[mommakat]

My husband and I are so excited to finally have finished all of our classes and the cps worker said we should get our license in about 3 weeks. I just can't wait. We had to put an age range and I really wanted 4 years and under but the worker told us to put 8 and under. I will fill terrible if I turn down an older child. My reason for the 4 and under was because I have 2 daughters that are 7 and 9. Anyway, we asked for any race but preferred hispanic. What are the possibilities of getting toddlers or even infants? I hear there are some many homes turning down kids because there is not room at their house. I was just wanting to know how many calls people get for younger children?

[stepforone]

I don't know what part of TX you are from but in the NE area we stay very busy with babies and toddlers. I don't agree that your lw should have told you to put down 8 and under. If you don't want older than 4 please don't feel pressured to take them older than that. And I wouldn't want to take any older than my bios. Once you are licensed I would call my worker and have the age changed back, point out that you really don't feel comfortable taking older children and don't want to waste the placement worker's time calling you when you will just have to turn them down. If you do have to turn one down, don't worry, they will call you back, you don't have to jump at the first placement they call with. Good luck.

[TexasJingles]

There's a reason in Texas for that age range to be larger than you want. The board that licenses everyone frowns on changes. So, go for the largest age range you can for the license.

Then... once you're approved and have everything done, you tell the person (called the "in-take worker" in our agency), that you're really looking for _____.

We didn't want older than dh's daughter (13 at the time) and neither of us thought we could handle an infant -- although we'd take one -- however, we put 0 to 17. We got 7, 8 (now 9), and 10. I wanted one a bit younger than 7, but he acts about 5 (and when he first got here everyone thought he was in preschool), so it all worked out. I still get to rock him, as well as the others! Seems they didn't get a lot of that and just need it at times.

Congrats on finishing classes! Now the fun really begins! We had placement about 6 weeks after our license (and we thought at the time that it was taking forever!). Looking back, it was very quick! Hang in there!

[stepforone]

I've never heard from anyone else that the board frowns on changes. I've upped mine on ages and number of children a couple of times in the past 3 years. Never a problem, it's just basically paperwork for the FAD worker. But we work through CPS and maybe that's different. Let us know how things go.

[TexasJingles]

I don't know why (you may be right and they just didn't want to do more paperwork... it really is a LOT of paperwork just to get licensed here... I bet our folder was over 2 inches thick!).

However, that wasn't the message conveyed. It was that the board might wonder "why" all the changes. Especially if they come right after being approved in the 1st place. Kind of like you can't even make up your mind. Or other suspect reasons. I don't know. It just seemed easier to get the license for the max range and not have to go through anything else later. Just the ability to say "no" when something came our way that just wasn't what we wanted.

We were approved for up to 3 (we wanted up to 4, and have the space and money for 4) and had heard that sometimes these things can be "stretched". Well, we REALLY liked what we saw about a group of 4, but since we weren't approved for 4, they wouldn't even send our homestudy. Oh, well, our 3 are more than enough right now... so maybe they knew something we didn't!

[mommakat]

Thanks for emailing me back. What part of east Texas are you in? I am around Mt. Pleasant.

[TexasJingles]

We're in Houston. What part of Tx is Mt. Pleasant?

[mommakat]

We are the north east part. Close to Longview, tx off of Interstate 20. I went to our first foster parent support group meeting last night. It made me even more impatient to get our license. It has been about 3 weeks now and have not heard anything. I called the SW and she said as soon as she hears something she will let us know. We are going out of town next week so I am so hoping our license will be final by the time we get back. I am just going CRAZY!!! Last night at the meeting 2 moms got calls for placements. I thought I would faint.....

[TexasJingles]

Our license is dated Aug. 31, 2004, but we weren't informed until 2 weeks later! Guess it was better that way though.

We had to have a meeting with our assigned placement worker before we could get any calls. She fit us in very though. By the time I had an overview sheet she wanted (it's really cool... our picture on top (in black/white), our stats, our wants etc). Something she uses to remind placement boards or workers who we are and why we might be a good fit for kids.

We put out a few homestudies for straight adoption, but in the end we did foster-to-adopt. The kids caseworker read our file, suggested a different sibling group (which we hesitated on) and then suggested the group we have now. We had 2 days (they wanted 24 hrs) to say if we wanted them or not (she didn't want to move them again, said she could find a foster family to take all 3, but wanted only to move them once -- we've since found out that this wasn't quite correct... she had to move 2 of them quickly due to the current foster family deciding to get out of foster care (they finally got the infant they wanted and stopped there).

We've had ups and downs, but it's really great seeing these kids blossom! They really are great! They are kids though, and will try my last nerve at times!!! Tomorrow is the deadline for the bio family to do a final appeal. They didn't do this for the eldest, so who knows about the younger 2. They haven't filed an appeal yet! I cannot wait until these kids can finally relax and not have to worry where they're going next! Gosh that has to be so hard on them! They just want to belong somewhere.

Good luck with your placement! Remember... you CAN say "no" if what's being offered doesn't fit your home and family. That was the hardest part for us before placement. I wanted to take them all...didn't want to offend our worker... but it all worked out in the end.

Let me know how it goes! Take care!

[mommakat]

Well, license is still not here yet. Talked to Pride trainer and she said she sent our paperwork to her supervisor for final approval.....DANG!!! I can't stand it anymore. I hope that does not take forever.....So she has to read over it and make sure it is ok and then we will be approved. I sure hope she reads fast.

[rmyoung]

when did you take pride?we finished july2 and were told last week that we were a couple weeks away.We already had a homestudy done so that was an advatage

[TexasJingles]

Mommakat -- I wish I could help you get things through, but I don't know what you can do to push it. It can be tough. However, even once you get your license, there may be a wait for the "right" child(ren). Perhaps this is a test to see if you can handle the wait? Just a thought.

Our update: the bio's did NOT appeal and we've started the next step towards adoption. Well, sort of anyways. The kids cwr has to de-identify their files (black line all names and addresses) and then get them down here from the Dallas area. She HOPES to have them down here by the end of the month! Good Grief!!!

Then we have to read them (which we were told we could do at home, but now we have to find the time, during business hours, to go to our agency to read them.) I have no idea how I'm supposed to do this when I work all those business hours. Well, we'll muddle through somehow.

Anyways, once that is over, we'll do more paperwork and our target adoption court day is Nov. 19!!! So, more waiting (we can't even tell the kids yet!!).

Hang in there! It really is worth the wait...in fact, afterwards, it doesn't seem that long at all.

[mommakat]

Well, it is a long wait. RMyoung we finished our classes in April. We had our home study done during the classes. It is a very long wait....

TexasJingles
I hope that everything works out for you also. How exciting to adopt. That is what we eventually want to do. We already have 2 bio girls that are 9 and 11 and we would really like 2 boys.

We are just waiting...and if this is a test I a failing. lol

[rmyoung]

Im no expert but i think you need to stay on top of them
because we finished in june and have had our home visit
plus met with pride trainer and we are having our homestudy "retyped" this week.She told us that she expects us to be certified by end of the month.There is one detial to this we currently have no kids of our own and have been told(not by anyone at CPS) that they give priorty to people who doent have kids already.but I would be calling because that is a long time

[rmyoung]

Im sure you are doing this already but make sure you are
asking for boys that arent very close to your girls
age.I have been told that the supervisors kick theses out alot.But im sure you already knew this.Also do you have your pride teachers cell phone to contact her?If not who was your teacher because maybe i can help