[glk]

We also wanted to adopt from the foster care system, but without being foster parents. After waiting several years to get a homestudy (things are different now, this was 13+ years ago!) we finally decided to become foster parents just to get a foot in the door. Our second placement was a 6 year old boy who was available for adoption and we did adopt him. In the years since we have provided foster care off and on, depending on how our son was doing - when he was about 12 we really started struggling with him and his behaviors so we stopped providing foster care all togther until 2 years ago.

At that time our favorite sw called with a sibling group she needed an experienced, short-term home for. We had them four months before they went home; our next placement was a 3 month old baby, 'for two weeks', we are now adopting him and his 2 older siblings. The adoption should be final by the end of August. We are not planning to do foster care for several years now, in order to give these three the best chance we can give them.

I don't believe we'd have ever had any of these four children if we hadn't become foster parents so I highly recommend getting licensed. Yes, it is hard when children you love leave but it is a pain that can be overcome. Good luck, whichever way your decision goes.