state were Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota, and Oregon. Another state to look into is Kansas, but you have to get approved from them before you are even considered. Most of the things your provided for your own homestudy will work, but it is a long process. You will not be considered for a child under 8 at this point either from them. What several caseworkers told me is that suddenly there is a stream of foster/adoptive parents from their own state in most cases so it is going to get tougher, but don't give up. Sure enough I was chosen for 2 situations within a week of each other. I will tell you that if you are looking for a child under 4 it will be really tough and even under 8 is tough, but does happen. In my case my boys are 4 and 7 1/2. Just be prepared to do a lot of searching yourself and come right out and ask if they will consider out of state placement. Another thing to be prepared for is as budgets have been reduced travel expenses are one thing that may get cut so that is another reason for them to try to place in state for us we already decided we would drive vs fly to help save in costs. Hope that helps a bit and please feel free to contact me privately if you need to chat.