[liloh]

Hi All,

My husband and I are interested in adopting a child in the foster care system in PA. We are willing to foster first. We are interested in an older child (4+) of any gender or race. We are looking for a child we feel interested in after hearing about, rather than a specific set of criteria. We live in Delaware county.

I have been reading myself silly but still feel like I have no idea where to start. I filled out a form sent to me by the Adoption Center of Delaware Valley but never heard back from them. I've looked at the websites of several local adoption agencies and they all seem very much geared towards people wanting to adopt babies from foreign countries. Just getting a homestudy seems to cost upwards of $2k.

Should we go ahead and do a homestudy with one of these agencies to help move things along? Should we be looking at a specific agency in the Philly area that specializes in fostering instead? My head is seriously spinning and I am not sure where to go next! Any guidance at all would be much appreciated.

Thanks so much in advance!

Tiffany

[Lorraine123]

I can't give you any specific advice regarding your questions, but, my daughter came from PA. She was 6 years old when she came to us. So, there are children in PA who are free for adoption.

[HOPEFULINPA]

Hi Tiffany. If you want to adopt thru the foster care system AND become foster parents you need to first contact your county children and youth department and tell them you want to be foster parents with the goal of adoption. You will then go thru the classes and become lisenced foster parents. You will also be eligible for your adoption homestudy to be paid for by the state IF you adopt a child currently registered with SWAN. If you chose to use another agency, you will have to reimburse the state for doing your homestudy. (here it is 2,500).

So no. You shouldn't get a homestudy done by a private agency if you plan on adopting thru SWAN.

I wish you luck!

[ValerieP]

I am not sure if we are allowed to post web sites here, but there is a Pennsylvania site where you can find out information about kids available in PA through the foster system. My husband and I tried it first, but ended up going through an agency in the PGH area for our daughter after a sad/long waiting period.....

Search the internet for "Pennsylvania Adoption Exchange".

[hopefulamom]

I don't live in your county, but at least in my county there are SEVERAL non-profit foster care agencies that will certify you to become foster parents and then you can foster/adopt through your local CYF department. I work for a local agency that provides foster homes and group homes and I know there are a lot of couples currently with us looking to foster/adopt. I wouldn't go straight to your CYF department or a local adoption agency, I would start with trying to find a non-profit agency to work with. You can call your CYF office and ask them for a list of foster care agencies or look in the phone book maybe. Anyways, go and talk with all of the agencies and pick the one that you are most comfortable with. Here, there are larger agencies and smaller ones and it just depends on what you feel most comfortable with.
Feel free to PM me for more info. There ARE other ways to do this without spending an arm and a leg!!!
Good Luck!

[liloh]

Hi all,

Thanks for responding to my post! We've made a lot of progress since I first posted. I ended up calling the PA SWAN hotline and my call was answered by a wonderful woman who gave me great advice. We talked for about an hour!
We are now hooked up with a non-profit agency in our area (we are in Delaware County and they are in Chester, but it works!) and we start our foster training this Wednesday! It is a very dense schedule and we will be done within three weeks. After that they said they would start out home study.

We are so excited to get started! Again, thanks so much to everyone for responding. If anyone has the same questions I did I would definitely suggest calling the SWAN 800-number available on the website. They are very helpful and seem genuinely interested in helping parents and children find one another.

[hopefulamom]

So happy to hear that you found someone at SWAN to help you through this!!!

This is awesome!
Good luck!

[chrisfraz]

I know how you feel. We felt the same way, and I to read online till my eyes were sore ever night. I would check with your local Children and Youth Service first! Then you may want to see if there are other Foster Agencies in your area. I'm not from your area, I'm down in Fayette but we have many agencies here. I learned about most of them through the other local parents. I know that wasn't much help but before I would go paying for anything I'd check with CYS they may be able to answer your questions too!

[ahamryszak]

Hi, my husband and I went through the whole process, finding the agency, homestudy, all the stuff. We are currently approved to adopt and fost/adopt here in PA. We all but spent $40.00 for the whole process. If you find the right agency it is not expensive. We want to adopt an child up to age 12. Girl but will take girl and boy together. I can give you names and numbers if you wish.

[Mel in NEPA]

As I was reading the responses, I was going to say, call SWANN, so glad you did. I too have a private agency in PA, would have referred it to you if you wanted, it's a great agency. We have three boys, all whom we are adopting through the foster care system in PA

[Michele81]

Glad you found the SWAN site! We're in Montgomery County & went through them to find our agency - started in August & finished November. NOW the real search begins, but the PAE as well as some of the counties have photolistings. You also can check on different matching events in the area. Feel free to PM me for sharing the journey!