[Eighty8Keys]

Hello! We recently completed all of our STARS and Spaulding training and have our homestudy completed. We are wondering of there are any other ways to search for available kids to adopt in Missouri other than sitting around and waiting for our county to call. We are open to a child or sibling group up to 11 years of age, and we are pretty open about what situations we would accept. We have checked the Adopt US Kids website and the adoption exchange. It doesn't seem like there are many Missouri kids in need of permanency. Any suggestions about how we could go about this? Are there ever any adoption fairs or places to meet with social workers and revew profiles? We have started faxing our homestudy to neighboring counties but not even an acknowledgement from them that they ever recieved it. Thanks for any info!!

[adoptjefferson]

Hello, we are also doing the foster/adopt and was wandering the same thing love to hear someone else's input

[Trinasmom]

Missouri does have adoption fairs through out the year. If you contact the Missouri Foster Care and Adoption Association and join for I think $15.00 you get newsletters telling you where and when the adoption fairs are in MO. You can reach Jim or Janet by calling 417-538-4362 Also, you need to stay in contact with your local DFS. Give them a call and talk to the adoption specialist see if they have any children that are legally free for adoption. Don't sit around and wait on a call remind them who you are and what you are looking for.

I recently found out our local DFS has a book of pictures of children that are eligible and legally free for adoption and are in foster homes that are not looking to adopt. You don't say if you want to foster also but we were told that is how you get your placements sooner. So we foster/adopted. We also found several children in different states that were legally free for adoption. I would google search for Wednesday's Child and had a bit of luck that way. If you have a completed homestudy there is usually a number you can call underneath the child's picture.
Our adoption was just completed summer of 2005. Good Luck to both of you.

[standup]

Dh and I live in MO and recently were selected for a sibling group in CO. We also found few children on the MO websites. In your age group, it seems that the foster parents adopt, or the children never even make it on to the websites.

We got a copy of our homestudy and sent it ourselves as not to overwhelm our SW. We sent our less than 10 before being matched. We are currently awaiting ICPC. If you do decide to go out of state, realize it is a long process. After selection, it is not unheard of for you to go months w/o being able to even talk to your child.

Good luck and happy searching! Comeunity is a great website with listings to national and state photolistings.

[Seal9]

I don't know where you are located but Missouri has plenty of available kids.

Have you tried the website in kansas city? It's www.kcchildren.org

Good luck!

[jandn]

The St. Louis Casa program, Voices For Children also has hoto listings on their page. If you are able to get to know a CASA volunteer that is a good way to network, they advocate for these kids and know when a situation is headed toward TPR and if the foster parents are interested in adoption or not. You might be able to hear from them if something comes up before they send it to the adoption unit.

[Eighty8Keys]

Well, it is now over 3 months since oure homestudy was completed and we still have not heard of many Missouri kids. We have been involved in 3 staffings so far - one in Missouri, the other 2 were out of state. We were not selected. In 2 cases the foster parents changed their minds at the last minute and decided to adopt, and in the other one the other family being considered had a stay at home parent (we both work). Have not had any calls from our local DSS office about kids in our county or even kids available in the state. We are willing to accept a sibling group of up to 4 and kids through the age of 12. Still nothing. We are starting to get rather discouraged. If we don't hear anything in a month, we are going to go ahead and foster even though we were open to find legally free or low legal risk kids. Any suggestions or advice? we are in the St. Louis area...

[Oreo1]

It doesn't make any sense to me. I keep looking at the kcchildren.org and missouri's photolisting; it seems they have a lot of kids. There is a really neat 12 year old girl in Kansas City and a younger sibling set. I don't know how it works, but it seems like maybe you have to be pushy. I hope you have luck soon.

[lucyjoy]

You might try contacting MFCAA.org. It's in the KCmetro area. MO doesn't like to TPR kids unless they have waiting adoptive parents because they don't want them having no parents. They get lost of calls about foster kids waiting for placements and would bet they know about adoptive kids waiting as well. You could post that question on their message board.

[Trinasmom]

We have found in our area that DFS uses the same people over and over and do not call the newly licensed foster parents. You need to contact your local DFS and remind them that you are open for a placement.

[adoptjefferson]

We have been licensed to foster/adopt since Feb. and we got calls right away,we are also emergency foster parents. right now we have siblings 9months and 20months their are also two more siblings but we don't have room,we have three bio-children, shorlty after we got these two we got a call on a 6month old but had to turn it down, we have had these babies since April 25th.

[LeighM]

Ask your LW if she had an updated list of available children in her office. I recently attending training and the training had a whole book of children who are not on the website.

Also 4 years ago we became fp with the idea to adopt. I went on the MO site and went throught as many children as I could. I made a list of all the adoption cw names, phone numbers, address and email address. I then sent out an email introducing our family and what type of child we would be interested in. I will tell you are home study was pulled from an adoption cw files and that is how we go our now adopted daughter.

Good luck. There are children out there.

[ladybugqueen]

http://www.dss.mo.gov/cd/adopt/

This covers the state. Keep in mind, it seems that most of these kiddos on here have been on there for a while or there may be a reason (special needs/behavior challenges/etc) that they are on here...I don't think it shows every child that is available. It's a start though.

[pwtiffany]

AdoptUsKids provides a link to all states and their photolisting of availabe children. Good luck!

[bree01]

We are just finishing are home study private not state. Do you have to have a state done home study to adopt from the state? Have found a child on the state web site.
Thanks Bree