[musicmama]

Hello! I was a frequent visitor/poster to the forums during the past year, but I've been absent for a few months.

I have a quick question about adopting through the foster care system when you have other children in the home. We have 6 bio children, and have been hoping to adopt up to three additional children.

We have a current *independent* adoption homestudy, which was completed in anticipation of privately adopting an infant. That adoption plan failed two weeks before the baby was born, when the birthmother demanded a large monetary payment from us, or she would find another family. After we consulted our attorney about the legality of the requested payment, we refused, and she found another family.

Since then, we decided to try to adopt an older child/sibling group, and have submitted our homestudy over 25 times to be considered for over 50 different children who live all over the country. We just started taking the state-mandated MAPP classes last week, and will finish them the week before Thanksgiving.

Now, here's my question.....we were told at our first MAPP class last week that we were not eligible to be considered for their *foster* parent program, due to our family size. They said the state mandates that foster parents cannot have more than 6 children under the age of 16 in their home at any one time, so we are already at our limit...our 6 children are between the ages of 5 and 14. We are not particularly wanting to be foster parents, but we also understand that the vast majority of children who are adopted out of the system are adopted by their foster parents.

Does anyone have knowledge of this foster care regulation? Does it also apply to adopting out of the system, or just to fostering? We haven't heard this from any other source, which includes the social worker who did our homestudy. We have been in monthly contact with him since January, and he hasn't said anything about it. I would sure hate to think that we have just been wasting our time and considerable efforts over the last 8-9 months.

Our caseworker called us two weeks ago to let us know that he had been contacted by a social worker in another state who had requested a copy of our homestudy. In July I had filled out an online interest form to be considered for a sibling group of two, and the information included how many children we have (and their ages), so I would think that if we were "at our limit", she wouldn't have requested our homestudy. I am going to try to contact the social worker personally, but in the past when I've tried to contact social workers, I usually just get their voice mail, and they very rarely respond.

Any help/information would be greatly appreciated!

Musicmama

[lucyjoy]

Six is the limit here as well. However, we can get licensed as a family based group home and only take children we intend to adopt. However, if your worker is willing to send your study, let him. I've found my private study opens more doors for us as state and agency regulations are different. If the other state accepts your study and selects you, your state isn't going to step in and say no after the study has been approved.

[musicmama]

Thanks for the info Lucyjoy....I'll ask our MAPP teacher what procedure we will need to go through to be certified as a family-based group home (that is, if our state has this option). This just seems like such a lot of "hoops" to jump through, but in the end, I know it will be worth it.

Wonder of wonders, I actually got through to the other state's social worker when I called. She said to be considered, we would have to meet the foster parent requirements for *their* state, since we would be considered "foster parents" until the adoption was finalized, but she wasn't sure what they were. So I did some online research and found a 1-800 # for information about their foster care program and called it. The gentleman who answered was very helpful....he said their limit was 8 children, conditional on the adoptive kids not being too close in age to the other children in the home. Since the two we're hoping to adopt are under three, and our youngest will be 5 in two days, he thought we shouldn't have a problem. So we're still good to go! YIPPEE!

Thanks again for the help!

Musicmama