[Archive]

Originally Posted By Kathy

I am an adoptive mother (three times over!) and am writing an article for an adoption magazine on people's experience with photolistings. For me photolistings were a big help in that they got me in contact with an out-of-state worker who connected us to our three fabulous children. But I know others have had different experiences with listings. If you would be willing to share your story with others please contact me. When it comes to adoption I believe that the more information prosepctive parents have the better for them and the children. Please contact me if you are interested in helping. Of course, names will be changed in the article to protect people's privacy.

Thanks!

-Kathy Sullivan
kdkcnjn668@cs.com
editor, www.AdoptiveFamilyResources.com

[Archive]

Originally Posted By Beverly Gardner

Kathy, I am an adoptive parent 9 times with 4 biological kids and adopting 3 more foster children. My state, Alabama, is trying to discourage adoptive parents from adopting. The social workers will not help us if we find a child here in our own state that we want to adopt. We then have to go to photolistings of children in other states and try to adopt these children. Strange isn't it?
Thanks for letting me vent.
Beverly (Gardnergang18@AOL.com)

[Archive]

Originally Posted By Rita

We live in Missouri and are an approved foster/adoptive home but are having no luck in finding adoptable children in our state so we have started using the photolistings of other states to attempt to find the child we are to have in our home. We are currently working with the state of Kansas to get approval to adopt there and have found through there photolisting a couple of possibilities once the paperwork is all done. Coming Home Kansas is an excellent photolisting, very easy to browse and access.

[Archive]

Originally Posted By Brook

Beverly,

Could it be that they don't want to lose you as a foster parent?

I'm confused...9 kids, 4 homemade, 3 adopting. Huh??

Inquiring minds want to know.

Thanx...Brook
QuikSmyle@aol.com

[slikmom]

I am an adoptive mother of three children. We live in NY and the "blue book" aka New York's Waiting Children photolistings were something my husband and I eagerly checked every two weeks when the new pages came with updates. After we were certified on our homestudy, we searched through the NY listings and those available on the internet. Once we had good thoughts on a child or set of children, we contacted our own case worker. She would send our homestudy where it needed to go. The problem for us is that we never heard back from anybody out of state.. or anybody in state for that matter. We found our children because their case worker was chatting with our case worker and asked if she knew of anybody who might be interested in a sibling group of three. Lucky for us! When I went to the library to check the photolisting, there was a note on it that the children were on hold. The children had been on hold, and those potential adoptive parents had backed out. The book had never been updated. I wonder how many children are waiting because of that mistake. And ultimately the mistake is the library's mistake because they missed the note that the children were again available.
In our family's case, the photolistings were a good resource for the kinds of children and behaviors our there, but we didn't find any success in locating children from any of them.
Heather Cieslik

[kmalay]

I think one of the most frustrating issues with the photolisting on line are that you won't hear back from anyone for a long while(even our caseworker doesn't hear back for weeks when she inquires for me) and finally when you do hear back the children have been placed. This has happened more than not. There are some states that are great about getting back to you, but there are some that after 2 months we still have no response.

[mjk66]

Hi Kathy,

My wife and I live in New Jersey and are waiting for our home study to become foster parents. We would love to adopt a child but were told only african american children or severly handicapped children were the only alternative. We have received so many different opinions we are confused. Would it be feasible to look into adopting a child from an out of state fost-adopt program. I am just exploring all the alternatives.

If you would like to e-mail me my address is:
mjksafety@yahoo.com

Looking for guidance,

Matthew

[kmalay]

Matthew it is feasible but it is a long drawn out process too. More and more people are looking into this option as well so you have to be ready for a wait. We are pusuing out of state adoption and I am fortunate enough to have a caseworker that agrees with this, many are not because they are not fimilar with the process and each state functions differently. You will have to do a lot of research on your own as far as available children. Make sure your agency will do out of state adoption. That is why I chose mine they were one of the few that said they would. Good luck and feel free to email me if you have any questions at malayklan@earthlink.net .

[eideb]

My husband and I are from NC. After working with our local DSS and getting no place we chose to work with a private non-profit organization that is licenced by the state to fasilitate foster care adoption. (Adoption Plus/Professional Parenting of Western NC) So far so good. We have only heard great things about this organization. This agency works to find families for children not to find children for families.

We will be finished with parenting classes and hopefully the home study next month. We are now again very excited about adding a special child/children to our family (we are told w/in 6 months) after hitting so many road blocks.

I work with children in foster care. I see first hand the need for good homes for so many children. Our local DSS/CPS is over burdened with abuse and neglect cases. Some how adoption gets pushed to the back of the list. I am very glad that there is an organization like Adoption Plus to help us and to help children that need perminant homes.

[kmalay]

Barbara

You are right about DSS being overworked. One of my nieces works for the NC DSS and she was telling me that the turn over rate is terrible as I am sure it is in many states. She also noted that it unfortunately is a very thankless job. There are no pats on the back so it can be hard to stay motivated. Private agencies that work with DSS or DCFS are a great route to take because there is a little more 1 on 1. Good luck with it all.

[LadyMoonbeam]

I am new to this forum. My husband and I are foster/adopt parents. I want to let everyone know that there are rules each state has to follow through the adoption and safe family acts that was passed in 1997. Although I am having trouble myself in my own state to get them to release my homestudy to other states. By a rule they are not allow to deny or delay a child through the interstate adoption act. That means you are allow to inquiry about a child in another state and your state is suppose to send your homestudy to the state and county the child is located!
Here is a site to find what state your region falls in:
http://www.act.hhs.gov/programs/oro/...ts/regions.htm
Here is a list of the employees of each state you can contact if your state is denying your homestudy:
www.ds2.psc.dhhs.gov/hhsdir/eeKey.asp
To do research on the aoption and safe family act of 1997. Just type that in a search engine and it will bring it up. I have a copy of it in my e-mail. Like I said I am having problems here in Kentucky getting my homestudy to be release but I am in contact with the supervisor over my region. If they don't release my homestudy soon then I will be calling her back. Just wanted to share this information with everyone. Good Luck. If anyone has had any luck in Kentucky adoption, please let me know.