[ROZENWINE]

I WAS WONDERING IF THEIR WAS ANYONE OUT THERE WILLING TO SHARE THEIR INTERSTATE ADOPTION EXPERIENCES? I AM THINKING OF ADOPTING A CHILD FROM ANOTHER STATE AND WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ANY OF THE GOOD OR BAD QUALITIES THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE ENCOUNTERED WITH THE STATE WHILE PERSUING YOUR ADOPTION.

[sosfive]

my experience has not been great , a lot of agencies seem to like to place their children in their own state for many reasons. However, if they really need to place the child then i guess their last alternative will be out of state. I am not sure but their may be some states more willing to work with you and other states who are not as willing. Is your homestudy through an private agency or your public agency? Good luck and do not give up although out of state placement can be very frustrating it is possible.

[kmalay]

Rozenwine,

I have not completed my adoption yet, but we are adopting from Missouri if the TPR occurs which it should. I will share my experience though of the last 9 months. First off unless I wanted to foster, which we preferred not to we basically didn't stand a chance of adopting a child from my own state and we were willing to go as old as 10. We are from IL. Secondly the best states I found that were willing to adopt to someone out of state were Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota, and Oregon. Another state to look into is Kansas, but you have to get approved from them before you are even considered. Most of the things your provided for your own homestudy will work, but it is a long process. You will not be considered for a child under 8 at this point either from them. What several caseworkers told me is that suddenly there is a stream of foster/adoptive parents from their own state in most cases so it is going to get tougher, but don't give up. Sure enough I was chosen for 2 situations within a week of each other. I will tell you that if you are looking for a child under 4 it will be really tough and even under 8 is tough, but does happen. In my case my boys are 4 and 7 1/2. Just be prepared to do a lot of searching yourself and come right out and ask if they will consider out of state placement. Another thing to be prepared for is as budgets have been reduced travel expenses are one thing that may get cut so that is another reason for them to try to place in state for us we already decided we would drive vs fly to help save in costs. Hope that helps a bit and please feel free to contact me privately if you need to chat.

[DreamsDoComeTru]

My hubby and I have the two most wonderful daughters who we are waiting to finalize on who are out of state foster/adopt. The girls are biological sisters who were in seperate foster homes in different counties of the same state. It is being treated as two seperate adoptions rather than one. We completed and sent our Homestudy the first week of June 2002. We went to get our oldest daughter in October 2002 and we went to get our youngest in March 2003. The red tape is awful at times and the process seems to move so slow but it is all very much worth it. The girls just turned 2 and 3. The state we adopted from (oregon) does committees where several families are chosen for a child and the committee decides which family is best suited to the situation. It is nerve wracking waiting for that decision. In our case there was one other family being considered. We waited from June to Sept. for the committee. It then took from the fist week of Sept to the last week of Oct. to have the interstate compact approved for out of state placement, then we were allowed to go get our daughter. The worst part is the traveling and staying in a hotel for several days while trying to transition a toddler. It is uncomfortable for all. The good part is that almost the entire trip was paid by the state of Oregon and there was very little out of pocket expense. Good luck.

[sunny4aw]

How in the world do you even find children that are available?? Thank you... Shayla

[dr. mom]

Before internet photolistings it was easier to adopt from out of state. Now the children get more exposure and there are more families available. (I guess that is a positive!!!!!!!) It seems to be harder now as many children have a multitude of families that apply for them . I do find that for MANY children, even though they are listed on a National photolisting, the worker often says the child needs to stay in their home state> Don't worry though, if you are persistant, the child God has in mind for you will one day enter your home!It may not be the timing you planned on !

[LotAkids]

Has anyone started an adoption before finishing another? My husband and I are in the middle of adopting our one year old son. Finalization is in October. We are adopting him within our own state.
We found a little girl, whose 7 and legally free, available in Ohio. We live in Colorado. Are there any laws or regulations that would prevent us from starting her adoption before finishing our sons?

[lambeausam]

I don't know of any laws that would prevent simultaneous adoptions. However, some agencies prefer not to place children in homes with pending adoptions when the first child has not had an adequate transition period. So, if you are adopting a foster child that has been in your home for over a year, it would be viewed differently than if you had just received placement of a child within the last year.

I am awaiting the finalization of my 4yo's adoption - I have had an interim order of guardianship for 15 months. Our homestudy is going to committee in the next few weeks for a sibling group. The adoption worker for the sibling group did not mind that my other son's adoption was not final since he has been in our home for two years.

Best Wishes!

[lizzy0921]

We welcomed home our 10 year old twins in July, 2002. It is now Nov 3, 2003 and as of Oct 31, 2003 we were told by Probate court (in Connecticut) that there were only two families waiting to be scheduled in court before us. Today I called to follow up and we're STILL NOT scheduled for a court date to finalize. I am very upset, the kids are very upset..today at the dentist office I was called Mrs. (the kids legal last name) instead of my last name. The kids were told back in June that the finalization would be SOON. I wouldn't call November soon! We're an easy case too, no issues, the kids are great, have adjusted well, we even have visits with the biological family. Its just an easy case, so says Social services, but why can't they help us out some and make the finalization easy too....its really disgusting that they make these kids live for years in foster care (5 years in our case) then they start searching for adoptive homes (we got lucky (or the boys did) and found the boys just as they were listed available, about 6 months into availability). Now they've been with us for almost 18 months. Half their lives in foster care...simply sad!!!!
While we have had a good experience with the children placed with us and look forward to adoption again, we aren't happy with the slowness of the finalization from the State of CT. Perhaps our next adoption will be a bit different.

[Lorraine123]

I am in Maryland and my wonderful daughter is from PA. We saw her on PA's photolisting on the internet and called her worker. She is 6. She has been with us for 4 months and TPR isn't completed, but her mother's appeal is in December and no problems are anticipated. In her case, the state was very open to placing her out of state and its been a very good experience for us. Our only issue was that her worker had never done an out of state placement and inter-state paperwork was all new to her so that turned out to be quite an issue. But we got it done.... We were the chosen family in April but they wanted her to finish out the school year there. As a result we traveled 8 hours each way every weekend for 2 months. Very tiring but the transition went well. I agree that most states want to place children in their state, but cases do come up where the children are available. My daughter has quite a few special needs which may have led them to look out of state also due to lack of families willing to accept her disorders.

[jcup]

My experience with my own state was absoluty rediculous but when i went to the state of ohio with hopes of adopting one of their kids i was matched with 10 different kids within 1 month and they have been so suppotive and attentive with paper work keeping me in the loop and i will have my 2 boys in june form the state of ohio and i live in new york state

[kmalay]

I just wanted to share that we were informed on Tuesday that the birthmom for the two boys we were chosen for a year ago and have some what patiently waiting for consented just as the trial was to start so the boys are finally available and we will be able to meet them. We hopefully will have our sons home by the end of June if not sooner. Our story is a bit unusual so I didn't discuss it too much on here, but the end result is what is important. Dreams do come true so don't give up when things get tough. Stick it out and it will be well worth it. Dealing with MO has been a great experience and would highly recommend them, but one thing I learned through this process is that regardless of which state you are going through you have to continue to stay on top of things and push. You can't figure that they are the professionals and they will handle it. I got burnt out a bit in Dec and backed off a bit over the holidays. Well boy did I pay for that. It added a whole two months to this ordeal. You have to stay in touch will all parties you have to follow up and you have to do your homework. If you do that it will be much easier. Best wishes to all of you.

[laraine]

I am currently going through a home study for sc dss. Some states have reciprocal states they work with like sc works with ga. It is my understanding, if you want to search other states you can and if you see a child that may fit your profile then you contact the state and give them your dss case worker information. I did that for a child in texas and sent it twice, unfortunatley I have heard nothing and neither has my case worker. Good luck, Laraine