[tiredofwaiting]

Hi,

My husband and I are thinking of being foster parents with the hope to adopt. I have been reading these forums and it seems like the wait for a 3-7 yr old can be long. I was wondering could we go through a private agency get a foster/ adopt home study done and while waiting for a foster child refferal, see if we could put our home study out for possible straight adopt situations? I would hate to waste a year waiting for a foster child, when I see a child that can be adopted on the adopt pa kids website. Does anyone know if this can be done? we live right outside of philadelphia
thanks
Karen

[1sttimeadoptingPA]

We went with a private agency to adopt. When we later inquired about foster parenting our caseworker told us we would have to go to the county CYS office to foster because the agency couldn't help us with that. Now I know there are some agencies that contract with the counties to provide foster parents for children with special medical needs or therapuetic needs. So I guess it depends on the agency and what special needs you feel you can handle. A private agency can do your home study and help you adopt through SWAN, but if you want to foster you might have to take your home study to your county CYS office. At least that is what we have been told.

[rraiford]

I live right outside of Philly, too. We are working with a private agency and became licensed foster parents with a homestudy with the hope of adopting from foster care. We have a 3-year-old son and we are looking for children under 3 with mild to moderate health issue. We are also hoping to adopt directly from the state and our private agency also did our Statewide Adoption Network (SWAN) homestudy, training, and paperwork. Philadelphia county contracts with many private agencies and it is different from other counties in PA. In Delaware County, there is CYS that does foster care.