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When a child is brought into state custody, the child's parents are given a case plan that they must complete. On average, they are given a year to complete this plan (sometimes that limit is 6 months). Every so often a hearing is held to see if the parents are progressing on that case plan. If they are making even halfway decent progress, then the time limit is extended. The parental rights are not terminated until the parents have been given every chance in the world to complete the plan and get their child back. I have seen that stretch into as long as 3 years, although 18 months is probably more common.
You have probably already been warned about the percentage of children who return home after being placed in a foster-adopt home, so that the foster-adopt family has fallen in love with this child who must leave them. So I'll skip that part.
Since you're military the part I'll warn you about is getting moved to a new duty station while you are in this process. If you do, you will not be permitted to take the child with you - especially not out of state. If you get a child whose parents keep getting extensions, then this is a real liklihood.
Depending on how "good" your state is at it, then yes the idea of foster-adopt homes is usually to only place children in them who are not likely to be returned home. But when child is first brought into custody, nobody can predict whose parents will work well and whose won't. To be more "sure" that the child will stay with the foster-adopt family, it is safer to choose a child already in the process, whose parents are almost out of chances. But that child is probably no longer an infant - instead he/she is probably a year old, maybe more.
How long will the Coast Guard keep your husband where he's stationed now? If he's got several years there still, then you have a better chance. If you're going to be moved soon, then I'd wait until you were settled where you're going before starting the process. People do adopt young children from foster care, it just adds an extra wrinkle if you could be moved during the process.
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