[saucey95]

Hello everyone! I was wondering, for those of you who have or are currently, adopting through the state foster/adopt program.
How long did you have to wait for the final approval and issue of your certificate from the state?
We've been waiting for about 3 weeks now for the director to read our profile and issue the final approval and certificate for us to be certified as a foster/adopt family. We are seeking to adopt but the foster/adopt program offers a faster track and greater chance of young children or infants.
Our caseworker is very nice and answers all our questions. She turned in our profile and says the director promises to get to it as quickly as she can. But, our caseworker said, she's very busy and has many to read so she's hoping it will be soon as she's got quite a few children to talk to us about and see if we match.
So, we are waiting. Some days it seems like no time at all (we started the whole program in the middle of July) and other times it seems like forever!
Just curious to know about how long it took for those of you who've gone through the state to get final approval/certified once your profile was submitted?
Thanks!

[mamakimberly]

Feel free to email me off list... I'm in the DFW area.... I'll be more specific if you email

kimberlyandkeith @ sbcglobal . net (no spaces, took those out for the email mongers!)

I don't know how long it will take you, but our agency has been FAST. They said we'll be licensed by the end of November which will be about 2 months from start to finish! OY!

We're also desiring foster/adopt of infants.

Kimberly

[saucey95]

Mamakimberly, thanks for responding! it's so funny, I was reading your response today and the phone rang (here at work) and it was our caseworker. She said the director was just about to complete the approval when she noticed we are missing ONE reference letter. Turns out a friend of ours who said he mailed it, DIDN'T. You can bet I was on that phone trying to find him. My husband gave our caseworker the number and she is going to call our friend directly to get the reference info from him. We called him also and left messages. I can't believe. So close!!
I'll keep you posted when we hear something and I will email you also.
Thanks again,
Linda

[sdwjones]

We were also waiting around for our certificate only to realize it was my parents who had not mailed in their recommendation! Each of them thought the other had done it. It would have been really funny had we not been on such pins and needles waiting to complete the process. We got our certificate in July, but we are still waiting on a placement (0-4 yrs old, African American). We really thought we get a placement quickly, but so far, we just wait. Our social worker has submitted our homestudy for a few children we were interested in, but we have heard nothing further. Sigh.

[saucey95]

I haven't heard anything back since I last posted so I don't know what's happening or if she was able to reach our friend or what. He hasn't called either. I guess we just have to wait and see.

[AmyTx]

I am in Texas also and how many reference letters do we need to have for the homestudy?? or do we need to just have names of people addresses and phone numbers? thanks

Amy

[jhtcct]

Amy,

We needed reference letters from three friends and then one from our son who is married living elsewhere. With the new agency we are going with, we needed three reference letters from friends, and one from each of our relatives in addition to one from our son. Also, I hope they are really good friends because the forms they have to fill out are long and ask very indepth questions. I joked and said they wouldn't be my friends anymore if I made them fill out these forms

[AmyTx]

what questions do they ask?? and how personal because I am sure my friends wont answer to personal questions... Should I not use my pastor of my church for this ?? haha

[jhtcct]

They asked questions about difficulties they may have seen you go through and how did you handle them; what are the male's positive and negative personality traits; what are the female's positive and negative personality traits, would they want you to parent their children, if they are aware of anything that would concern them regarding you being foster parents, etc. Very few of the questions were yes/no answers. Most of them required them to think and write up answers. If you have friends that hate to write like I do, they must love you to fill it out.

[saucey95]

AmyTx, we needed 5 references. Names, addresses and phone numbers. The CPS office sent them a worksheet to fill out. We saw one of them in our notebook during our PRIDE class. It had basic questions...how long had they known us, do they think we will make good parents, how do we discipline children, what do we do in times of stress or how do we handle stress. It's a character reference. The whole thing was two pages long with about 5 questions per page. Very easy and to the point.
The in-depth part came with the homestudy and the profile we had to fill out.
I wouldn't stress over it. We asked two family members (our moms) and 3 friends to fill out the paperwork. Ask people you trust who know you. We are in Region 8 - San Antonio and surrounding areas. Our reference questionaire came directly from the CPS office as we are going right through the state instead of a private agency. Private agencies may be different.
Good luck!