[GoddessDanu]

DH and I have been toying with the idea of doing foster care for some time now. I'll be at a point with my daycare this September where I'll only have 2 kids. I thought that might be a good time to transition into doing foster care. DH and I are already in the process of trying to adopt through foster care. We're doing straight adoption. Should we wait until after the adoption (might be next year?) or is this something we could look into even before we do our adoption? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Withay]

You might want to consider going ahead with the Foundations classes (known as MAPP or PRIDE in some states). Since you've already gone through the adoption classes it should be fairly straight-forward and easy for you to get certified. You will be assigned a certifier once licensed who is different than your aw.

Let your certifier know that you are also interested in adoption and he/she can keep an eye out for cases that look like they may go to tpr. This will widen the age range for you a bit. Generally in OR there aren't too many infants/very young children who are ready for adoption that are not being adopted by either their current foster parents or the families that adopted their siblings.

If you have a fc in your home when an adoptive placement is placed with you, the fc is generally allowed to remain, especially if they have been there a few months. However, no new fc will be placed until a period of time (generally agreed upon between you, your aw and your adoptive childs' worker) has passed.

[In_limbo_for_now]

Goddess,

If you are willing of wanting to foster it might be a quicker path to adoption. Our foster care license is limited to those legally free for adoption. We may get a call asking us to take a child who is not TPR'd but we would have the right of refusal. along with permanent court wards there is what they call an Original court ward here in Michigan. An original court ward is a baby born of parents who have lost rights to others children in the past and the court is planning an immediate TPR. These would still be an at risk adoption because bio relatives including adoptive families of the sibs would be given the option to adopt. Most of the babies that go through the foster care system that are not RU with parents end up being adopted by foster families.

Good luck to you!

[GoddessDanu]

Thank you both for your reply. DH and I talked about this again last night and I think we're going to wait and see what happens with our adoption.

I don't mind not adopting an infant or toddler. I truly believe that the children who were meant to be ours will eventually come into our lives. We had thought that since our children will be coming out of foster care, we might try our hand at foster care to help other families and children. But I agree that we need some time to just be together as a family without the pressures of being a foster family as well. Thank you again for your advice.

[kayb]

In our experience, we fostered prior to our adoptive placement and have not since knowing we were going to finalization FOR SURE.

Like Withay said during the final process, the state sw suggested we not take placement for a year - I thought "SHES CRAZY" I can't wait a year!

Sept will be a year and in hindsight I'm glad we waited. Only because he got really clingy and would cry if I held any other child for more than a mili-second!!

In about a month or two we'll be opening our doors again for a fost-adopt placement and frankly I'm scared. My 6yo understands, but how will my almost 2yo feel/grieve when a child stays for some time and then maybe leaves......we'll definitely be more serious with the phone calls from the county and state on placement phone calls!

Good luck with your decision. You and DH need to really decide on the dynamics of your family.

I'm not even on the call-out list and I've been called twice in 3 weeks - So after I turned down the placement, I was wondering if I had done the wrong thing and there was a reason I was being called on these two children......But I know the present time is just not right for our family - so that's the way it has to be (whether I beat myself up or not)!!