[StacyKelly2]

I am curious to know how many children being fostered are actually adopted. We would love to adopt a child 0-5. However, when I look on the Maryland website for available children, there seems to be no children of this age range. Also, if you do foster a child is there a limit of time that birth parents and family are given in order for the child to be placed up for adoption. I am a little confused as to how the system works. I just find it extremely hard to believe that there are no children under 5 to adopt. Unless, these angels are just being placed in foster homes for years. Any and all information would be greatly appreciated.

[DianeS]

I'm not in Maryland, but the questions you're asking are pretty basic, so I'll give a stab at it.

First - time limits on birth parents getting their children back.

When a child is taken into foster care, the parents are given a case plan. They must successfully complete the items on that case plan in order to get their children returned to them. Typical case plan items can include requiring the bio parents to get a job, get housing, attend parenting or anger management classes, pass drug tests, get off drugs or alcohol, separate from an abusive family member/boyfriend/girlfriend/pimp/etc, attend doctors appointments for a child's chronic condition, attend visits with their child, etc.

They are given a certain amount of time to do this in - usually 1 year. If they do not complete the case plan (to the satisfaction of the judge) then the time is often extended. Usually by 3 or 6 months. At that court date, it may be extended again (again, usually another 3 or 6 months.) They could go through several of these extensions, effectively extending their child's time in foster care up to multiple (around two or three) years.

If during that time the judge determines that they have successfully completed their plan (regardless of whether a rational thinking individual agrees) then the children are returned to the bio parents.

And two - adoption of children from foster care.

Most young children whose parents have lost the right to get them back are adopted by their foster families. States now recognize how harmful it can be to a child to be forced to move from a foster family to an adoptive family just because a rule prevents the foster family from adopting them. So states now allow foster families to adopt. And MANY do. In fact, that's the reason many families do foster care - they are fostering children and returning many of the to bio families because they know that when one of their foster children is freed for adoption, they will be permitted to adopt them.

The combination of those two - children remaining "foster children" for years without being freed for adoption, and the fact many foster families are adopting their own foster children - are what keeps the number of young children available for adoption through the state so low.

Another question you asked touched on the photolisting websites. For the most part, only the most hard to place children are listed on photolistings. The foster parents of those children said they would not adopt that child. The other foster parents who know the child said they would not adopt that child. The straight-adopt parents who are with that agency have refused to adopt that child. The child may have been in a book of available children at the agency or even the county for a few months with nobody coming forward to adopt that child.

At that point, the child would likely be put on an internet photolisting. Most children are adopted before this point - by their foster parents or other foster parents or straight-adopt families with their agency, or from the waiting children book - so again that contributes to the low number of children in general on internet photolistings.

Another thing, since I think this is your first foray into foster care situations - Internet photolistings of waiting children are intentionally vague. You simply can not put information out on a public web page that makes a child look bad. Anyone can read it - their neighbors, teachers, and friends. Who really wants their friends reading that they were sexually abused? So stuff like that is left off the photolisting biography intentionally. They are not intended to be a complete description of the child. So by all means look at photolistings, but don't fall in love with any of the children listed there.

If you are interested in becoming a foster parent, or adopting from foster care, then the best place to start is with an orientation session from your county or a local private foster care adoption agency. You can't compare children adopted from loving birth parents to children forcibly removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect - it's apples and oranges. Orientation sessions will introduce you to some of the differences, and you can then decide if persuing the adoption of a child from foster care is for you, and you'll then get to decide what avenue to follow so you end up hearing about children who are waiting much earlier than waiting until they show up on internet photolistings.

[jackiesbooks]

I am in MD - MD website stinks, but there are children out there. My son was placed at 3 and our adoption should be completed in the summer. I know several fps that adopted under 5 children. What county are you in?

[StacyKelly2]

We live in Baltimore County. Did you foster this child first before this adoption? If so how long did this process take?

[jackiesbooks]

I am in Washington County. We have had him since 2/05. He was in care 2.5 years before TPR happened.