[Praying 4 # 1]

Hi,

I see this isn't a fast moving board, but hopefully someone will catch this!
My dh and I are currently in the "homework" stage of foster care/adoption. We have several books coming and have been doing tons of research in the web. We have not had our homestudy done as we have not yet contacted our local Social Services Dept. We have heard several different things from people about going the route we have chosen (many are negative). But all of this is coming from people who have no experience in fostering/adoption! So I was hoping that I could ask some of you fellow Hoosier's some questions about adopting and foster parenting in Indiana!

1. From the time you contacted Social Services, how long did it take to get your homestudy started?

2. Start to finish, how long did your homestudy take?

3. What classes were you required to take and how long did it take to finish?

4. How long did it take for you to get approved for foster parenting?

5. For those of you who have adopted their foster children. How long did they have to be in your care before you were considered to adopt them?

6. Does the state allow for you to have a child in your home as a temporary placement while you are in the process of adopting another "waiting" child who is not in your care?

7. Did you at some point (and if so, when) need a lawyer?

8. What cost did you encounter along the way?

9. Has anyone here adopted through another state such as Ohio? If so was there anything special you had to do for an out of state adoption?

10. In a foster care situation are you given the rights to take the child to the doctor for illnesses?

11. I have been told that when you foster a child that the government will give you funds to help with expenses, is this true and if so how does this work?

I truely hope that none of my questions affended anyone. My husband and I know that we definately want to adopt a waiting child ages 0-5. But we are seriously considering becoming foster parents. We really are just looking for any info that we can get our hands on at this point! We hope to be able to get everything started in early spring!

Thank you for looking at this post and for any answers that you may have to help us along our journey!

[prayinInd]

Hi I am from Indiana and I hope that you find this. My Sp and I have just finished everything for our foster/adoption. We are just waiting to be placed. I can answer a few of your questions
#1 Apx 1 month we started our classes first and the lady that did our homestudy was teaching class so we set it up then. Home study was a piece of cake!!! Really
#2 Ours took about a month but we had to wait for 3 weeks to take CPR class(first open) REally homestudy was not a big deal getting the classes done took more time. Our lady only spent my be an hour total in our home answering our questions.
#3 20 hours of Indiana req class I guess they are all the same easy stuff. (ours was 3 saturdays) and First aide and CPR.
#4 we made our first call in Oct. took all class in 3 weekends in oct had to wait til end of nov for cpr had last home visit first Dec. the just waiting for them to do there paper work. I was told it could take a long time for the state to send the paper that has your foster lic. # and ect but you can still foster with our it.
#5 I don't know but i heard 6m
#6??
#7 we have not had one yet I guess when we find a child we will contact one.
#8We had to pay for a water test Like ($23) because we live in the country.
#9 I would love to know about that if you find out.
#10 yes, for the normal stuff. if it in an emergency you take them and contact your worker asap
#11 you get paid a rate per child per day when they are foster children but when you adopt they are yours;-) I have heard that after the adoption takes place some children who have medical problems could be on medicaid till 18 and and you get tax breaks at the end of year like up to $10,000 not sure how all that works.
We are also waiting for children 0-5 I hope this helps. Please contact me maybe you can answer some of my questions.

[iss36]

hi prayinInd, praying4#1,
I was wondering how both of you were doing since youposted last.

I am also from indiana and adopted a baby at birth ds is now 2 years old.
kim

[prayinInd]

I am doing ok. Still waiting for that call. How did you adopt? Fostercare?

[iss36]

i did a private adoption using kirsh and kirsh. Hope you get a call soon.
Kim

[prayinInd]

I have heard really good things about them. How long did it take? Was is really as expensive as they say? Sorry I hope you don't mind ?s I just don't know anyone who has adopted lately.

[iss36]

hi dont woryy it is fine. They are expensive but are very good. It took us 9 months from startto bringing home simon. with one failed adoption. Im in Indianapolis. where are you from?

when we adopt again we will use a different agency called the miriam project.

Are you looking for a cc baby ordoesi t matter?
we did a transracail adoption.

[prayinInd]

I am Rochester. Half way between South Bend and Kokomo on 31 small town. We are open to anything really just not sure we can afford private. We have our foster parenting stuff but have not go any calls. WE have no children. my yahoo is wclark6224 if you would like to chat

[iss36]

cool i sent you a message on ayhoo

[iss36]

mt yahoo is italiansweetsoul and i am online
now

[davisgaskin]

May I suggest you contact a private foster care agency. We are with Childrens Sanctuary. They have offices in Fort Wayne and Terre Haute. There number is 8122327818. In our experience nothing is more importan than having the support of an agency when you need it. We are in the process of adopting a fosterson. Alot of the answers to your questions will vary depending on where the child is from and where you live. We where required to have our son live with us for six months by our county rules but his home county was willing to let us adopt him after three months. Yes you will need an attorney and it doesn't cost anything to adopt a waiting foster child. As far as children from other states are conserned we have had no luck with Ohio at all they havent ever even returned our phone calls but we have had good luck with Oregon and washington and Iowa. Good luck.