[mmmorgans96]

Hello everybody
I am new to the whole foster/adopt adventure. I have lots of questions and would appreciate any help I can get!!

1. How long did you wait after being certified before you got your first foster child? (We are planning on doing just 0-5)

2. What kind of things do they look for in the home study? We have a room all made up but it is hard to know if we will need a crib or a toddler bed ya know?

3. We have alot of toys and books and things do we need to make sure we have the appropriate clothing before the homestudy and placement??

4. We are hoping to adopt through the foster/adopt program is this a realistic goal?? I know the main point of foster care is reunification and we are prepared to encourage that. I was just wondering if adopting through foster care is pretty common or not.

Thank you for your help!!

Wendy

[ccemtp63]

I have only been in the system a little over a year so I know how you feel. Actually, my situation was a bit unique. I had my home visit, and was in the process of completing my paperwork when I got a call for a 3 1/2 month old little girl. I was only supposed to have her for a little while as grandma wanted to get custody. However, 3 days changed to 3 weeks, then 3 months and at that point it was pretty clear that mom wasn't making any progress. (drug rehab, parenting classes, drug free) Here we are 1 year and 1 week later and we are waiting for parents rights to be terminated.
As to how I started, I showed them the room I had for a child. It had bunk beds at the time but I explained I had a crib available to me also. I purchases diapers in various sizes, (small packages) as with clothes. (just one outfit per size) Or ask a friend if you might have 3-4 diapers just in case. I figured this would help if I was called in the middle of the night. As it turned out, I had 2 1/2 days notice because mom couldn't be found.
My brother and his wife have adopted one child they fostered and are in the process of adopting her sister who they got at birth. You could ask for children who will likely be adoptable although the caseworkers may not always know what the circumstances are when they call you with a child. Sometimes they recognize the name and can be reasonable sure the child will not go back home. I fostered a 2 year old girl for 1 month last summer but it was CLEARLY the intent from day 1 that she would return to her mother and she did.

Hope this helps.

[jamie3]

We waitied 3 1/2 months from certification to placement. We waited that long because we weren't able to take siblings or girls. Or so we thought. We ended up taking 2 boys who were 2 & 3 at the time.

We didn't have any clothing for them before they moved in but we did have a bed for them. They had to see the bed in the homestudy, but each state is different.

In the homestudy they looked to see that the safety list was completed and that the kid(s) would have a bed of his own. They made sure our guns and meds were locked up as well as cleaners and that the outlets were covered.

Many, many foster parents adopt kids from the system. One of the big reasons the kids are in foster care is that there is no support system in the birthfamily. Therefore, if they are placed with you, there are probably no suitable relatives available. This is not 100% true but it is often the case. If my children were taken away, they would not go into foster care because I have soooo many relatives who would take them.

We are adopting our foster children and that was our goal from the time we began the whole process. I understand that foster kids are meant to be reunified, but we were interested in forever. Therefore our worker placed kids with us whose parents were about to have their rights terminated. In fact, they were terminated one week to the day after we got the boys. They are termed "legal risk" and we felt more comfortable with this than if we had a revolving door of kids moving in and out.

So, yes, it is a realistic goal to adopt, but only after the other avenues have been exhausted for the child. You may get a child who is at the end of the foster care journey and you would be able to step in as the adoptive parent. In our case, a retired couple had the boys for 6 months before we got them, but they, of course, had no intentions of adoption. When the tpr hearing was set, the workers began seeking a permenant home for them....and that's where we came into their lives.

[SheldeMuse]

I remember worrying about the rooms, beds, toys, too. Not having kids, I find the idea of buying stuff that will sit here waiting to be very depressing.

In this county, I know that Foster Care SWs have not required Fost/Adopt families to have beds, etc. They specifically state they just need to see the rooms. We got licensed from 0 - 18 years old, up to 3 kids, with 2 spare bedrooms, one with craft stuff, no bed. Nice that we weren't pushed to buy or borrow something just to have it there.

Our friends were licensed for 2 kids before they even cleaned the home office out of the kid room.

In our county, fost/adopt is called "Concurrent Planning" and they will only call us with kids who they believe will not be going home. If your county or agency makes less distinction between Foster and Fost/Adopt, they may be more picky. Can't hurt to call and ask.

[newMafamily]

I have read different people say there were more rules in some states but if you want a young child you have to have some standard safety things in place like medication locks ect. In our state they said we need some sort of safety ladder from the second floor,fire extinguisher and I am sure some other safety features for toddlers.

[SheldeMuse]

The biggest safety concern in Southern California is "bodies of water". If you have a pool, spa, or fish pond, prepare to have them be very specific about required fences, covers, etc. Another reason for me to be glad I bought a house without a pool!

We have 27 feet of railings on our upstairs "bridge" (big landing open to below on both sides) with spindles too far apart... the maximum is 2 3/4", I think. So we threaded a roll of fiberglass window screen through the spindles, and secured the whole thing with grommets (every other spindle, and down the edges) and purple climbing rope. Of course the whole thing just screams "climb on me" to a toddler. I think the worker either took it as a sign of absolute devotion to safety, or she felt sorry for us putting so much time in and decided not find anything we needed to fix.

We had worried (can you tell I do that a lot?) about the fire escape ladder requirement. It was not going to be possible with our house... plus it seems like a very, very bad idea to put one of those in a kid's room. Thankfully, it never came up in our licensing. We have new smoke detectors outside each bedroom area.

[newMafamily]

Someone dealing with the same office told me about some kind of ladder you drop out of the window that we would have to get but the worker today didn't really confirm that today. (sidetracked and I forgot to ask agian). I was worried about the pond. She just wasn't concerned saying we had to have either a fence or a "supervision plan". There is just no way a fence would prevent access it could only slow them down. She was really nice and just said that since we don't want little ones it shouldn't be a problem. Basically, before she got here I looked around the house and came to the conclusion there are just too many stairs and too many objects for the toddler mouth (legos, marbles) for us to take little ones. We have the railing issue on our deck and this I think they may make us fix. There are no spindles and the posts are about 6 feet apart. Since we plan to replace the deck in the long term I have to consider a short term solution. I never thought of screen.