[mylilangels]

My foster son came April 7, 2005(3dys old)
We had lots of visits and panel reviews..
Went to non-reunification around June 2006..
Tpr'd on Sept 14, 2006..
Took forever to get conversion of home done..
We'll sign papers July 10, 2007..yeah yeah
It has been a long journey..We were told not to even expect a baby, but he was our second and longest placement to date. God has given us such beautiful children, and I feel blessed everyday..Trans-racial adoption, what a colorful family we have..Don't give up hope, it's a long process but well worth the wait..God Bless!!

[mythreekids]

I have a sibling group of 3 that have been in foster care for SEVEN years. TPR was completed in April 2006 and the kids were placed with us for adoption August 2006. The caseworker and supervisor are apparently in no hurry to get this placement finalized. It is soooo frustrating...dragging this out for so long. The kids are 10,11 and 13 - old enough to question the timing. They want (and need) this adoption to be finalized. But there is nothing we can do to speed it along. We are currently waiting for the subsidy agreement to be drafted. Been waiting since March on that. Grrrrr....
On the bright side, these are the most wonderful children and they are worth every bit of pain, frustration and sacrafice that has to be made to get this adoption finalized. When push comes to shove, just remember that you are fighting for your kids' futures. Somehow that seems to put everything into perspective for me.

[vernellinnj]

Mythreekids - You have got to be kidding me, 7 years? That's horrendous. When were they placed in your home?

Good luck.

[Lamaena]

mylilangels,
I wanted to reply to your post and thank you for sharing your information. I really don't know how stressful this whole process is until I read timelines and encouragement from people like you and literally burst into tears.
Again, thanks for sharing your story, it makes me feel like there's hope for us too.

[vernellinnj]

Lamaena - You're right. This thread is opening my eyes to exactly how long these cases can/do take. I knew it, but seeing people post about it really makes me feel less isolated.

[cag4nyg]

We just got placed with a 3 month old on June 14th, 2007. On June 15th ( his 3 month birthday) his mom signed relinquishment papers and waved her right to change her mind. We are waitng to TRP the birth father which is unknown and wait the 6 months req by california before we can final. So we are looking to final some time in dec 07

Heather

[txsar]

Hi all,

Our fs has been in care for almost 17 months. He is 2 years old now. We were his 3rd foster home in about 5 months. We had him for 7 1/2 months then he was placed with a family member. Everyone knew this was not the right placement for him but cps was determined to place him (a whole other story). He was with the family member for about 2 1/2 months when he was removed by cps. We have now had him back for a little over 1 month. Long story short....the termination trial is about 1 1/2 weeks away, the parents have signed relinquishment but papers are being held I believe until the trial. But we found out that a homestudy is being done on other family members out of state (we are in TX). We would like to adopt our fs. He has bonded well with our family and has been moved around quite a bit. We hate to see him moved again. Would it do any good for us to write a letter to the judge letting her know that we would adopt? If so, what should we focus on in the letter? How do we go about getting it to her being a relatively short time frame? If he hadn't been moved around so much I probably wouldn't have a problem with him being moved to a family member, but with his history and the experience we have had with this cps office I'm not confident that our fs best interest is being served. Btw, we were also told that his time with us started over since he was gone for the 2 1/2 months.

I would appreciate any advice anyone might have.

Thank you!

[vernellinnj]

In my state, the judge has a court coordinator - her name and number are listed on the "Notice of Hearing" documents that I receive.

I would call the judges chambers, confirm the correct address and immediately send a one page letter stating facts only, i.e. ..X came to our home on X date at XX years old; At the time he was "describe emotional state, delays, habits, etc." ;he is now XX years old and has "describe milestones achieved while in your care". End with, If the courts determine that TPR is appropriate, I would like to adopt. Copy his caseworker, GAL, etc. Also send a photo if you have one...

Good luck.

[mylilangels]

I'm glad you found it encouraging..It is a long journey, but just keep telling yourself what the ending can and will be like. I'll be praying for your family..It was something, we knew we wanted a baby but couldn't have one, and private adoption we couldn't afford so we decided to foster. we prayed that God would bless us with a baby, just one, if He had more great but at least one for us. It's so amazing that our second call would be for a newborn. In our cty we only have like 2 or 3 homes that will take any race, and I was thrilled when the director thought of us to take this little aa baby boy.. I think she knew it would head in this direction knowing that he was baby #9 in his family. Remember how I said at least one baby, well I know this is all God b/c i'm at peace with my family being complete. i tell ppl my lil family is a puzzle, and now lil man completed it b/c he was the missing piece. our fd has been in care for 40mths, and we didn't have peace about adopting her so she'll be reunited w/ her brother in another home. Give it to God b/c He will surely show you the way. i'm sorry for rambling, I just have a passion for this.i can't wait to show ya'll pics of our baby boy..after next week i can..Good Luck to ya..

[la vida loca]

Today is the TPR trial for my FD. It was supposed to happen in early May (at 18 months) but the trial was continued because one of the attorneys didn't show. The foster families for my FD's sisters will also be attending and we all hope our presence will demonstrate to the court our committment to these girls.

[MomwithFive]

Originally Posted by la vida loca

Today is the TPR trial for my FD. It was supposed to happen in early May (at 18 months) but the trial was continued because one of the attorneys didn't show. The foster families for my FD's sisters will also be attending and we all hope our presence will demonstrate to the court our committment to these girls.

Sending good thoughts your way! Keep us updated.

[tinatyme]

I spoke with M's social worker yesterday and she told me that her parents have appealed the TPR. In my families two adoptions that has never happened before so I asked her what the timeline looks like. She said 8-10 MONTHS before resolution. WHAT! She has already been in care for 22 months!

On the positive side she told me that they are not persuing family resources anymore as she had told me they were a few weeks ago because they don't believe it is in her best interest to move her from a preadoptive home into the home of a relative she has never met and whose name popped up after the TPR was granted. I am so relieved. Hopefully this means when the appeal is decided, I will be able to adopt her. We'll see. At the very least she will be with us for the next 8-10 months!

[tlmerrie]

Tinatyme-

Glad to hear that they aren't interested in looking at relatives anymore. I wonder why she thought it was a good idea a few weeks ago???

Sorry to hear about the appeal.

Amy

[footparty4u]

K was placed with us Aug 2006 after being in foster care for the first 5 months of his life with another family. We were a fost/adopt home. We were scheduled to go to court Nov 06 for TPR, but due to a clerical error it was taken off calander then rescheduled. We were granted TPR March of 07 and the appeal ended May of 07. We are now scheduled to finalize our adoption July 16. We are thrilled it was a such a smooth and quick process for us.

[forever83085]

Hi everyone. You may have seen my name on some of the other threads around here but I figured that maybe I would go ahead and post here too.

I guess I can start from the beginning if you promise not to drool when you fall asleep.

It was in September of 2005 that I was sitting in church and I felt as though I was being told that I needed to adopt a child. Honestly I never thought that I would be one of the called to go on a journey that God sometimes calls people for. At first I thought noooo because my youngest had just graduated from high school and now it was mine and DH's time to do whatever. Well God doesn't just say ok whatever you want, He kept the thought of adopting in my mind and so I told my DH about it and he said he would support whatever I decided to do. So I started calling adoption agencies to find out what I could and at one of the places I was told about going through the county's foster/adopt program. At first I didn't know if that is what we wanted to do but it felt right so we pursued it. We took all the classes and got all the things done that needed to be done and got certified on March 3 of 2006. I was on edge waiting for the phone to ring which it didn't for about 3 weeks. I finally e-mailed our coordinator and asked if we could be put on the emergency placement list. That was around 3 pm on Friday March 24th. She wrote back saying that we are on the emergency list and to have a nice weekend, something to that effect. Well about 3 hours later we got our first call. I was on my cell phone at the time so my daughter answered the phone and she said it was social services and they would call back in 10 minutes. Of course it took a little bit longer than 10 minutes but she did call back and asked if we would take placement of a newborn baby boy. That was almost 16 months ago and we still have this sweet gift from God.

We recently went to the termination trial and although his birth mom's right were terminated, his birth dad's were not which was a huge shock to everyone (the judge was a fill in just for the termination trial and we have no idea why the judge that had been on the case wasn't doing the termination trial). So now we wait to see what will happen next. I can't really say much more right now but will be able once we know more.

Good luck to everyone on your own journeys. Thanks for listening.