[Candace]

Hi,

My husband and I are new to this board. We are parents of a 3 year old little girl we adopted from Guatemala when she was a little over a year old. We would like to adopt a second (or third or fourth!) child, and we do not wish to pursue an international adoption again. We had our homestudy updated last summer for a domestic adoption. Some friends from church recommended that we try to adopt through the foster-to-adopt system in Ohio, since there are so many children who need homes in this state.

We are supposed to start our foster parent classes in Erie Co. soon, and since reading many of these posts on this forum ,we are wondering if we did the right thing in considering foster to adopt over international adoption. There are so many heartbreaking stories-not only heartbreaking for the foster children, but also for the bio parents and, of course, for the foster parents. We really wish to help some of these children in Ohio, and to give them a home-if only for awhile. Maybe we're going into this with motives that are too selfish, since we are looking at foster to adopt. Has anyone had any experience with Erie Co.? Does anyone have any reassuring words?

Thank you, and God Bless.