[MamaTo6]

We have done our hs with the CCAS and been placed with our son. We will finalize his adoption early next summer.

My question is this...Obviously we "passed" our hs, but can the CCAS dictate that we are only allowed to adopt our ONE child. Does the hs state how many children and what ages that you are approved for?

[pwheatle]

You should have received a copy of your homestudy and in it it should have something along the lines of 'child desired' category. There it should list who you are wanting to adopt and if not there somewhere close to that section it should state who you are approved to adopt eg age range, sibling groups, gender, special needs etc.
They cannot tell you how many kids you can adopt but they can simply not approve you the next time you apply if they had an issue with numbers. This is a battle I fight all the time as I have eleven children with special needs and am awaiting number 12.
Tricia

[MamaTo6]

Thanks so much for replying. When we "applied" to adopt and do our hs, we already knew the child we wished to adopt. At that time, we didnt think we would ever want to adopt again. It was only because of M that we had even considered adoption. M is now on adoption placement with us, his name has been changed on his health card and we will finalize early next summer and then get his bc. We did not recieve a copy of our hs so have no idea WHAY it says. Infact our adoption sw has told us we are not entitled to have our hs as it is the property of CCAS as we didnt pay for it.

I think I will come right out and ask the sw when she is here on her placement visit next time.

[allanacw]

Hi there,

We're in Ontario, too, but adopted through CAS.

We didn't get a copy of our homestudy, either. However, it didn't occur to me to ask.
A lot of it probably depends, worker to worker.

Are you still on adoptive probation? Such a horrible term.

Allana

[MamaTo6]

Hi Alana...yes we are still on Adoption Probation and YES it is a terrible choice of words. UGH! It really does make me feel like Im on probation.

We are not catholic but the baby we wished to adopt was.. so we had to go with ccas instead of cas, although I have dealt with both agencies and saw no difference.

Can i ask where in Ontario you are? You are the first person on this board that I have actually talked to from Ontario, but there are a few Canadians out here. I will pm you the city we are in.

So tell me about your experience with adopting through cas? Maybe we will contact cas with our next adoption, if there is one. Dh keeps wavering.

Please feel free to email me if you aren't comfy with saying where you are, or if you just want to gab.

[allanacw]

We're practically local, both being in the GTA!

We adopted Shawntay through CAS after having done foster relief for her. She came to live with us as a foster placement in Sept. of 2004 while we got our paperwork done. We finalized in August of this year. We had applied to adopt, but it's at least 2 years here to get your homestudy complete so thought we had lots of time. We were going to take another vacation, renovate the kitchen...and three months later we got the call! So, no vacation, no kitchen, but a wonderful little girl! She just turned 6.

We do foster relief, and fostered Shawntay, through Bridgeway Family Homes, not though CAS, so we had twice as many worker. They were all really great, though, so it was a positive experience.

Because we had fostered her from September until the branch hearing in March, our adoptive probation was only one month. Awful, awful term!

I would love to adopt again...in fact, can't imagine not adopting again. DH wants bio next, so we'll be going that route, but I'm sure I'll be ready to call CAS to update our homestudy within a year of that!

Allana

[phills]

Hi there,
We are in Alberta and have a copy of our homestudy, infact we got a copy of our homestudy to see it before it was official, so we could challenge anything that the homestudy worker wrote in it. And we did.

Anyway, we have been approved for 17 months in Alberta, and now are moving to Foster to Adopt program, hopefully to have more success is finding us a match. We are well aware of the great risk, but great rewards of the program.

I have found much information about adoption at this forum, but alot does not apply with a "Canadian" twist, so it is good to see other Canadians posting here.

Good luck with your adoption, and I would really contact your worker to see about adoption more children, or as they say here, 'updating' your child desired form.

phills

[MamaTo6]

Phills...Welcome. WARNING!!! This forum can be addicting. LOL.

Glad to hear from a fellow Canadian. Alberta? Brrrr. It hasn't been to bad here yet. How bout there?

We requested a copy of our homestudy recently and were denied. We were invited to come to the agancy to read it though, but we haven't thus far.

As far as adopting again, it doesn't look good. Dh has decided that 6 IS enough. We also enjoy 5 grandchildren. At first I was very very upset aboiut this, but I've come to terms with it and understand his position.

We dont have the foster to adopt program here. It was quite by accident that we foster to adopted our lil guy. When we took custody of our lil guy it was because we believed he was our grandson and he was apprehended at birth from my son and his bmom. A few months later we found out through dna that bmom had lied or was mistaken. My son and bmom are still together and we have adopted our precious son.

Happy New Year...MamaTo6

[phills]

Not cold here, infact we had a brown Christmas,

We are looking forward to the New Year, excited of the possibilities of what may be! We are also thinking of moving, just to another house in our area, but it is exciting and scary all at once!

You have your hands full, I am the Mom to 3 great kids, 11 year old girl, 7 year old boy, and 5 year old girl. I would like one more, maybe 2 more adoptions, and would accept a sibling group. But even with 5 kids I still wouldn't match 6 kids and 5 grandkids!

Anyway, best of luck in 2006.

[kalynn]

Hi, I've adopted two through CAS and we did not get the Home Study either. I don't think you are entitled to it. I don't even know if they actually wrote one ours happened so fast. We may go for a third, I don't know yet. Kalynn

[mumofone]

We didn't get a copy of our homestudy, nor did we get to read it. It must have been good as we adopted twice. lol

Our Social Worker did read parts of it to us for accuracy though.

Our baby finalizes in April, and we will head into #3.

[newbiejo]

Hey Everyone.
I just joined the group in hope to speak to other families who have adopted here in Ontario. DH and I have been TTC for over 5yrs now and I suffer from Infertility. I've had several m/c and recently just experienced a m/c with twins and a ectopic all at once!! DH and I now have discussed the adoption route-- My CAS here does not do homestudies right now as they do not have enough staff. We need to pay for the hs and go through a private practioner.
Just wondering how long the whole process went for everyone, and your experience on adoption. talk to everyone soon.

Jody.

[MamaTo6]

Hi Jody, welcome to the forums. Warning!! They can become addicting.


Glad to have another Ontarian here. We are in Hamilton and have had great support with CCAS.

Hope you have a smooth journey.

[newbiejo]

Thanks for the welsome-- its hard to find an adoption group to chat with thats in Ont or Canada. DH and I have to save $ before we can start the adoption process buts it nice to talk to people who completed the process and successful. I would love to adopt internationally but its so expensive-- we'll see what happens-- We need to get our homestudy completed first.

Jody

[cherrymom]

A fellow Canadian here - yes BC is in Canada... We spent 5 years in the GTA though got many close friends and hope to make it back out there one day. This a great forum... slightly addicting though I agree. We have 3 bio and 2 adopted. (19, 17, 15, 4, 18mnths) There is another Canadian Adoption site not as big and busy but there are alot of folks from Ontario. PM me if you don't have it and i'll give it to you.

Cherry