[newbiejo]

Hi All,
Does anyone know, I live Ontario, and my CAS here does not do the homestudy's as they do not have the staff to do them.. We've been told we have to go through a private practioner and cost is over 1200.00-- I was thinking of trying to go through a diferent cities CAS, but not sure if i can do that. Anyone ever heard of this?? We liked to get going on the adoption but can't afford to come up with all that money right now--

Jody

[Leigh131313]

Sorry Jody, I have no clue....Perhaps call a larger agency in a bigger city to ask about rules and such.


1200 doesnt seem overly high tho...seems to me ours was more than that the first go around.

[allanacw]

Hi Jodi,

We're from Ontario, too.

$1,200 to about $2,000 seems about right.

I'm fairly certain that another cities CAS would not do your homestudy. They are all stretched so thin they likely won't be willing to go outside of both their jurisdiction and budgeted boundaries.

What could work in your favour is moving to foster to adopt. They'll definitely do your homestudy then and it may improve your wait time dramatically. If you're looking for younger child, this is also a good option.

Can I ask where in Ontario you are? We're in Durham Region, just outside Toronto. The wait time for the adoptive classes here was 2 years, but because we went foster to adopt (long story, it wasn't direct) we got fast tracked. If we had lived in Toronto, the wait time would have been a matter of months. The area you live in varies things dramatically. I seriously considered moving early on, but our situation worked out perfectly with our daughter.

Best of luck!

Allana

[newbiejo]

Hey Ladies,

Thanks Allana, I have left a voicemail for the social worker that does adoptiosn here buts she's away until next week. I'm afraid you're right- i think I have to stay with my local CAS. I'm from Stratford Ont. I've thought about foster to adopt as we would prefer a younger child, infant if possible, however I was told that I would not get any maternal leave when you foster!? Did you get EI when you went through foster to adopt? Any info you can provide would be great appreciated,

Jody

[MamaTo6]

Hi we are in Ont.too, about 40 minutes from TO. We did not get any maternal leave with foster, but government does pay for daycare. We did get the leave once we adopted though. Crazy situation, but well worth it all since we have our wee man now.

[allanacw]

When you adopt in Ontario you are eligible for 9 months of parental leave. When you give birth, you get 9 months of parental leave and 17 weeks of what is considered maternity leave. In addition you have to begin your parental leave within a certain time frame of the child coming into your home for the purpose of adoption (I believe it's 6 months, but don't quote me on that). With our foster to adopt situation that date could be defined two ways: the day we committed to adopt Shawntay (Oct. 20th) vs. the day of the branch hearing to confirm that we were the adoptive parents (March 24th, months later). Our worker was willing to define the date either way.

Shawntay came into our home Sept. 13th, 2004. We knew from the get go we would be adopting but Oct. 20th, 2004 is when the adoption workers formally asked. My husband went on parental leave at the end of March 2005, and Shawntay became an adoptive placement rather than a foster placement at the same time. We only had to one month of adoptive probation, rather than the usual 6, because she had been in our home for so long as a foster placement.

When you foster you do receive the daily per diem. Depending on the agency you foster through (we fostered through a private agency, not CAS, who were incredible present and supportive) the per diem can vary widely. Also depending on the agency you may or may not be allowed to place the foster child in daycare. We were able to because we were fostering to adopt, but our agency does not allow it if it is a straight foster placement. If you PM me I'll let you know our agency's name and website as well as the different per diems I'm aware of.

I have a friend who is self employed and could not take parental leave when her daughter came into her home so CAS helped her out in different ways (I believe it was daycare expenses). I have had such positive experiences with workers overall and found they do their best to support you in whatever ways they can.

You may want to look into Native Child and Family Services adoption program as well.

Probably more info than you were looking for!

Allana

[Leigh131313]

Allana,

It's so nice to hear about your postive experiences!! With all the negative you hear, it's nice to hear that there is hope out there!!

[newbiejo]

Allana, the info is great-- I have sent you PM- I'll wait to hear from you. Since I have decided not to returnt ot he clinic for IF treatments, I've wanted to see how to start the adoption process. We long for a baby so badly, and its really hard sometimes. Its nice to hear positive stories from people in my area that have adopted successfully. Talk to yu soon


Jody

[allanacw]

Thanks! I would definitely define our adoption, and the entire experience, as a success. My daughter is incredible...we really like kids with some spunk to them. She's strong willed, fiesty, there's never a dull moment with her! But it means that while we have to be really consistent and structured the good times far outweigh the challenges we've had (I almost threw a party when she spelled "desk" a few months ago, lol). She is definitely larger than life.

We're considered unusual because we have some contact with her bmom through CAS and we are in regular contact with her half sister (different fathers) and her adoptive family. In fact, we just saw them Friday night.

Having an open mind, doing LOTS of research, knowing what we could handle through our experience with foster relief, and having a friend who's a caseworker to bounce ideas off of went a long way to ensuring we were prepared. It's been the best two years of my life.

Allana

[Ima2B]

I wouldn't give up on another CAS so quickly. If you express an interest in any of their kids they may do your homestudy. We are having our homstudy don e with a diferent CAS. PM me if you want more info.

[newbiejo]

Well I had some contact with the social worker here about fostering - I emailed here some info and she said to give her a few days as she is very swamped-- So we'll see what happens- Talk to everyone later,

Jody