[MrWesley]

I posted this in another Ohio forum on the site, but this one seems a little more active, so I'm going to post this here as well (apologies for double-posting).

The wife and I are in the beginning stages of exploring adopting a child from the state. We haven't had a home study yet, and we're still waiting for a return call from our first call with the administrator from the home county.

Here's the questions... Do we need to apply to an agency if we're going through the state? Do we have to find our own agency for home study?

If we've shown interest in a particular child, what's our next step? Any advice from anyone who has adopted from Ohio Children's Services would be greatly appreciated.

[ajjhmf]

If you are going through the state, then your agency is typically the county children services agency. You can work with a private agency as well if you would like.

We worked directly with Franklin County Children's Services. They did our training, homestudy, placement and post-placement services.

A great place to start is by calling your county and see what they say. They can tell you about training dates and wait times for your area.

I hope this helps some.

Blessings,
Jenny

[joskids]

We also fostered through Franklin Cty Children's Services but ended up adopting, the last time, through a private agency. Children's Services will tell you there are no infants available. There are. Not that you particularly want an infant, just thought I'd toss that in. We did have good experiences with them. Workers were wonderful. You can have Children's Services do your homestudy at no cost if you are also going to foster. If not, you might want to use a private agency, I can recommend one, to do your homestudy and they are better at looking around different states for a child that you may be interested in. Best wishes. It's quite a ride!!!

[ChrissyMoon]

We're thinking about adopting thru FCCS. You said that they tell you there's no infants. We're wondering about adopting a slightly older child (6mons-2yrs). Do you think that's possible?

[merts1234]

Hello all, I adopted my sibling group through the state of OH. At the time they were 24 mon and almost 5. That was almost two years ago.
Merts

[dbaronda]

Hello,
I am also hoping to adopt through FCCS. We were just approved and assigned a caseworker in the beginning of October. I was a little surprised by how little they teach you about adoption. The focus of our classes was foster care. Our adoption caseworker hasn't really told us anything either, so I'm learning a lot from sites like these and other people in general.

We did not opt to be approved for both foster and adopt--adopt only. The county still did our homestudy and it was free.

Its very rare that I see infants-2 years listed on the adopt ohio photolisting (or anywhere else for that matter) unless they already have a family picked out for them (not sure why they are still posted). So, I don't know what the chances of adopting that age group are. Not that its impossible.

We have put inquiries out on many children (age 8 and under) across the country and haven't really heard anything back yet. So, while you might be interested in a particular child, don't put all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. There's a selection process and even though you are interested it doesn't mean you'll be chosen. So it doesn't hurt to learn about more than one child at a time.

As ajjhmf said, call your county, start your classes and get your homestudy completed. Then, wait

Good luck!

[mama_jen]

Since you are looking at adopting a particular child, it will follow the procedures of the county in which that child is born. We are adopting in Ohio ourselves right now through a private adoption. However, in the county in which we live, we have to coordinate through our county's Department of Family Services. They are doing our homestudy, etc. Our lawyer called them on our behaf to get the process started. I'd recommend finding an attorney where the baby will be born and find out the requirements for that county. That's what we did and it has been great!

[suzybeezy2002]

We adopted our youngest child from Ohio, he was in placement in the Children Services there. We were suppose to be foster parents under the interstate compact. Unfortunately the judge gave us guardianship instead of foster parent status, which caused some major paperwork headaches! I just caution that you read everything and have very clear conversations with your caseworker.