[missyfan]

Once you were licensed, how long did you wait for your first placement of an infant, and how old were they? Are you with a private agency or not? Just curious to know how long we should expect to wait. We will accept drug exposed, hiv+ etc.

thanks,

missyfan

[melliemoo]

I'm not quite licensed yet, but will let you know when I get there! I should be licensed by the end of the year. I am told that if you are open to biracial you can have a baby within a month, if you want to hold out for white/healthy it can take about 6 months. I am with Homes of St Mark, which is a private agency.

Melissa =)

[marilyna]

Hi Missyfan,
We were licensed with the Bair Foundation in Houston on June 30, 2004 and received our first placement on July 15, 2004. This was a five day old boy. His 22 month sister and 3 year old brother were placed with us two weeks later. We took placement of their new sister at 8 days old in May of this year. Both babies were drug exposed and all of the kids are multi-racial (1/2 Hispanic, 1/4 African-American, and 1/4 Caucasian).
The two oldest kids were reunited with their father in October of this year. The two babies have a different father and we're about 95% sure we'll get to adopt them.

Marilyn

[missyfan]

We have our new 6 week old and we are wondering how long it takes in Houston to get a clothing voucher? We had a lot of stuff ready for a baby, but we weren't expecting a preemie. We could use some more winter outfits.

Thanks,

Missyfan

[TexasJingles]

Depends on your agency.

Ours came in late Friday night. We had our intake meeting on Tuesday morning where they approved $50 emergency clothing reimbusement for each child (ours were 7,8 and 10).

I had to ask for it though. T came in with only 2 pairs of pants (the long ones he was wearing and 1 pair of shorts, and we'd had a cold spell come in).

Now, what our agency didn't know was this... the county that our kids came from also has a quarterly clothing allowance so when I informed the cwr of the problem with clothes, she gave me the number to the person in charge of the $. She gave me $100 each for the 2 younger and $125 for the eldest, but I couldn't use the $50 from the agency (agency bills the county for the $). I took the county money! Well, sent the receipts in with the correct form to be reimbursed. That took about 3-4 weeks to come back.

Congrats again on the little one! I'm soooo glad you didn't have to wait too long.

[dolly2]

I am about an hour and 20min from Houston and have been a foster parent for 2 years, when I decided I wanted a baby it only took about a month. The first infant I got was a drug exposed 2 week old that came with 4 brothers ages 4,5,7, and 8. I only had these for four days because the judge let them go back after the hearing. Shock of my life. Now I just got another one called me from the hosp 3 hours away and said he would be discharged that day would I take him, drug exposed again, (he is adorable I really love him), and a premie he was 4 weeks old and weighed exactly 5lbs and 1 oz. I have had him since jan 17th and will have him until they figure out through paternity testing who the father is and if he wants him or not if he doesnt want him then I dont know what will happen. He is a joy.

[marilyna]

Congratulations!
I hope you get to keep him.