[karenh]

My dh and I are about to start the process for foster adoption of a sibling group of 2, We are looking for under 5 yrs of age. We live in VA but dont want to be limited to just children from VA but all states, trying to find an agency that will work with all states and not just limited to VA, I am at the top of VA. Also I have heard conflicting info and am trying to get the info straight, first I was told with any private agency we will have to pay $2-4 thousand for adoption cost, but was also told that with any special needs children (ie any from the foster system) there was no cost; I was told that in foster care only there was an allowance to cover costs of therapy, clothes, food and needs, but someone just told me there was a small payment in foster adoption. Please dont get me wrong, its not about the money, I was never expection payment after adopting children, we fully expected to pay everything as they will be our own, however we expected any cost related to adoption from the foster system to be minimal, less than $1500. I was also told that any child adopted from the system had to be placed in public school, but we only want our kids in private school or home schooled as we strongly feel the public schools may not be the best environment to teach the positive christian morals and values we believe they will need, as well as the daily Bible lessons and teachings about a relationship with the LORD.

If anyone can please share their experiences with foster adoption, the children, or reading material to help, it would be greatly appreciated.

[stbakjj]

well we are fostering 2 children from las vegas. we adopted their sister about 21/2 years ago but just got them about 7 months ago. as far as cost to adopt our first it cost about 25,000 when all was said and done. we had an agency in maine who then found our daughter in vegas. the cost are homestudy, and application fees along with medical forms, the fees from the agency in vegas along with all the little fees that add up. on the other hand when we went thru the state everything is paid for. we had to take classes and they even offered to pay for child care for our other children. they pay for the homestudy and anything else that needs to be done. you get a small fee per child per month for their needs. now there is a down fall. you might not get to adopt the child you are fostering. sometimes they go back to their parents or relatives. you can request only foster to adopt children. as far as schooling goes we have all our children in christian school including our foster child. as long as we are willing to pay for it they said fine. that will depend on your state i imagine. i hope that i have answered some of your questions. if you need anything else feel free to email me at boekhout@verizon.net