[Waiting2beamom]

Hi I went to an adoption orientation for North Texas, I was told that the only way you may be able to adopt an infant or toddler through the state of Texas is if there is a sibling pair and still it is very slim. I am looking to adopt and african american child of any gender. Does anyone have positive infant adoption stories through the state or is pretty hard.

Thanks

[mitzie1125]

Hi, I don't know whay they told you that. I have worked for
Dallas area and there are plenty of infants there. I have been
working for them for 7 years. I have seen lots of babies come
threw. I have had mostly adopted kids and I only take infants and todlers. I don't know what county you are in but
I don't understand them telling you that. They need homes for older kids and that maybe why. I would say your changes are pretty good. My daughter adopted a baby that was abandoned at a bus stop. She was only in it for 3 years and got a child after a year of fostering and had many other changes. Once you have the child in your home it is easy.
Just adopting is harder. That is why most people go the foster/adopt route. I hope this helps.

foster mom for 17 years
adopted 1
7 grandkids

[BethanyB]

Although I don't live in Texas (I'm in NJ) I'm thinking they probably told you this if you are looking to straight adopt as the previous poster had mentioned. Most kids that are available for straight adoption, are older kids or kids with disabilities. This is because most children are in the system for at least 15 months before rights are terminated (unless bio parents relinquish). AND the infants or young children normally reside in foster homes until the termination of parental rights. Most of the time the foster parents are given first priority to adopt.

BUT if you go for fost/adopt, you would most likely be able to get a young AA child very quickly. Remember that there is legal risk. Which means the child COULD go back to the bio family. Then if termination happens you would be able to adopt the child.

When I first began my journey I went to an orientation through my state. They were not very inviting or kind. They were quite rigid and quite frankly told me there were no adoptable children under the age of about 7 or 8. Then they told me to try the fost/adopt route. That that was the only way to be able to adopt a young child.

I waited a while, and then heard about an organization hired by the state to do PATH training. When I called them, they told me I could have an AA infant within a few days of being licensed. And they were right. I did training through them...I got the call for my 2 week old AA baby boy four days after being licensed...and TPR is set for May. He's 9 months old now.

So, If you are willing to take a chance and do fost/adopt, I'm sure you would have no problem getting a younger child. It is a roller coaster ride. And anything can happen. But I've seen a lot of positive results from the program. I would call your states foster and adoption line and ask about the fost/adopt program if you think you might want to look into it, and see what they say then.

Hope this helps a little!

[Waiting2beamom]

Hi thanks for all the info. I am located in Tarrant County. I did ask about foster to adopt. The cw stated it was not impossible but slim becuase the babies are either returned to family or other familay members step up to take them. I will call the adoption line thanks for all your help.

[stepforone]

I don't understand why they would tell you that. We are in NE TX and we personally adopted our fd that came to us at 2 1/2 (she's almost 5 now but it took 2 years to get the adoption done). I also know of a couple that have adopted 2 children and they both came as infants. They are both white babies and, sad as it may be, sometimes they are harder to get than other races. They are both healthy too. Now we've had 5 babies in our house and all of them went to family members. So it does come with heartache but it can be done. We only take girls and there have been quite a few boys that we could have taken that would have gone to adoption. I know of one placement right now that is 14 months old and the mom is pregnant. It will go to adoption so that family will get too under 18 months. Good luck and ask around your area.

[TexasJingles]

I've been told they tell people that because Texas gives bparents of infants a lot of time to get their act together. It can take up to 3 years before the state will terminate in some cases. Now, there are other situations where this isn't so (they may have older sibs that have been removed and a lot of other things too).

Our kids are from Tarrent county. That's a great county to work with, as we've not had one problem with them in the 6 months we've had our kids from there. They have a quarterly clothing allowance (most places don't, or not much), and activity reimbursments as well! I'm working on getting my kids into summer camps and/ or day camps right now so I can get some of that reimbursed (before they run out of money to do that).

Let me give you some very valuable advice. Once you're licensed, things may not go the way the say in class. Most of the people we work with don't know the "rules" like we were told in class. And these are people in the same agency (we're with a private non-profit that places cps kids), just a different department.

You can be told that there aren't any infants, get licensed and get a call for one! You just never know. But, if you need a contact in tarrent county once you're ready to go (it helps to know the workers), let me know. Good Luck!