Pre-Adoptive Placement - how does it work?

I'm in Alabama, so I'm not sure if this differs state to state or not. Here, the child's case worker and the resource worker work together to find a home that seems best for that child. So, say they have a a little boy who loves to be outside a lot and have a home of a family that likes to be inside and one that likes to be outside... they'd place him with the latter. That's a SUPER simple explanation. My resource worker (case worker) told us that she likes to place "her kids" (meaning the kids from this county that she's gotten to know) with "her homes" (meaning the homes in this county that she has gotten to know. So she looks very hard at all her foster to adopt and adoptive homes in her county before branching out to the state, agencies, etc. And it is very rare that a child is just moved from one home to a pre-adoptive home without some short term visits first. Circumstances sometimes require that quick transistion, but it isn't the norm.