[MBDAD220]

Hey everyone...Thanks for all of the wonderful advise.
We have just received our foster license in South Carolina. How long do you think it will take until we are placed.
I was told that many babies are entering car lately.
I know we can not predict the furture
Any ideas?

[Prettyboicris]

I think it depends on what you guys are open to. I know here there have been lots of infants put into care but they have older siblings and they are trying to keep them together so if you are open to a siblign group that might increase you chances of a match.

[mnmomma]

I agree with Cris that your wait will largely depend on what you are open to. If you are open to age, gender, race, and special needs then you'll probably have a placement by tomorrow.

My DH and I were open to mostly healthy babies up to age 1 and it took about 5-6 weeks before we had the first child in our home.

[anilorak13ska]

I JUST found out today that we are officially licensed (VA). Our ultimate goal is to adopt, but we're looking forward to starting parenting, if only to get our minds off the looooooong wait with an empty house!

We went through the teen training, so they put us down for 0-21! Although during our home visit, we made it perfectly clear that we're open to fostering 0-4, any race, either sex, one or two kids, but newborn-to-four yo!

So now I worry about starting to get calls for older kids and having to say "no".

[sadoyle1216]

We are technically licensed for 4 children, 0-10 years old, at least that's what the license actually says. We are entered into the central database as 1-2 children, 5 weeks-5 years. All of the placements in my area go through the Central Placement Unit, who doesn't have access to what the license/homestudy says. Will we get calls for older children? Possibly. So far, we've gotten a call for a 6 month old (needed stay at home parent), sib set of 4, 2, 7 mo (biomom took off with them before removal) and a 23 month old, whom we had for 2 months.

[anilorak13ska]

Well, today is a month that we've been licensed (though we've only known for 2 weeks!) and we haven't gotten any calls. We were expecting to at least get calls for teens (which we'd have to turn down), but nothing. Based on the small sample of replies to this thread, it looks like a 2 month wait may be average? Prettyboicris, I'm including you in this, as I noticed you were licensed exactly a month before we found out that we were licensed, so I'm sure your time is comming up this month! (Here's a for good luck!)

[greenrobin]

It really is a just depends. We were licensed exactly a week before we received our first placement. When they left, we took a 3 month break. When I called to say we were active again, it was 2 weeks. They stayed 6 weeks, were gone for 2 weeks and we got the 2 kids we've now had for 2 years.

And we haven't had any others except for the 3 we have in respite right now.

I think we may have gotten placements quickly because we are licensed for 5 kids aged 0-10. The first 2 placements were for sib groups of 4 each.

[hcg]

We got our first placement before our licence even arrived.

We got our second placement about a month later (and he's still with us, almost a year later).

[anilorak13ska]

We just attended the foster/adopt orientation at the next county over, and we were told that they recruit foster families "to be prepared", not bc they necessarily have a need for us right this minute. Could've fooled me.

[Fatcat]

We're licensed for 2 children, any race, any gender, any special need, 0-2 years old and it was 9 months before we got our first call.

[greenrobin]

The need is great, but the emphasis is to keep kids in the home if at all possible. We are called when there is no other choice.

I know your heart is longing for a child in your home. And I understand that.

But when you think about the reason that a child is there, it makes you do a double take cause it ain't good.

Stand ready, certainly. But rejoice that there is no dire need right now.

And when a child does arrive, thank God that you were ready and love the mess out of them.

Foster care really is a strange life. We've been doing it for 3 years. And in the beginning, I felt the same way--when will they call. But after fostering 11 and adopting 2, I'm grateful for the days that the phone doesn't ring because it means that a family somewhere is working at getting better.

And I really do wish you the best of luck and the child who is meant to come safely into your home.

[Larue]

We were open to race, gender and special needs, such as drug exposure. And licenced for up to 2 children, 0 - 4 years old. We were placed within 2 weeks of being licenced with a newborn baby girl. As the other posters mentioned, a lot of it has to do with what you're open to.

Best wishes in your journey.

[blueflower]

Originally Posted by greenrobin

The need is great, but the emphasis is to keep kids in the home if at all possible. We are called when there is no other choice.

I know your heart is longing for a child in your home. And I understand that.

But when you think about the reason that a child is there, it makes you do a double take cause it ain't good.

Stand ready, certainly. But rejoice that there is no dire need right now.
And when a child does arrive, thank God that you were ready and love the mess out of them.

Foster care really is a strange life. We've been doing it for 3 years. And in the beginning, I felt the same way--when will they call. But after fostering 11 and adopting 2, I'm grateful for the days that the phone doesn't ring because it means that a family somewhere is working at getting better.

And I really do wish you the best of luck and the child who is meant to come safely into your home.

Well said. We have been licensed for a few weeks and at times I get antsy wanting something material to show for all the work we have done (i.e. a kid in the rooms where the beds are made but no one is sleeping). Then I tell myself that it is a good thing we don't have FC because that would mean they would have had to go through some sort of pain to get here. It reminds me to pray for the kids who will eventually sleep in those beds and thank God for the beds not being needed right at this moment ... nevertheless, the cell phone is never far away from me these days.

[latinosunshine]

I think we are now licensed but havent received the license yet. We are foster/adopt for a sibling group. After all, the classes and inspections, its kind of anti-climatic but taking the opportunity to do all the home improvements.

I thought I would be sitting by my cell phone but actually I kind of "forgotten" about waiting to adopt because we have been so busy.

[anilorak13ska]

We were told that 2 months is no time at all (the amount of time we were waiting), but still, we didn't become foster parents to sit in some file. So we went to the orientation for foster care at the county to our north, where they said that if we were willing to take newborns and non-Caucasian kids and since we were bilingual, they could request to have our license transferred from our county to theirs.

This was 9/14. A little over a week later they called to follow up, but I wasn't able to get back in touch with them. Then 2 days after that, our own county called (9/25) with two possible placements!

Exactly 2 weeks after we showed an interest in leaving our county, we brought home our foster daughter, 7 mo Baby V! And just a week later, they were calling us about a respite placement of a teen and her baby (we had to say no). [something about a squeeky wheel comes to mind...]

But whenever Baby V goes home, we have actually decided that we are not much of baby people, so we'll be looking at ages 2 and up (though not adolescents), though we think we could still provide respite to a baby for the weekend.