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This is really frustrating. We live at the border between 2 diocese. The diocese adjacent to ours has a baby available for adoption and they are actively looking for a couple to place him with. We are trying to adopt an infant. Here's the problem. They cannot consider us, even though we have a completed homestudy and are approved, because we belong to the wrong discese.
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I would think because there are too many rules and stipulations that are put on all aspects of the religion in general. It is so sad that they will not consider placing a baby with a perfectly capable couple just because you live in the the wrong area of town where an invisible line has been drawn.
Dublin, I respectfully disagree with your opinion on the all aspects part.
Anyway,I am asking in part because I live on the border of 2 dioceses and used the other diocese CC for my homestudy (international) and they did not have any problems whatsoever with us being in a different diocese, so I am wondering if this situation is diocese-specific or if this particular baby's situation is special.BTW, our homestudy cost was less than other agency's and our postplacement costs will be 1/3 the cost of other local agencies.
What the CC Social Worker told me was that they only place infants with families that live within the diocese. It didn't matter that I used to belong to the diocese and it didn't matter that we were only 2 miles away from the line (a state line). They would not consider us becasue we were not members of the diocese.
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my friend is a foster parent for cc and they had a baby that the birth parents were looking for very specific qualifications for the aparents (aa/athletic/catholic). they looked at families in the area to no avail. the baby was eventually adopted by a family in not only another diocese but a completly different state. i don't see how that can be a cc policy when it did not apply to this family? good luck to you.
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I had no idea. I know that is not the case where we are with Catholic Charities. My experience with CC was also a great deal less then our first adoption through and agency. In fact less then half. Does you CC only allow so many people into the program and not allow any additional until they are all placed?
We chose them due to their low costs (really low) and we really bonded witht he SW's when we went to our first orientation (well, we went twice just to make sure it was what we wanted to do). I am shocked at JPDakota's situation because we were given the opportunity to fill out a paper that asked if we would be interested in a baby from another diocese or agency and up to what age would we accept. We were also informed that since they also receive referrals from other places, and a mother could decide to relinquish much later if it becomes too much, then we would be a candidate for being shown to moms who go this route.
I am so sorry that you had to go through all that. It's a shame (and ridiculous) IMO to pass over you guys simply because you weren't within their diocese. Good luck!
kllee
Hi-
Wow, CC must differ wildly from place to place, because as I'm reading about unreasonable geographic restrictions, high fees, and long waits, I'm thinking how lucky we are to have CC.
Our SW's and the Adoption Director are wonderful. Our fees are 50% of any other agency I reviewed (don't even get me started on what the attorneys out here want to charge for services for a "private" adoption). And three couples from our classes in MAY (yes, May 2004) have already had placements. Plus, CC here works with all religions, and has recently begun assisting with International adoptions. Placing only within a DIOCESE boundary? That must be an East Coast thing. I don't even know where our diocese borders ARE.
Sorry you have had these bad experiences with CC in your area. Although we would never consider working with anyone BUT Catholic Charities, perhaps it's time for you to move on and choose another agency or even an attorney, depending on where you live. Hope things improve for you!
We're in South Dakota and the Diocese that had the baby was in Iowa. I don't know about the rules anywhere else. I just know what happened to us.
We have, of course, moved on. We had a failed International adoption (don't even get me started) and are now working on a domestic adoption. We have an agency, a facilitator, lawyer and DHS that we are working with. One would think, with all the channels we're working, something would stick. We've been "presented" to a couple of birth moms, but that's as far as we've gone.
Anyway, the saga continues.
JP
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