[Tkme2disneyswld]

We are looking for any advice you all can offer when begining the process of applying to become Foster Parents.

A little background on us:
From Detroit Suburbs, Michigan
1 bio son age 10
1 domestic adopted son age 3 (biracial)
I'm a stay at home mom

We hope to foster AA girls from infant up to age 2 with the hope that along the way we may be blessed with a daughter.

We have gone through adoption homestudy and have contacted a local FIA agency to begin Foster Application.

We are wondering what the general timespan is from application to actually getting our first placement. The agency is pretty vague as all things with agencies are

Please offer any input to help us prepare for the road ahead and any suggestions of things we can do to help it roll along.

[leaabc123]

Well, once we finished the classes and were licensed, we waited about 5 months for a placement and we were willing to take an older child. Our first two placements ended up being infants. No one was more surprised than us.
We also met people in training classes that waited as long as a year for a placement. It depends on what comes into the system, the homes available. One of the reasons, we started getting placements was that I started calling the homefinders almost every week.
We are in New York state.

[Chercher]

LOL! We weren't even licesenced before they called us! Our classes had just finished and the homestudy wasn't complete. They RUSHED the licensing....the social worker was sitting at the prior foster parent's house with the kids for hours waiting for the last signature on our paperwork so she could place them with us. 7 pm on Friday night!

[mommyo]

I am in Nevada, and once all of our training was finished and we submitted our paperwork it took them about 4 months to schedule our home study then after that we did not receive our license for two more months. Following that , we only got one call for a placement that after three weeks didn't happen because a grandmother showed up. It took another 5 months and a form letter being sent out to all foster parents in nevada that there was a great need for more homes, so I called this new placement specialist only to find out that even though we were licensed, no one had put our name on the placement list, and I didn't know about it being new,sooo...
after giving our name to her, and many options we got many many calls and ended up with our first placement of a FD who it looks like we will be adopting after only 5 weeks. We started our process in MAy of 2003 and got our first placement August 2004.
BE patient it is very slow, at least in our state.

[Betti]

Read the post "The Hardest Thing about Being a Foster Parent"

[MommyofEli]

I was licensed in the middle of july and on Aug. 31 we got our first placement of a 7mth old fd. She was with us for 17 days before she was moved to her fathers home.
I am now babysitting her everyday during the week while the step mom and father works. (They are paying me.) I am happy about being able to sit for her ....I would have missed her so much.
Now we are just waiting on our next placement( We were asked about a 4 day old little boy but we still had "M" along with the fact that I have a10 mth old bio son also, my hubby and I thought it might be too much) That same day we found out that "M" was going home but the baby already had a home to go too. So waiting waiting waiting...We have not been waiting too long "M" only left on the 16th. But it does feel like forever.

[mrscoll410]

Hi there. My name is Mindy, and I live in Missouri. My husband and I just turned in our foster/adoptive parent application the other day. We're really looking forward to seeing what God has for the future! We've been trying to have a child for over 5 years, and I had a miscarriage last summer. We have decided that we want to adopt a child or maybe even two children through our state. We're going to start out as foster parents and see what happens. I'm wondering if anyone knows what kind of questions they ask in the homestudy? Any information anyone has will be helpful!

Thanks a bunch!