[shy_bear]

We are in CO and if you go with a county you are with that county for six months and only then if you have not gotten a placement you can have your homestudy released to another county. If you want to pay for your homestudy, $750, you can have it released to another county at any time. We are just having our 2nd and last homevisit done this week. I am so ready for a placement that I want to pay the money and have our homestudy released right after it is done so we have more chances of being placed. My hubby disagrees and says to wait the six months. I don't want this to become an issue, I am just so ready for more kids. He has the attitude that when it is meant to happen it will; I say we need to be proactive. Any thoughts????

[leaabc123]

Unless you are specifically looking for freed children to adopt, I would wait the six months personally.

[WhoKnew]

Depends on what you are looking for. With kids that are not 'hard to place', I believe counties generally try to place them locally. For example, they will not have a shortage of families interested in a healthy girl under 3 years old. If you are open to older kids, sepcial needs, and/or sibling groups, it may be to your advantage to widen the net. If you have it released, will your county still keep trying to match you? If so, maybe I would go ahead and pay. I know how hard the waiting is.

[shy_bear]

After speaking with the worker that is doing our homestudy we are going for a child/children under four. We are working with the largest county in the area and we have been told by them that we should not expect a placement any time soon. When we went to the adoption exchange party there were cw's from other counties and when we told them what we are looking for they could spout off two or three sibling groups that are in need of foster/adopt homes. If we decide to pay the money we will have to nix going out of town this summer; which is why my hubby wants to wait.

[leaabc123]

Well, then allow go out of town and then when you get back, you can shell out the money and see what happens.

[momofmykids]

Originally Posted by leaabc123

Well, then allow go out of town and then when you get back, you can shell out the money and see what happens.

Ditto. I know how excited you are, but your life is going to change alot and you need to enjoy your vacation especially if you have other children. It wouldn't be fair to them to have to miss vacation because of foster placements.

[Nicole Elaine]

I agree with the others, I think that this could make your children resent the foster children. And if they realize the reason you are missing out on vacation is just for foster kids, they probably would resent them.

[rtsmedley]

I have been a f-parent in CO for almost 4 years and I have not heard of having to pay to have your homestudy sent to other counties.

On occasion, our CPA recieves calls from other counties. I am in Colorado Springs and our 1st year, we had a sibling group from Arapahoe Co.

You are in a big city, so I do not imagine that you would have to wait that long.

[shy_bear]

We are going with Denver county. We spoke with Adams and Arapahoe. It may be a new rule, but it now stands that if you want your homestudy released to a different county before the 6 month mark you have to pay for the cost of the homestudy, hence the $750. They will release it at the 6th month mark free of charge if they have been unable to find a placement for you.


We had went with Denver b/c of the size of the county thinking we would get a placement pretty quick. We keep being told we will be lucky if we see a placement within 6 months. I don't know if they fed us what we wanted to hear to get us in the door? We are looking for 0-4 open to a sibling group and we are pretty open about race. We don't want a child who has been sexually acting out, no HIV or Hep C, mental retardation, or significant attachment issues. We thing we are being pretty open???

[swanzie]

Some issues you will not know about until you have the children for awhile especially when it comes to attachment issues. Regarding the health - again sometimes you won't know prior to placement. Especially if this is the childs first placement. We had a little one placed with us and found out she is Hep C positive. We didn't throw her out. We just learned to take the proper precautions. We keep boxes disposable rubber gloves on all floors of the house just incase she gets a cut and we haven't had any major issues with it other than extra doctors appointments. Once you have the child in your home and fall in love with him/her you just learn to "deal" with whatever comes your way. It's not easy.

My best advice is to hang in there. and personally I would wait out the 6 months because you are going to need the extra money with the extra kids. And it would be my luck that I shelled out the extra money and then a day later get a child from the original area!

From my experience foster children hardly ever come with anything and it all adds up fast while you are waiting for the 1st check to kick in...I'd hold on to the money and let things happen. I got a call within the first week of being approved and they told me it would be awhile. I definately wasn't as prepared as you sound - I thought it would be the otherway around that it would take FOREVER to get a call, since it took FOREVER to get anything else done.

GOOD LUCK

[anita hawk]

I to am in colorado(gj)we are in process of getting all this started(foster/adopt)we are trying to get my nieces,they are in washington state.If you have any advice please send my wat.....Thanks anita

[MatthewS]

My wife and I just finalised our adoption through social services in a large county in CO. We actually couldn't believe how fast we had a placement which turned into forever.

Last June we had our wedding aniversary abroad, and when we got back we were suprised with a presentation--just a few weeks after finishing our home study. It was 10 months from presentation to finalisation.

Stick with the county for 6 months. You might be surprised.

[ericsmom98]

At least stick with it for a month or so, because you never know. I would think a big county would have a lot more placements. I think they are just telling you not to expect one soon so that you don't get your hopes up...or maybe it's so that you pay the $750, kwim? Agencies are strapped for cash, so that is a way to make a little extra.

[teachtofost]

I am a fost-adopt parent in CO. I have had two placements. Neither time have I had to wait longer than 6 weeks for a placement. Both times I had infant placements. It looks like I will adopt this placement in July or August.

I'd wait before releasing the homestudy. Patience sometimes pays off.