Introduction

HI, My husband and I recently took placement of a baby girl in August. Feel free to PM or email me for information and some of the contacts we made along the way. Nikki

Hi,Thanks for the post - we hope to adopt through a private agency. When we first tried adoption we felt like we were getting the runaround from the foster care agency. Although I am concerned about the fee structure with a private agency I plan to schedule a meeting with an agency in our area soon just to see if this is really an option for us.Wish us luck

Hi, We are an AA couple who adopted our son thru a private agency. Please feel free to PM me with any questions you might have. Proud2BHisMom

Hello, My husband and I are AA and we are in the middle of an adoption process. We are in our home study process now. We started with our agency in early October after deciding not to move forward with an Ethiopian Adoption that we originally started in the summer. We felt led to do a Domestic adoption at this time. Things are moving fairly quickly and we really like the agency thus far. I have not posted here in a while, but I have connected with one other adoptive parent on this forum and we communicate via email! Nikki! Feel free to contact me. We are always looking to connect with outher parents going through the adoption journey. Good luck with your process! Kristy

Welcome! I'm AA and DH is CC. We adopted through an agency and had a really great experience. PM if you would like!

[FONT=Verdana]Hi![/FONT][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]I'm Angela but my "tag" name is Manni28 (named after my son Emmanuel). I'm an adoptee (closed adoption, 1967) and a parent of two boys (one-bio and one adopted) my ason was a domestic adoption. Welcome aboard, this is an interesting place to learn from.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana]-Manni28:flower: [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman] [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman] [/FONT]

Hi, and welcome!!

I'm single AA and I adopted my 2 older sons from foster care and am in the process of adopting my 2 younger ones. PM if you need to!!

I am a single AA and i adopted my daughter thru a private agency. After approval, I got her within less than two months and I truly thank God for that. She is a healthy beautiful gift from God. Please do not let the fees scare you and find out if they have any programs that could be of assistance. zero percent loans, grants etc. Goodluck and feel free to PM if you have any questions.:cheer:

HI... We are AA couple with 2 bio children. We were foster parents about 5 years ago. We are in the process of being licensed for adoption through our local NC DSS. We are currently in the MAPP classes. We were told that it would be fairly quick to adopt an African-American child because there is a disproportionate number of them in the foster care system. We want a baby as young as possible though. So I'm not sure how that time-line would work out for us. During one of our classes the SW told us that we would have a better chance if we accepted the Risk-adoptions (something like that). It's when they place a child and there is a possibility that he/she will be reunited but there's also a really good chance that they won't. Does anyone know anything about that. We were also told we should Foster/Adopt. We initially only wanted straight adoption. I'm not sure anymore...we just want another child! We initially communicated with a very well-known private agency. They lowered fees because we wanted AA or biracial baby. However, the fees are still a tad much for us. We've decided to go through DSS and see how it works out for a year (maybe less). If things don't work out for us, we'll go back to the private agency and fork over the funds. Thanks so much for your insight! :thanks:

Hi, I'm now a single AA mom. When I was married (12 years ago), DH and I went to a fertility specialist. We divorced. I was in another long term relationship where we were trying. Not sure why it didn't happen. Moved back when mom got sick. Then I was diagnosed with fibroids. Decided to foster/adopt. I now have 4 boys. I do wish I had a husband but other than that, I wouldn't change anything.

I guess I'm an oldie but goodie. Have I been a member since 2004? I guess so. :eek: DH and I adopted from a private agency as well as the foster care system. We ended our time as foster parents last year. I was sad to stop but we needed to focus on our kids. If any of you have questions just send out a shout and I'm sure someone will be able to help. There are more AA adoptive parents out there but they tend to lurk.

Welcome, I am a single AA woman who is hoping to start the adoption process this year. Good luck with everything.

I know exactly what ur talking about because I too took the MAPP classes and lucky for me I my MAPP teacher took a liking to me and told me the truth about infant adoption through the foster care system in our state. N(teacher) told me it be EXTREMElY UNLIKELY to get a straight adoption case for an infant even though I am AA and was basically open to "everything". She also informed me that in most so called foster to adopt cases the birth parents get to keep the child. But that's not to say it is impossible because it happens all the time. I went via private adoption and now have a lovely daughter F that is the light of my life. Her adoption was finalized 1/20/09. I wish you well and PM if you have additional questions.

The foster to adopt program is the best way to adopt young child from the foster care system. We were in the foster to adopt program and that is how we were able to adopt a baby... the situation was supposed to be a straight adoption but ended up turning into a technical abandonment. Long story... To be honest there are not very many straight adoptions of infants (meaning finalizing while they are still infants) and they are typically reserved for people who have put in their time by fostering. The way the foster care systems works is that by the time the child is released for adoption the child is no longer an infant but a toddler. We picked my son up from the hospital but didn't finalize his adoption until he was close to two years old. We almost finalized when he was around 6 months old but his mom showed up when she got the abandonment hearing notice. To file for abandonment the parent has not made any contact for 6 months. The paperwork for abandonment was put in early in my son's situation because his mom had never seen him. She didn't want to see him when he was born so that is pretty much an automatic abandonment. If she had not showed at the court hearing the abandonment would have gone through. My son's situation was really unique in that he stayed in the adoptions unit the entire time he was in state care. Usually infants go to the foster unit and then transfer to adoptions after the TPR is granted. If you decide to do the foster to adopt program ask for low risk placements. Most states do a risk assessment on all their placements to determine the likelihood of a child remaining in care or returning home. If a parent has had children removed previously that usually indicates a low risk situation. The reason a child was removed also indicates the risk level. Is the parent a drug addict, in and out of jail, mentally ill, or have an unstable lifestyle? Most of our placements were due to jail issues or unstable lifestyle When you are called for placements the CW should be able to give you some sort of back story that will help you make your decision on whether you should accept the placement or not. One thing that really helps when adopting from foster care is to find a long time foster parent to be your mentor. They are typically in the loop about anything that is going on in your county. We made friends with another couple and they were a gold mine.