We have had our profile approved for about 8 months. My wife and I believed that we have the perfect home for a child. After about 2 months, I started making calls all over PA. I took some grief from our agency for being "too persistent" because they want to initiate contact with the county agencies. I somewhat agree with their position.
We had 2 separate interviews with county workers and were not chosen by the kids, (17 and 11) in each case. One child chose to stay with her foster parents. The other chose one of the 3 finalists. We felt like pawns and it really hurt our feelings. You see, they get 20 or more family profiles on a child and narrow it down to 3 finalists. This makes sense, but I really don't like those odds. (Hmmm, I don't like gameshows either.)
I got disenchanted with our whole SWAN / PAE system in PA, so I made 100 calls out of state, based on listings on
www.adoptuskids.org. This is not working either, because, for example, a worker in Texas said he had 300 inquiries on one child. This makes me want to give up on pure adoption because I see that kids are terrified of adoption and there is intense competition for children. From what I've seen, there are 4 adoptive parents available for every child in PA every year. I'm told the average wait is about a year to get a match with a child, but the statistics say 4 years.
So, we have added a goal: Foster-Adopt, hoping to find a child, even though it's a 50-50 chance of actually adopting a foster child. At lease we'll be able to do some good in the community while we wait to an adoptive situation.