[Larue]

Greetings forum. We’re recently started the process to become licensed in Washington State. I have been lurking here for a few weeks, and reading though various threads. And it has really been a wealth of information. A little background…we have a 3 year old daughter who joined our family through international adoption from Guatemala, and recently completed a home study for another international adoption, this time from Nepal. After talking to our social worker and the attorney who recently completed our daughter’s readoption, we decided we would like to also pursue foster adoption through our agency. They are amending our home study, and we’re working on the requirements to become licensed. Our hope is to be placed with a child under 3. We’re open to race and gender.

I’m sure there are many factors that influence this, and since we’re hoping for a baby/toddler, our wait may be a long one. But in your experience, how long did you wait after being licensed to receive your first placement?

Thanks for any experiences you can share!

[potentialsinglemom]

I received my first call for a placement on Nov 21,2008. The child had mental and behavioral issues that I felt I was not prepared to handle.

I was officially licensed until Dec 31,2008.

On Jan 4, 2009, I received a call for a 2 yr old who was already TPR'd. I had the flu, missed the phone call.

[WorkingOnAFullHouse]

It took us 3 weeks to get the first call. Good luck!

[CaddoRose]

I'm in Texas and we were asked about a placement before we got the license. It was for a 12 yr old girl we had done respite for. She ended up being placed with another family which worked out good for us because we don't want to take a child close in age or older than DD who is now 11.

Also got a call before the license for a 1 yr old baby boy who had shaken baby syndrome but I declined because I didn't feel I had the knowledge to take care of a medical needs child yet.

Next call came right after we got license and was for a sib set, newborn and a 5 yr old,and we said yes. They ended up being placed in the county they were from and we missed out.

Two weeks later we got the call for our first placement which was a 2. 5 yr old girl. Her brother, 1 yr old, was in hospital. We took her in July and by the end of Oct, the brother was moved to us.

They left this morning to go to live with relatives. We are super happy about it. Sad about the termination on the parents, but that is their decision to not follow the plan, but happy for the kids. We do want to adopt, but we also want to foster and our first placement was a good one. I would have kept them if nobody in the family wanted them.

[Larue]

Thanks everyone for your responses, and sharing your experiences. We've pretty familar with international adoption. But this is a whole new world for us. I was just googling "concurrent planning" to figure out how that works. I realize now that I have a new "lingo" to learn.

I found it interesting that a few of you received the call for a potential placement even before you were licenced. I guess that just goes to show you how great a need there is out there. I really look foward to learning from you all.

[gwenrenee007]

Hey Laura! I was so surprised to see you on here! Congratulations and good luck!

[devildogwife]

DH and I also had a placement before we were licensed. We had a 9-year-old girl with a trach for a month. What an experience! We really miss her a lot.

[Larue]

Hi there Gwen! Thanks for the well wishes. I didn't know you were pursuing foster adoption for a little sister for Mia. I just checked out your blog. And I have to say, she is just as adorable as ever. Best wishes in your journey!!!

[carlychan]

We were placed with our FS 2 weeks after being foster/adoptive licensed. He was a concurrent placement. We were pretty open to birth parent issues and I am a stay at home mom with 2 boys already. I think both of these things helped in their decision to place with us.

[luvmykids4]

I was approved on May 1, and got a placement June 10. Our friends got a placement 3 hours after the sw left from their homestudy. We work with the Children and Youth agency directly, not a private agency. I'm not sure if this affects timing. Best wishes.

[luvmykids4]

Larue,

I forgot to mention that we are open to ages newborn to 2. Many times the sw will try to stretch your age range, so we kept it to 2 yrs. since we already have other kids in the home.