[sneall]

Happy New Year! Just wanted to share this story that happened yesterday-got a phone call from our case worker-she said they had a 7 mo old Hispanic boy that was ready to be placed for adoption and would we be interested? Yes! So she is going to call back with more info-this placement needs to happen fast cause he is in a shelter..I wait by the phone, call my mom, all my best girl friends...I cry, I pray and i am feeling on top of world.....the babies mom is HIV positive but baby has tested negative..called my nurse friend, who is also a foster mom and she says he should be o.k. Then the case worker calls back with more info-the baby is African American not Hispanic? It just makes me wonder sometimes. Please no emails back about me being predudice-because this is not what this is all about. The agency knows our requirements. The case worker was very sorry for getting our hopes up. Has anyone had a situation like this? I know we all make mistakes but this is the 2nd time they have called with a placement that was not what they said it was? So confused and dissapointed. I am now more convinced than ever that we need to change directions in 03'. Thanks for letting me vent a bit.
Stacie

[jenna202]

Hey Stacie, I have seen this happen a lot too. It's usually because they info gets out piece-meal, and that leads to misunderstandings. The good thing is that your worker calls you AS SOON as she hears about these kids, and that she is getting early info. Some case workers either don't hear about young children until they are placed, and they don't call their families fast enough. Your case worker's connected status will eventually work in your favor.

And one reason this may have happened in this particular case is that when a child that young is in a shelter, they have JUST taken them in. Older kids may be at the shelter from days to months, but babies are rarely there longer than one day. So your worker heard about it, jumped on what info they had, and called you. It takes a while for the intake people to get all the info, and some AA or AA-mix babies look Hispanic, so it was probably just an initial assumption.

Don't lose hope!

[Love_um_all]

not to sound prejuiced either, but I have had two calls for foster/adopt babies from the hospital. First baby, boy, told he was hispanic and second child, girl, told she was american indian. I took them both home - baby boy went home after 5 months and girl, now 8 mo. is still here with relatives doing homestudy. Both children turned out to be african american. With the boy, it was clear, but another family had gone to the hospital for him and said no after they came to the hospital and saw him, they walked a way. I could not just reject him, so he came home with us. It was just sad. CPS knows how we feel too, but they do miss lead us. And I think they take advantage of the fact that I cant walk away from a baby that needs a family, whatever the personal cost to me.

[stepforone]

Our twins right now were 'supposed' to be white, turns out they are mixed AA/C. Guess mom fibbed about it at the hospital. The 3 yo we have was supposed to be mixed with a little hispanic (mom didn't want to admit it was AA).