[sarahbunny]

I was wondering if anyone had moved from a American Infant adoption program (or similiar) to a waiting child adoption program.

My husband and I have our homestudy done and profiles completed, etc. We have been waiting since October with 1 failed match meeting.

We saw in the paper this weekend a large article about the need for families for older children - and it really spoke to us. I mean, we had discussed adopting a older child in the past, but had not looked into it further.

I went on our state's adoption network website to look around and found a sibling group of 3 little girls who are free to be adopted - you know, legally free. And we just fell in love with them. So I called our sw on Monday to ask her more about them and all. We are meeting with the agency today to discuss : Why these three girls, why do we want to switch programs now, what if they aren't available anymore, do we know what it will be like to go from just us to adding 3 kids, etc.

To be honest, I felt they were being...not very encouraging about the whole thing. And I was wondering if anyone else had run into that same type of situation?

[080to132]

My wife and I considered infant adoption both here and internationally. We felt after some deep thought and prayer that at this point in our lives older children would be a better fit.



We were selected in Dec for a sibling group of four, three girls and a boy from 9 to 15. It has been amazing so far and we are hoping for word on a placement date very soon.



Our worker while very nice and did put together a very good home study, was not engaged at all in our search for kids. It seems like a lot of agencies are in the infant business or wanting to find placements for local children under the care of workers they have regular contact with. That’s the bad news.



The good is news there are a bunch of excellent resources for you to do your own search. AdoptUS Kids is the most well know but there are several other regional sites as well as most states having individual websites which are an outstanding resource.



Some states will only deal worker to worker (Oregon for example) which can be frustrating if your worker isn’t on the ball. But many of the states will send you the child(ren)s profile directly. The key is to get well versed in reading these social profiles. You need to utilize your workers input as well as doing significant research with regards to any physical, emotional, or behavioral problems.



A good example is that more than 85% of the children available for adoption out of the Foster Care System will be diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. The threshold for this diagnosis is basically a checklist that if enough of the listed behaviors have occurred, the child is diagnosed and put on medication.



There’s so much more to tell but the key is to educate yourselves as much as possible and to ask TONS OF QUESTIONS about any child you’re considering especially regarding their current foster placement. Good luck and God Bless.

[jaenelle]

This is an old thread, but I am looking into this too and wanted to bump this and see if anyone else had something to add.