[madtownrph1]

My husband and I are currently adopting from Korea and live in Madison (soon to be moving to our new home in Fitchburg). We are working with Adoption Advocates and AIAA. Just curious if there is anyone else from around the area.

[maxkinzie]

Hiya! We adopted domestically 2 yrs ago. Good to see one of us posting
Best wishes with your adoption!
Max
we live in Madison, but are in Fitchburg often!

[angelar]

My husband and I are looking to adopt international. Can anyone suggest an agency?

[mmcool]

DH and I live about 20 min. from Madison (in Columbus). Our daughter arrived from Korea last month. We worked with Adoption Advocates for our local agency and FAC in MI was the placement agency. Julie, our SW, is awesome!

Melissa

[cvalda]

I'm in Madison! Have adopted six via foster care!

Good luck to you all!

;~) Kelly

[mkviola]

I'm in Sauk City, but am in Madison a lot!
We just adopted our 4 month old daughter through Texas. We started in the China program, though.
Melissa

[want2bparents]

Hi everyone! My husband and I live 20 minutes from Madison. We are adopting our first child from Guatemala. .

[Mama Julie]

Hi everyone,
I just saw this old post. I'm in south Madison, near Fitchburg. We also adopted from Korea, used Adoption Advocates (Julie D.) and AIAA in Mich. Our daughter was 5 months old when she arrived and she is now turning 8 years old in a couple weeks!! We also have a 9 year old son from Brazil, and we are now in the processing of adopting 2 girls from foster care in Milwaukee, ages 8 & 10, through the state special needs adoption program. We've started the visits with the girls, and they will move in on August 18! By the way... we have a great neighborhood for multiracial and adoptive families. Nice 3 & 4 bedroom homes that average around 1700 SF, near beautiful park, with good diversity in the neighborhood... PM me if you want location of neighborhood/school. :-) Julie

[connersmom]

We will be moving to the Madison area in the next year and I was curious about the process of adopting through the state. Can anyone tell me about their experience. We have adopted twice privately but are interested in adopting a slightly older child eventually. What is the process? How long does it usually take start to finish? Are there a lot of waiting children in WI?

[cvalda]

connersmom,

There are more waiting children in WI than what shows up on the waiting children website, as most agencies don't list the children unless it is a last resort thing. The homestuday process takes 3-6 months, generally... shorter if you get all the paperwork done very quickly and keep on the worker's case to get it done. The wait varies for placement. I have found adopting in Wisconsin very easy, and for older children you'll almost always get an adoption subsidy as well as Medical Assistance for the child.

;~) Kelly

[magpiewd]

Hi,

I live in Madison also and have adopted 5 children from the foster care system. I am now in the process of adopting again and am waiting for my homestudy to be approved. It would be cool if we could get together with other adoptive families in the area. We are on the West side of Madison.

magpie

[Mama Julie]

Hi Debbie,
We didn't make it to the pool on Sunday as planned; don't know if you were able to make it either. One of the hardest challenges we face is getting all 4 kids ready and into the van to go somewhere. God only knows how I'll manage to get them off to school each day. :-)
Julie

[DebCsMom]

I'm not from Madison but near Milwaukee. I'm 1 1/2 hours from Madison. I'd LOVE to have a get together!

We've gotten the paperwork to adopt from the state. We're hitting a liitle wall though. We live in Washington County. There are very few AA or Biracial children available for adoption in our county. SO I need to get homestudied for Milwaukee County. They aren't sure how to do it. I'm sure they can do it, just borrow out the homestudy. So we'll see.

Deb

[Mama Julie]

Hi,
DebsMom are you doing a special needs adoption through state of WI? you should be able to just get a home study done through a local adoption agency that will be assigned to you from the state. For example, we were assigned Childrens Service Society in Madison. They will do your home study and when it is done, they can mail a hard copy to the Childrens Svc Society offices in Madison, Milwaukee, and elsewhere in the state. Then the social workers from those offices will have your home study on file and as children become available, (or are waiting). the social workers look at which families meet the demographics of the children (for instance, the age range, race, level of needs, and # of sibs you're able to accept). We had a social worker in Milwaukee choose us among the other home studied families she had on file, as the best match for 2 girls that she was getting to know since last November. They've been in & out of foster care for 5 years, and now need a home that will be permanent. Hope this helps. Julie

[DebCsMom]

Julie, so was it an adoption through the state or was it an agency adoption? We were having the state assign us a case worker from whatever agency(s) they use. The problem is that we want an AA boy, preferrably, in the age range of 8-12. That is NOT the problem, the problem is which county will do our homestudy. Washington County where we live says, Milwaukee County should do it. Milwaukee says but we live in Washington County. I KNOW that they can share families between counties, but they can't seem to get their act together. Milwaukee county says they really need families who will adopt AA boys in that age range, but can't seem to get it going. Jurisdictions or something just changed so they are all confused.

Deb