[lolamom]

Hi,

I am new to the board here. My name is Cindy, I live in Los Angeles County and am a foster parent. We were licensed in August 2007 and have fostered 2 children so far. One was returned after being with us for 6 weeks and the one I have now has been with us for 5 months. He is 13 mos old. My DH and I would like to eventually adopt. We are interested in children 0-12 mos for now.

We are with an agency and I really like them but we have not had a call in a few months. I have been told it is b/c our age preference makes it hard for us to get a placement. I am wondering if it would be better to sign up directly with the County. I have had people tell me that when they are with the County they get calls all the time. What do you think?


Thanks!

[momofbgtwins]

I live in Northern California and from my experience the county is better. We started the process with an agency years ago and we were not pleased with them at all. They told us it would take 4 or more years to get a baby. The county finished up our home study on a Wednesday and the following Monday we get the call for 11 day old boy/girl twins.

[ariadne249]

We live in Riverside County. People have warned us to go with an Agency because they provide more monetary and emotional support than the county. Is this true?

[mommytoEli]

Originally Posted by ariadne249

We live in Riverside County. People have warned us to go with an Agency because they provide more monetary and emotional support than the county. Is this true?

not necessarily. yes to the more money, but only while you foster. once your placement becomes an adoption, your payments will actually most likely go down to the state approved rate you would have gotten if you fostered them through the state...so it is short lived. um, yeah...i guess through some ffa's you may have more support....but i felt like i really had to know what i wanted before i asked for it...and like i said on your other thread, i found it much more useful to go straight through the county worker, especially in riverside.

[ariadne249]

Thank you for the feedback!

[musemoon]

I was told that in Los Angeles county, if you are open to race your wait is a lot shorter.

My first call was 30 days after certification (which I missed) and my second was 6 weeks later. I adopted my daughter through an agency.

[HappyHopefulMommy]

I am also in Northern CA. We were with a private adoption agency for 2 years and had not received a placemenet. We are now working with our county. It has been 3 months and nothing yet. But a long wait with them is 8 months. So, we are hopeful. Good luck.

[luv2bmommy4]

Just from our personal experience:
We started with county and had a very bad experience with them. We then, a year later, decided to go with agency and we absolutely love them. I would recommend agency over county to anyone.

[Yash]

I am all about an agency. I was told by other foster parents to go through an agency, so I did. And now having dealt with some crazy CWs, I am ever so grateful that I have my wonderful agency to support me and back me up.

LA County has the most children in foster care at any given moment in the US. If you are open to race and sex, you will get a placement fairly quickly.

I was licensed on Halloween and was doing respite over the Thanksgiving weekend for a three-month-old boy that I could possibly adopt. That didn't work out, but my son came home on Dec. 30 at five-days-old. So a day shy of two months of being licensed.

Ariadne249 - My payments were reduced once I signed adoption placement papers and started getting AAP. My son was home 15 months before I signed those papers. My daughter has been home almost 8 months and I'm praying I will sign adoption placement papers at the end of July.