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I know what it is like to review the photo listings across the country and finding one that speaks to you. I will caution you from letting that cloud your decision... it is really rare that you would end up being placed with that one child. It is highly stressed to foster or adopt children younger than your youngest.
Does your state allow foster to adopt only or just foster with the hope to adopt. In my state you can choose jsut foster or foster to adopt and be placed with children that have either had their parental rights terminated laready or who are on their way.
Your questuion asks why and how you got to this place, so I'll try to put that s concisely as possible. My husband and I have a 7 year old boy and were in the "books" to adopt another child as an infant domestic adoption (as was our first son). We waited for 1 1.5 years and no results, we then applied at a second agency and were very pleased with them, were being shown and had some prospective placements that never panned out.
Somehow I got to this board, to this day, I don't know how it happened. I started reading up on Russian adoption, as we had serioiusly considered that 8 years ago - we are getting up there in age (41 and 46) so the waiting was beginning to get a little scary. I continued to read and read on these boards, including the foster care/ foster to adopt posts. I felt that I started to "know" some of the regular posters...happymomanna, dadfor2 AMom2two, Amom4life, cathy102, lucyjoy, riley6 and many, many others. As I followed their posts, I wondered if God was trying to pointing us in a different direction. I spoke to my DH and we decided that if we were willing to look at a "mostly" toddler from Russia, maybe we should AT LEAST MAKE A CALL, about adopting a toddler from the foster care system. ...... We made that call, got enrolled in MAPP classes, which started in Feb 04, finished in April 04, received a "match" for twin 6 month old babies(within a week) in APril 04 brought them home in May 04, and are hoping to finalize their adoption before Christmas. A year ago I never even dreamed.....
Dreams do come true!
Go for it.
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