Adopting A-A or biracial child

Hi there I am the other "Jensboys" and I have 4. Two are biological and two are african-american and adopted from the foster care system. Your first step should be to contact your local office of DFS and begin to complete a home study and the necessary training. You should thoroughly research the options and resources available to your within your community. You should begin to research what those "labels" on kids actually mean in real life - parenting older children from the foster care system, although VERY rewarding, is also very difficult. Your cost should be extremely minimal.

Hi, Daughter in VA. Wanted kids and race was not an issue for our family. She went through homestudy in that state and seemed to get no where. She was told by them it could take years and she had to foster first. She was not willing to get a baby and maybe have to give it up. She kept her thoughts quiet and went through the home study. Once the study was complete she got busy! She submitted her homestudy in 28 states. They will for the most part be helpful and depending on the children they need to find homes for even helpful. She kept herself glued to the waiting child on the net to. There are children there who are siblings and need to be kept togeather. Once you have your homestudy submitted you will be considered for other children to. To make a long story short she got a call from another state within 6 months. She started visiting the kids in September and had them placed in there home in December, on Christmas day. Virginia was not helpful, they blocked and delayed request on paperwork. Had to be threated with action but the other state hung tough and pushed it all through. After the placement VA was suppose to do home visits. They never visited. The other state was really happy with the placement and in June the next year she had two wonderful toddlers. A boy and Girl who are healthy and active. The final court stuff was even done on conference call. They had visited there social worker in the other state regularly and all knew it was a wonderful placement. In addition to all the above the adopting state gave the children a guarentee of 4 years at a state college in that state. That will be worth it's weight in gold when they need it. She put the adoption money they were saving including high lawyer fees (there where minimum cost this way) into an education fund. Now she and her hubby can pay for Medical School if the kids want to go. Wanted to let you know that it is possible you will have to make a lot of effort to get it done, but, it is possible.

Thank you so much for your reply! That's not the first time I've heard this about Virginia. My husband and I start the classes in a few weeks, and we're determined to make this work. Your daughter sounds like a wonderful mom!

Heading to VA to visit my new grandkids on Wensday. Wish you family all the luck and grace our family has found. Just to let you know. One reason VA did not like my daughter and her hubby is he is an officer in the military. Or at least that's what they wanted us to believe. Here is a link to an image I made for T-shirts for my daughter's family. It is difficult to find faries on the net other than CC. I made my own fairy. You are welcome to take it for your family latter!

Well, I live in Va and I will tell you that they are a piece of work. Even if you do not adopt though the system. They lost our paper work. And our son basically belonged to no one. Very short version of a LONG story. I have no idea why we are paying all these taxes for them to do nothing! I have never heard a good story about VA. You would think it would be better. But, loving the fact that its all over with and our son is ours...

I think this is so sad, to hear that our state government makes adoption so difficult, when there are so many children waiting to be adopted. I wonder if there's a state office/ legislator you could share these stories with? It's just not right!

My daughter did go to there Senator. The paper work would have never been done with out his help.

I live in Arkansas and let me tell you there is a huge need for adoptive families of african american or bi-racial children. If you adopt a bi-racial child over the age of 2 you also get a subsidy for the child until he/she turns 18. The likelyhood of you getting a newborn or very young baby is also higher for african american babies. The process is pretty simple and only takes about 3 months with the classes and homestudies and it's all completely free. In the process of becoming an adoptive home you also are going through all the fostercare requirements so if a child is maybe a high risk adoption you can foster it first until the child is ready for adoption then you would have first choice wether to adopt the child or not. The child has to be in your home for 6 months before you can go to court to make it all legal and official. So the entire time they are in your home you recieve $400 a month per child. My husband and I foster-adopted our 4 year old caucasion child and adopted him may2004 and are about to adopt our second child in October. Not only have they been such a blessing to us....it has also been a blessing to us financially not having to pay thousands of dollars to adopt. All of our costs were taken care of. Good Luck.... and don't give up on the state .....sometimes they seem slow and doing things but these kids really need homes and maybe your child is already out there waiting for you.