[beckyt]

What seems to be the average time between placements? Is there some trick to getting a placement? Is there some preferred list determined?

Just a few days after our license arrived (mid June 09) we had a call offering us 2 different placements. We accepted one of the two placements offered who has now gone to kinship care. We have had only one other call for placement during all this time to fill our 2nd opening and that was while we had our first placement still with us. We had declined this placement due to us feeling it might not be right for our situation. We did this with lots of guilt but knew it would be best for the child to be placed somewhere he or she would likely fit best.

There has been no calls for placement since. We have 2 openings and I have contacted the placement coordinator more than once to make sure they were aware of our openings. Our case worker for our 1rst placement had nothing but praise for us and how we foster. She stated more than once she would talk to the placement coordinator for us.

Maybe we are unrealisitc? We love fostering and someday hope to adopt thru fostering. We are currently just foster and are working on being foster to adopt. Did we shoot ourselves in the foot by turning down our last placement offered to us? I was under the impression foster parents were in demand. I guess I am still very green to this process.

Any thoughts, insight or suggestions?

I guess we are just anxious to be doing what we love so much.

[takingtheplunge]

Are you working through an agency or the county directly?
If you are working through the agency, it could be an agency issue (county doesn't prefer them), or it can be a financial issue (county doesn't want to pay agency higher stipends, so they place with their homes first).

If you are licensed and working directly with the county itself, and you are in a large county in California, then foster is in demand and I would, too, wonder what was going on. If this is the case, then I would just question what you are open to (age/issues).