[vicnric]

Hi,
I live right next door to you in San B. county, my husband & I are also with an agency, it is state funded but goes thru the foster care system of all of the counties in California. Trust me, I feel your frustration!
We are on our 2nd adoption and have been waiting seven months this time. I have called and talked to the social worker in Riverside myself and she doesn't say anything about so many kids to place, I don't know what's going on. I agree with all of you-there are so many kids, but where are they? Why aren't we getting any calls?
Good luck to you all!

~Vicki

[mommytoEli]

Originally Posted by vicnric

I agree with all of you-there are so many kids, but where are they? Why aren't we getting any calls?
Good luck to you all!

~Vicki

they are mostly being placed straight through the county. with the economy not being so hot, they did guess there would be an increase in people wanting to foster, and people who already fostered being willing to take in more children. agencies get children last because it usually costs a county more money to place a child through an agency. so the agencies get the children counties are unable to place- whether it be that the placement is harder to place (think large sibling sets or kiddos with medical issues) or children at the end of the day they just can't find a home for because all the homes they have are full for that age category, etc. there are MANY children in Riverside and San Bernadino County. So many. Families through the county are getting placements left and right. where our soon to be adopted son was just last Easter, the family was actually OVER occupancy levels bc there were just too many babies! Riverside county was also placing several relinquished babies with fost adopt families every weekend as recently as this past June. But again, these are all county families.

Not only do agencies get placed last, but the county prefers to use certain agencies more than others. So, if you find yourself not with the "golden" agency, you might be waiting for some time. i know the OP FINALLY get her placement. so there ARE babies going to agencies, but the wait is just longer.

my friends dh is an adoptions worker in SB. he is looking for adoptive homes ALL THE TIME. lol. but again, they search all their county homes first, go through their list first, and then call agencies.

not what you wanted to hear, i am sure, but that is where the children are. lol. a good way to gauge what is going on in your agency, is to ask how many children they have placed in the last 30 days and what their ages are. also, if you are in line for a certain age, gender, type of child, find out where you are in that line!!

good luck

[HeidiK]

Hi there -

I am in Riverside County ( Sun City/Perris area) and am thinking about starting the process again- I have two AA boys that I adopted (both private agencies- one born in Los Angeles and one form Texas) but am seriously thinking about one more and doing foster/adoption this time. No looking for a baby - but maybe an little bit older girl or sibling set of two...any advice would be helpful?

I have open adoptions with both of my boys and I wonder if that is even a possibility with county adoptions...thinking about my options in 2009

[henderfive]

I would go with the county first. We only wanted infants because that's all we have room for. The agency that I took classes with (in Riverside County) said they usually only get older children or a group of sibilings. When I talked to people that went with the county with-in two or three months they had newborns directly from the hospital. Good luck!
Henderfive

[carlyincali]

I live in SB county as well. We are just finding out about foster-to-adopt and would like to know what agency to go with. I know there are a few out here, but if anyone knows of the "golden" agency that gets all the kids, I sure would love to know who they are.

Thank you!

[mommytoEli]

carla, go county. pm me for a golden agency. but seriously, go county.

[DannieAS]

As I'm going through Riverside county myself...I hope there will be the young kids that you all were talking about when everything is approved for me....I start my classes in a week yay

anything you can tell me about what to expect in my homestudy once the classes are done?

[calimomX3]

Speaking from experince and frusteration, be patient..I was as frusterated as all of you and thought maybe my agency didnt like me. God blessed us with a miracle baby who we brought home from the hospital, a small preemie princess.

[vicnric]

Thank you so much for your advice, I really appreciate it! I think maybe we just got so blessed thru our first adoption and I thought I was going to loose it then and I realize now that was the easy one. We went thru this same adoption agency and we had only waited 2 months and were placed with a Safe Surrender baby and everyone told me it was unheard of to be getting a baby like that thru an agency. I think maybe our social worker was just at the right place at the right time.
But, this time is definately taking longer and we have our 4 year old saying when is my brother coming home. It's just hard and it seems that nobody knows what you are going thru except you ladies on here who have been thru it before. My husband tries to understand but I really think that men & women are built differently.
Anyways, I really appreciate your input.
Thanks,
Vicki

[vicnric]

Okay, here's a question that my husband just came up with....I'm not sure if anyone knows. Are any of the things that we have done over the last 8 years transferrable to the county? Our homestudy, our MAPP training, our fingerprinting. I realize that we would have to do all of the paperwork over again.
I think maybe some would be because our agency is state funded, but I'm not sure.

~Vicki

[calimomX3]

I looked into changing awhile back to the county, I think some things you can transfer but you do have to go through all the classes the county trains for..I know some of the gals on here have changed from agency to county so they will know more.

[mommytoEli]

you can ask, but you will most likely be redoing everything. i learned about the fingerprints...... that each set of results goes only to the agency requesting them. they must be redone for each agency that wants results. seems to me they'd somehow keep them "onfile" and just re run the same report for each new requesting agency...but i guess you could alter your prints and commit some crimes in between the last set and the new set. lol.

the county will probably want to re do everything, unless it is something like a physical you just got done a few months ago. we had a current homestudy from a private agency when our son's brother came into care, and we still had to re-do everything. it didn't matter we had a current study or recent prints.

[vicnric]

Okay, I will have to ask our agency, maybe they know, thanks a lot!
I found a sibling set on CA Kids Connection that my social worker is looking into, we'll see.....

[mommytoEli]

Originally Posted by vicnric

Okay, I will have to ask our agency, maybe they know, thanks a lot!
I found a sibling set on CA Kids Connection that my social worker is looking into, we'll see.....

how exciting.

[vicnric]

Well, the update on the sibling set of 3 that I found on the web-site is of course: they were already matched, I hate it when they don't update their sites.
Back to the research........

~Vicki

Originally Posted by mommytoEli

how exciting.