[whoownsthis]

My dh and I have been pursuing an international adoption for 13 months, with no sign that we'll ever get a child.

So....I called our county DFS (they sent me to CPS, who then sent me to Catholic Charities). Anyway, I received a packet from Catholic Charities and was told we'd have to attend 26 hours of classes, even though we had a homestudy done in Nov. 2002, then updated Nov. 2003...AND we have INS (now USCIS) approval to adopt, at least internationally. (Plus my dh and I can't attend at the same times, since he works days and I work weekends!)

My dh does NOT want to do foster-adopt, anyway---he just wants to adopt. (For all of the typical reasons: fear of out-of-control kids, trauma of having to possibly give them up, mental health issues we just can't handle, etc.) I just want to parent, and am willing to do what it takes. (DH has 3 older sons already from previous marriage: 2 teens and a 20-something.)

Can anybody from Allen County tell me about these parenting/foster/adoption classes and about the foster-adopt experience in this county in general? Is it possible to foster-adopt children 8 yrs or younger? We're open to any race and any treatable/correctible medical issues (not so sure about some of the more severe acting out issues, though). Our only restriction is that we'd really like to foster (then parent) girls, since we've already had the experience of raising boys.

Is this too much to ask of Indiana, and Allen County especially?

[preed]

We took the SNAP special needs adoption classes at Catholic Charities in Fort Wayne. We live in Kosciusko County.

After completing the classes we were approved to adopt a special needs child. This includes a child over the age of 6, we were matched by the SNAP cordinator within 3 months with a girl who was 6 years old at the time.

We then were chosen as one of three families that would go to committee to be interviewed for the possibility of adopting her.

We were chosen as the family to adopt

Our daughter was not legally free for adoption due to TPR of the parental rights was not completed.

We then completed SCOPES also in Fort Wayne to become Foster Parents so that she could be placed in our home while we waited on the legal system.

One year later she was finally legally free for adoption.

[Jonsey]

Hi !

Wow! what a small world, I am also from Kosciusko county and me and my dh are foster parents. Catholic Charities also did our training. We decided we are going to adopt so we are taking the class on Sat. since it time to renew our license anyway. Fostering has been a good experience, but parting with them is soo hard, but I think it is the only way to adopt younger children, if that is what you are looking for. It is a high risk for a broken heart, but I do enjoy the time while they are here. I do know that in bigger area's alot of people have adopted youger children while fostering, but you don't hear too much about it in Indiana. We might even try a Private adoption agency for the age group of 3 to 7, but are still undecided.

Best of luck to everyone that are wanting to adopt!

[whoownsthis]

preed: what is SCOPES? Is that the 26 hours of training where you get licensed to foster? If so, this is what our homestudy social worker is recommending, since even if we adopted we'd have to "foster" the child a minimum of 6 months before the adoption is final. So she said it's better to get money and services for the child paid for by the state since they won't let us adopt the the child for so long.

Jonsey: When you say you are thinking of a private adoption agency for ages 3-7, do you mean like a "Hand in Hand" (in Albion) or another large agency that does international adoptions, or are you referring to a private agency that places foster kids? If so, do they charge less than those other types of agencies? (After 13 months of flushing money down the toilet in Panama, we need an "affordable" option.)

Thanks for the input!!!
R

[preed]

When we took the Foster Parent program by the State it was called SCOPES.

Having the license also meant a medical card, and a small stipend which we put into a College Fund for our daughter.

Blessings to you and yours!

Pam

[whoownsthis]

I talked to our homestudy social worker today, and it looks like we'll go ahead and take the upcoming 30 hours of classes (April 16/17, 23/24, 30/May 1). We just have to work out our schedules since I work noon-4:30 p.m. on Saturdays. (Not sure how that will work, if I'll be able to miss or not.)

At the very least we can get the First Aid/CPR training out of the way.

We plan to get the non-SNAP license, since the SNAP license would require a complete re-do of our homestudy to fit their requirements. Some states just require state approval, others require approval by SNAP standards. I HOPE Ohio doesn't require this, because they always have younger children available. But our social worker said that Ohio is generally pretty picky.

Has anyone checked with other states like Ohio for their licensing requirements (for adopting)?

Rebecca

[preed]

Our homestudy was prepared by Foster Care Services. Foster Care Services was a State approved agency. Due to lack of response by the State, we paid for our homestudy to get the process underway.

We never had a desginated DFC social worker until our SNAP classes were completed, and then it was the SNAP Specialist that handled our county.

When we finished the Snap classes, Foster Care Services visited one more time, and then our homestudy was amended to reflect the SNAP approval.

Pam