[thehills]

Hello everyone my wife and I have been foster parents for about a year and are going to complete our first adoption next month. We are getting a beautiful little 2 year old girl to add to our family!
Over the last year and a half we have found that once a child is placed in care that the home they are placed in is not always where they stay. So Missouri foster kids are moved around ALOT, and if that child has any type of medical problems it is almost impossiable to find them a long term stable home.
This is where we want to come in..........I would love to start a foster home that offers some kind of stability to these children. I get so angry when I find out how well a child is doing in a foster home only to be yanked out and placed somewhere else. every time these children are moved they have to start from square on all over again, they are so stressed by the moves that peole are saying they are "problem children" or ADHD or some other thing and all they rrally need is a little stability!
If any one has any advice or comments let me know. I just want to give as many of these children as we can some kind of fighting chance at a "normal" life.

[MOFosterMom]

I live in Missouri as well and (what are) the circumstances you're referring to when a child's been removed from a home? Just to be yanked and tossed into another home for no reason? Or is the foster parent(s) asking for removal?

I ask because any case I've worked with the last thing DFS wants to do is move them, it's a hassle for one thing and like every other state, there's a lack of foster homes to provide love and care.

MoFosterMom

& ^5 on the adoption (Amen to that)

[Annie6]

I also would be interested in why they are moving the kids. What ages are being moved around. I know that unless the children are to move back to a family member or the foster parents have asked to have them removed they normally aren't moved. I thinking that you are talking about the older children such as 12 and above, they do move around alot do to behaviors. I know that happens here.

Annie6
mom of 4

[riley6]

ALL of my 20 foster kids had come to me from other placements. The four I have now that I'm adopting had been in 7 other foster homes and two other foster homes. They've been with us for 2 1/2 yrs. I have only had one placement disrupt in the six yrs I've been fostering, and I had her removed due to safety issues. I know of other foster homes that have the kids removed when the going gets too hard. It's a shame that the kids move around so much.

Most states now have concurrent placement implemented, where once parental rights have been terminated, foster families have first choice of adopting the kids in their homes. It cuts down on moves!

[thehills]

The children I am talking about are mostly medical, or are older. We just found out yesterday that the our foster childs sister is going to be moved again at the foster families request. This will makes her 9th move in 3 years. her bio parents have signed away all rights. We are currently trying to make room for this special child but that takes a little time. We want to open a home that takes in these medical children. It just seems that they have been cast off even by the people who are there to help. I guess we have seen alot dealing with the medical kids and it is just painful. Both for the kids and us. Is there any one that knows if there is any programs that help get a home like this started? These angles need protected too. I guess after seeing what this child has been through it only seems right that we try to prevent it from happening to another child. There is a shortage of medical homes here and an abundance of children.

[sharkey]

I've found the same thing to be true. Two of my current kids have been in care for 8+ years and have been moved many times. One of them has as many problems from being in long-term foster care as from the situation that caused his removal from bfamily. I had two siblings with me for 6months last year who were only in care for 1 year but still had 2 and 3 different placements (they weren't together until they came to me). Makes me crazy!

I just started a non-profit organization which will have the eventual goal of creating a foster family community where foster kids with goals of long-term care can be kept in the same home and hopefully with their siblings. Way too much damage is done by moving these kids around. Older kids may be removed by foster families due to behavior but these behaviors are aggravated or created because of the lack of stability and attachment these kids face. No kid should have to wonder their whole childhood where they will end up and when they will be in yet another new home.