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Hi All,
I was searching through all of the adoption support forums and found one for Ontario Canada with no posts! :eek: So I thought I would start this thread for those of us who are adopting through our local childrens service agency.
My DH and I are currently waiting for placement, we are hoping to adopt in the age range of 0-3 and siblings are an option for us. I didn't find the process to be to bad, a bit overwhelming at times just because you don't know what to expect or what comes next.
Looking forward to more posts to read!
You can sign up to receive updates on the when the Adoption Resource Exchange events are happening. It is usually 2 times a year (April and October).
Here is the website [url=http://www.adoptontario.ca/]AdoptOntario - Welcome to Adoption Ontario[/url]
I use to visit this site almost daily. We saw our child on the site in March 2008, my worker looked into it and contacted her worker. In April when we attended the A.R.E, we went straight to the booth of the agency that our daughter was with and spoke to her worker.
In July 2008 we finally were interviewed and a week later found out that we were picked.
She was placed in our home on Aug 27th. She is a beautiful little 4 year old and stole our hearts the minute we laid eyes on her.
She was in foster care for a year and her bio mom relinquished her rights so she was available for adoption sooner rather than later.
The process can be very overwhelming but worth it in the end. If anyone needs to chat, please feel free to send me a message.
Wishing you all the best!
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Well, I have just been turned down 60% of the way through the Pride Training. I was told that our parenting skills were excellent, our home was perfect and ready to house a child.....BUT.... they did not feel that we would work well and be empathetic with the bio-parents in order to adopt. They did not like that we questioned having bio-parents of the child/children we are to adopt having home visits in our house. They have recommended that we start all over again with another CAS agency that does straight adoption or adopt privately as they think only foster-to-adopt is best and we would not try hard enough to have the children return to their bio-home. :confused: :eek:
Back to the drawing board.
Oh no! So frustrating!
Is there another agency you can go with in your area, or would you have to move?
Foster to adopt is not for a lot of people, don't take it personally. I know we would never be okay with bio parents in a foster situation coming into our home. Our dd's bmom doesn't even know the name of the town we live in or our last name.
Keep at it...you'll find the right match, both medium and child wise. It's just such a long process!
Allana
Thankfully there is another agency that is even closer to me that does straight adoptions. It is just disheartening as we were driving 75 minutes each way to attend classes for 6 weeks. Ah well... if there were to be any reason that we were to be found unsuitable, that is certainly one I can live with :)
I saw your post and tought I'd reply. My husband and I are starting our PRIDE clases this Jan 2009. We are also in Ontario (Peterborough) and are looking to adopt from 0-4 sibling group. I saw that you went through the process once and would love a bit of information on the process and want to ask how things are going with your daughter.
So exciting and very nervous about moving forward. Our journey towards starting a family has been a long and trying one.
Would love to hear more if are up to sharing.
Pam:flower:
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We are going to be going to the PRIDE training with the closer CAS agency and they have exempted us from the first 6 sessions as we had already attended them the first time. We re-start in mid-February and will be complete (fingers crossed) mid-March. Perfect time for the Toronto convention. *sigh of relief* There are actually a couple that we are interested in on Canada's Waiting Children website as well.
Hey Pam,
I have to say we had a very positive experience with our adoption process. We were very lucky that things went as quickly as they did for us. Once we were matched we went for a meeting to discuss the child and this is where you learn about thier background any medical issues ect. ect. We met her fostermom for the first time here and I would recommend having a list of questions to ask about day to day routines and care. When all the paperwork was ready, we went for our first visit (a Tuesday) with our daughter at the foster home and we were told at that time to be ready to bring her home for the following Friday morning! :cloud9: The amount of visiting will depend on the age and situation of the child(ren). After placement in your home your worker will visit you in the home about once a month to talk about any concerns you may have as a new parent and to ensure that everyone is adjusting ok. I'm not sure if you have any specific questions about things, but I will do my best to share our experience! Good luck and keep me posted.
time2grow:
Can I ask how old your daughter was when you adopted her? We just got a call from our local CAS about a 6 month old girl and have an interview this Thursday (so excited!!) and are curious as to when we could possibly bring her home. I know I will get a more specific answer from our social worker, but I just wanted to get a bit of a heads up and see what others have experienced.
It feels like this will be the longest week of our lives! Oh, the waiting...!
Well our situation was very rare and our daughter was 5 weeks old when we brought her home. We too had a long week to wait. All the paperwork wasn't in when it should have been so we had an extra week to wait. I know just how you feel! When we went through our pride training we were told to ask lots of questions during our interview such as prenatal care, any medical issues, substance abuse both drug and alcohol ect. Others I know that have adopted an infant around 6 mos said it was 1-2 weeks of visiting. Some will take place in the foster home and some will take place in your home to get the child used to thier new surroundings. In our interview, the foster mom was there and we asked questions about day to day care, what she liked, sleeping schedules, did she have a fussy time, just trying to make the transition a little easier for everyone especially the child. Congratulations! and Good Luck...keep us posted on how things go!
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An update on our situation:
We had an interview last Thursday for a 7 month old girl. We got a call this afternoon from our adoption worker. They picked us!!!!! We get to meet her on Friday! We are sooooo excited! Will keep you all updated as to what goes on next.
Imagineme32
they did not feel that we would work well and be empathetic with the bio-parents in order to adopt. They did not like that we questioned having bio-parents of the child/children we are to adopt having home visits in our house.
They have recommended that we start all over again with another CAS agency that does straight adoption or adopt privately as they think only foster-to-adopt is best and we would not try hard enough to have the children return to their bio-home.
Back to the drawing board.
Some local agencies have the most rediculous "rules". We just got Approved to adopt. My husband does not at all want to Foster, and had big reservations during PRIDE about having to do excecises about kids returning home. But we did not get turned down. There is an agenecy in a city centre west of us that did like 2 adoptions last year despite huge resources. they are just far too picky about who they will approve as parents. Our agency did like a dozen and is half the size of the one to the west of us.
I am so glad we moved to the town we did , because our agency has been great. We struggled for 3 years with an agency that did not like us, and would not even let us fill out the application to get into pride. When we told the agency down here where we are now...:eek:
is all they could say. they were dumbfounded.
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Wow that truly does shock me but not the first time I heard of this situation. Wishing you all the best!
Well, hopefully we will have more luck this time. Funniest thing of all... I have been a social worker for 13 years and work with hard to serve youth LOL My husband has spent the last 5 years as a treatment foster parent for hard to serve youth and a houseparent for special needs adults.