[Acolo]

Hi everyone, From looking at the boards, I'm not sure how often people use the CO board, but I thought I'd go ahead and post this and see if I get a response. Does anyone know what the likelihood of being able to receive a baby through social services is? I know it's more for older kids... So, is it worth it to try going through social services if we want a baby? Any information is helpful. Thank you!

[DianeS]

Babies are taken into care quite often. If your desire is to foster a baby, to help the child heal as their parents learn to be better parents, then your chances of receiving a baby are very high indeed.

If your desire is to foster-adopt a baby, to accept children into your home and help them heal as their parents work at becoming better parents, and to eventually adopt a child who already lived with you whose parents did not improve, then your chances of receiving a baby are fairly high. Although, you may foster quite a few babies for a long time and return them to their parents before you are able to adopt one of those children, and the child would legally be a foster child for the first several months or years of his life with you before you could adopt.

If your desire is to adopt a baby, to only accept a child into your home who is legally free and you know you will not have to return the child to bio family, then your chances are low. There are few babies like that, and there are many families who want to adopt them.

There are babies who become legally free while they are still babies, but usually they are older by the time that happens, as you said. It does happen, though, it's just luck of the draw. Some people get it immediately, others wait years, others give up.

If you can be flexible on other issues besides age, you increase your chances of an infant placement. Such as: can the child have an older sibling who will also be placed in your home? Can the child be experiencing drug withdrawals? Can the child have other health/developmental/behavioral/IQ issues? Can the child be a different race from you? Etc.

Hope that helps!

[Acolo]

That does help a ton. Thanks, Diane!

[Alaindrea]

I know some people who have been waiting over 2 years to get a baby placed with tham that would become available for adoption, but they have fostered a few.

[tlc4kidz]

I'm not from CO, but we fostered several infants who were adopted....the last two (siblings) by us! We got all of them directly from the hospital at birth. So many people think they couldn't foster because they couldn't "give them back", but if you look at it like you are given the privelege to love a child for whatever length of time you have them, it could just end up being forever