[Harambe2]

Hello all,

I wanted to tell you about a problem I ran into the other day. I am a foster parent trying to start the process of African-American infant adoption. Yesterday I started calling agencies to find the right fit for me. With the first call I made I learned that if I wanted to adopt from a private agency I'd have to give up my state foster license. I currently have a foster child living with me and I care much too deeply for her to simply quit and send her on her way. This is her home too for as long as she needs it. Besides I really like foster parenting and I don't want to give it up. Anyway, to make a long story short, my day of agency shopping turned into a day of agency begging. I called every illinois agency I found on the net and all I got was one "maybe". Finally, in desperation, I pulled out a local phone book. There I found the one agency who had worked with people in my situation before and had no problem working with me with my state license. They also turned out to be the closest and least expensive. I'll be attending the next informational meeting.

[Linny]

I live in Illinois, have adopted through the state foster system, and have returned to private adoption now. Our youngest baby is AA; and we continue to have our state foster/adopt license. We were never told that we would have to give up our lic. in order to adopt privately.
Now, I do know that when we got a call about a placement (our little one now)....the agency asked us to transfer our lic. to their agency....ONLY because it was cheaper for us that way; but we could have kept our lic with our original agency if we had wanted to.

We are hoping to adopt once more, and are searching for that wee one even now........and have submitted to several attorneys and a few agencies as well.

Sincerely,

Linny

[Harambe2]

Wow that's interesting. Did the private agency you adopted with also do foster care? The issue that most private agencies had was that they didn't want to supervise the older child in my home and they wouldn't allow DCFS to supervise the baby I hope to adopt. I wasn't understanding why the private agency HAD to hold my foster care license in order to supervise my placement. What I finally found is Children's Home and Aid Society of Illinois (CHASI). They do foster care and AA infant adoption and they have no problem with me either leaving my license where it is or transferring it if I want. I won't get to go to my first information meeting until next month but so far they sound great to me! Thanks for your input and good luck on your upcoming adoption.

Dawn

[Linny]

Dawn:
I will say that just today (10June03).....I found out that there are more agencies that 'don't want to take on adoptive parents...they just want foster parents'. This was news to me (I found out because my sister is in this situation.) I've also heard that Illinois has a different view on adoption now. I've been told that the goal is to keep the kids in the foster care....not consider adoption as much!!!!! Hmmmmm.......
Glad to hear that you found an agency to help you out!!!! I live in a rural area of Illinois, and agencies are few here. We are licensed with an agency several hours away.
We went the older child adoption route three times. We came back to private adoption.

Good luck with your adoptions!

Sincerely,

Linny