[Tkme2disneyswld]

Wondering if any of you had adopted from FIA or Foster Care. We are planning to adopt again (we have a10 yr old bio and 3yr old bi-racial sons) we adopted through a private agency last time and while it was a great expierince we just can't afford to do it again.

We have consulted our local Human Services and we are ready to update our home study; just looking for any advice anyone can give!

We hope to adopt an AA girl under the age of 2. We are open to mild special needs. Do we have any chance of recieving a child within our requests?

Please send advice!!!

[JsMom1]

Hi Disney,

I started going through adoption with Missouri DFS. I wanted an infant but because I would not do fostercare I only received profiles on children 2-5. This was to be my first child so I wanted an infant. DFS took me through HELL and I have read a few more post from different states that have also had a bad time. This does not mean you will. You may be blessed with a great social worker. I ended up leaving DFS and went to a private agency called Lutheran Family Services (non-profit agency). They do charge for your home study and a few other fees. I spent about a grand BUT the money was reimbursed by the state and my job. Most states consider AA children as "special needs" so the state will pay most if not all the cost and you can still get Adoption Subsidy regardless of your household income. There is also an agency called Catholic Charties that does adoptions. I was blessed with my son 3 month after my homestudy was completed and he was 28 days old. I hope this information helps and I wish you luck and blessings on your journey.

[JsMom1]

Hi Disney,

I started going through adoption with Missouri DFS. I wanted an infant but because I would not do fostercare I only received profiles on children 2-5. This was to be my first child so I wanted an infant. DFS took me through HELL and I have read a few more post from different states that have also had a bad time. This does not mean you will. You may be blessed with a great social worker. I ended up leaving DFS and went to a private agency called Lutheran Family Services (non-profit agency). They do charge for your home study and a few other fees. I spent about a grand BUT the money was reimbursed by the state and my job. Most states consider AA children as "special needs" so the state will pay most if not all the cost and you can still get Adoption Subsidy regardless of your household income. There is also an agency called Catholic Charties that does adoptions. I was blessed with my son 3 month after my homestudy was completed and he was 28 days old. I hope this information helps and I wish you luck and blessings on your journey.

[toyjsu]

We are in the process of adopting a little girl. She is 23 months old. Jasmine has been with us for 3 months. She has been in social service custody since birth. Because she was born 12 weeks premature, she required a feeding tube. She was a special needs adoption. We are foster parents through the state but we went through a private agency because ss was too busy to do an adoption. My private agency has a grant through the state to place special needs children. We had her placed with us in just over a month after completion of homestudy. We have had a wonderful experience. When we got Jasmine she wasn't walking yet (lazy ), still had the feeding tube, and only spoke 3-5 words. In a week we were no longer using the feeding tube. She now runs, eats everything, feeding tube is gone, and she is saying 50+ words. Ask lots of questions. Do research on what you hear about certain children to make sure you are ready to handle the special need. I have plenty of medical training and a feeding tube was nothing to me. Apparently to other people it was too much. She had been available for a while. I know Jasmine was a special case. Not all children turn around so quickly. She is just an amazing kid. Talk to the foster parents if you can. Jasmine's foster mother is wonderful. We are still friends. We talk almost everyday. She had Jas since she was released from the hospital. You do have a chance of getting a child within that age range. I know of two little AA girls in my state that are in foster care. One is being adopted by her foster mom and the other will be available soon. The one who will be available is less than one and is beautiful. I want to adopt her but my husband is telling me to slow down. I am still working on him. If you have any specific questions I would be happy to try to answer them.

Toya

[34andhopeful]

How do you find out which private agemcies gets grants from the state to place special needs children.

[toyjsu]

We just called and asked. I told them we were interested in adopting a "special needs" or AA child from foster care. They were able to offer me two programs. They had a program for fostercare that waived all fees. They also had a program to adopt aa and biracial newborns. We would only have to pay max. 8% of our income. We decided to first try out the foster care system. We were already blessed to have one biological child and I wanted someone else to get to experience the newborns. Our experience went so well that we will probably to it again soon.