[patrick&alicia]

i just wanted to post a thank you note to everyone that has posted here recently my husband and I have been looking into the foster/adoption training and we are going to send in our application this week... we are very happy to have found this website and forum due to all of the really helpful notes everyone has put out.
We do have some questions though... and would like to throw them out there for you guys:
1:for example...if we have a foster child that is in our home and legally free for adoption, how long does the adoption process take after we would decide that we wanted to adopt?
2:we are on fertility drugs because we are not able to get pregnant at the current time...once we did have a foster child in our home would they take the child away if or when we do get pregnant?
3:how easy is it to adopt a child that is legally free for adoption that is a different state if you are a foster parent?

[Lajo'sMom]

For your first Question, with Fostering the Child is not considered Legally Free until the Parents' Parental Rights are Terminated. This would depend on the state with length of time.

For your second Question, it would depend on the Foster child's situation. If the child would do better in a one child home. Then yes they would remove him or her. If the Parents complete their Reunification plan or if extended Family comes into the picture then they also have the ability to remove him or her.

For the third Question, again it depends on the state. The Child may want to stay in their state of Residence. There may be visitations that would be better served by the child remaining in-state! Normally also preferance is given to someone instate first!

[HappyMomAnna]

1:for example...if we have a foster child that is in our home and legally free for adoption, how long does the adoption process take after we would decide that we wanted to adopt?

If your family has been decided to be the adoptive home the timeline can vary. It would depend on how long it takes the state to terminate the parental rights of the biological parents. Then it can take anywhere from 6mos-to a year and sometimes a little longer if there are any hang ups. For example our childrens mother claimed she had American Indian in her and the state was required to obtain a release form the various tribes. This added several months to our process.

2:we are on fertility drugs because we are not able to get pregnant at the current time...once we did have a foster child in our home would they take the child away if or when we do get pregnant?

The fact you are on fertility drugs would be part of your homestudy and the casewrokers involved with any of the children placed in your home would decide how they feel about this issue. Many families have their own biological children and Foster or Adopt. However there could be some hesitance on the part of the state that YOU would want to get out of fostering should you become pregnant. Often a large part of the homestudy focuses on the reasons a family is wanting to adopt and sometimes unresolved fertility issues can be a big question.

3:how easy is it to adopt a child that is legally free for adoption that is a different state if you are a foster parent?

There are federal laws that allow and make adoption over state lines simpler. The AFSA (Adoption and Safe Families Act) of 1997 requires an Interstate Compact in order to make these adoption more possible.

One thing I want to point out with some of your language here is that while Fostering you will be asked to accept children in your care with your GOAL to be reunification. Many families are able to adopt infants by Fostering the child for a year or two before the parental rights are terminated. As a Foster Family you children will have visits and contact with their biological family and every effort is supposed to be in helping the family gain the skills and services needed to parent their child. Many Foster Families foster several infants before one is placed for adoption.

Most states offer two methods of Foster to Adoption and straight adoption. Sme states like Oregon will place a child who is NOT legally free into a pre-adoptive home because the plan is for adoption and the odds have become clear the parent will not regain custody. A pre-adoptive home may still need to facilitate visits and would be seen as a Foster care placement until the adotion is final--the difference is that a pre-adoptive home is the one that has been selected as the adoptive home and the odds are low that a child would be moved on. So accepting a placement as a pre-adoptive home with children who are not legally free is still more statistically likely to keep the children--however most often the adoptive family has to commit before meeting the children.

Some states will offer a Foster Family the first right to adopt a child that has been placed in their home. Other states like Oregon actually prefer that the children go to a pre-adoptive home where the commitment has been made in advance of the placement. Some states work more with the Foster Families who wish to adopt--other states would rather families decide to adopt and do so rather then Fostering with the hope of achieving adoption.

These are all issue you will want to talk with your caseworker about. In our case we did not want to go through the issues of working toward reunification with the biological family. We wanted to adopt and we did not want to have the heartbreak of returning children. We approached our state and requested a pre-adoptive homestudy with no Foster care placements. We accepted siblings who were not legally free and we did the last few visits with the birthmother. We felt we would be able to love unconditionally any child we adopted, we felt it would be too hard on us to love guarded and say good bye.

Generally if you ask to be a pre-adoptive home you will not recieve a newborn or very young infant. We accepted this as we did not wish to fall in love with a baby and give the baby back after a year...we were placed with a 5-year old and her 1-year old brother so our needs of a baby were well staisfied.

Every family is unique and therefore your job is to decide what works the best for you and your husband.

Good luck on getting pregnant and remember some of those drugs can do a number on your emotions!

[patrick&alicia]

thank you lajo'smom and happymomanna your thoughts and words are very helpful! godbless