[Justhavfaith]

Hi all, I am jumping over from the Guatemala Forum. I am in the very beginning stages of researching domestic older child adoption and have been lurking on your forum for awhile now. I have been looking at various state photolistings and other online resources and noticed that sometimes, children are grouped as a sibling group and sometimes they are separated and available as an individual child. Is there a "behind the scenes" reason for this or is it a social worker determination???? Just trying to piece all of the info together here.

[hrisme]

Originally Posted by Justhavfaith

Hi all, I am jumping over from the Guatemala Forum. I am in the very beginning stages of researching domestic older child adoption and have been lurking on your forum for awhile now. I have been looking at various state photolistings and other online resources and noticed that sometimes, children are grouped as a sibling group and sometimes they are separated and available as an individual child. Is there a "behind the scenes" reason for this or is it a social worker determination???? Just trying to piece all of the info together here.

It usually is a judgement call on the basis of the social worker or team over the children. Often it is because one or more of the children need more intense care & they would prefer that they be an only child. Sometimes it is because there have been abusive patterns between the siblings, and they need to be separated because of this. Other times, there are identified families for some of the siblings, but for some reason or another they are not able to take the other children. There's really no way to know what the "behind the scenes" reason is without talking to the caseworker directly. Honestly, the information posted on the state photolistings is usually not terribly accurate most of the time anyway.

[fritzi]

My experience with DSS is that they'll put these kids anywhere they can, and often that means one here, one there....
I got three siblings at once. I had met my older boy twice before he moved in and I had never laid eyes on my little ones until they drove in the driveway. My older boy had been placed in residential care because his former pre-adoptive family "disrupted". They changed their minds, and did more damage to these kiddos then I can put words to. He went to residential because the family wanted him out and that was the only bed available.
I love my kids and I couldn't imagine my life without them today. It's been the hardest, most stressful year of my life and I often didn't think I'd get through it. However, I had committed and now were settling and they drive me nuts but they are mine!