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It seems that this depends on who you ask. This becomes frustrating when researching agencies who say they have older child adoption programs, because they either don't specify or when they do, the ages seem to be just above our criteria.
We want to adopt a 3-8 year old, and we consider this an older child adoption. Yet I feel forced into international adoption because of the way most foster agencies seem to push the 9+ age range. I understand that there is a greater need for tweens and teens, but am I to understand that there really aren't many preschool or early grade school aged kids waiting in foster care?
I just submitted 12 contact forms or emails to private foster agencies asking for clarification of whether we may be able to work with them.
While I am still open to international Poland adoption, considering the amount of extra bureaucratic hassle and cost involved, we'd be amiss if we didn't fully explore the possibility of adopting a waiting child in US foster care.
We're in Virginia, in case anyone wants to PM me a recommended private foster agency, btw. :arrow:
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I'm pretty sure there are kids aged 3-8 in the foster care system, but you aren't going to necessarily know about the specific kids until you sign with an agency. (Or go through your state's agency)Keep researching agencies and I'm sure you'll find one to work with that is a good fit for you. Be upfront about your age range desire and they should be able to tell you "yes, we place children in all age ranges or "we only place 10 & up" etc.
You may have to wait longer to get kids in the younger range. There are probably just as many of the younger kids going through the system, they just don't tend to stay in the system as long. You'll likely end up with someone on the upper end of any range you specify.Be patient. If you go international there is a fair chance you could end up with a kid who is just as difficult as any kid you see in the US listings. And you'll pay for the adoption and end up with no support. With US foster, your agency/homestudy costs will likely be reimbursed by the state after you adopt. We spent money on the agency, travel, and attorney and every last cent was reimbursed.
Thanks. I'm very excited to say that of the 12 agencies I contacted, half have already gotten back to me, and one places kids age 6+, which is in our age range. A couple of the other agencies were nice enough to refer me to other agencies they felt would be a better match for us. Also a nice change from what I experienced with the state. I had no idea that there was a public and a private way to adopt from foster care. I assumed it was all through your state, and I absolutely wrote that off after they showed their true colors to us, our foster daughter, and her mother.
Jeffw - you make a good point about foster care vs interntional in terms of support and possibility of various issues. I was sort of dreading going international alredy, so if I have a viable domestic option, I am all over that!
We used a private agency as well and unless one's state program is so awesome, I totally recommend going this route. It's worth the bit of expense to receive the support and expertise, imo. We will have a life long relationship with our agency should we want that.:)Hope you find your agency soon so you can get started on the classes!!!
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Hello. I'm very interested in the private agencies that have been referred to. I live in Idaho and we are trying to adopt a 9-10 year old (we have an 11 year old). We have a homestudy and we are looking on all the states websites, and have provided our homestudy to our state DHW. But we haven't found many kids on the websites and of those we've gotten responses re:, they have a much higher level of special needs than I expected or would prefer. If there are private agencies that help find kids/have access to kids I'd love to hear of them. We are working with a non-profit agency that did our homestudy and helps send out the homestudy to the caseworkers, and be the liason, but not in actually searching, which is where we seem to need help.
thanks-
hope33
Anyone in VA? Because now that we're about to sign with an agency for an international adoption, I keep remembering what some of you have said and I know there are kids here we'd be a good match for. We found a sibling pair a few weeks ago that would be perfect, talked to the worker about them and still thought they'd be a great match, but our would-be agency ignored the fact we said we found kids in our age range and said they generally don't place kids younger than 9.
I am sooooooooooooo frustrated, bc I don't want to spend the money on international if I can adopt here and then use the money for a greater good.
It does look like we'd probably wait about a year for an international referral, we know the child/ren would probably have some special needs, and likely be on the upper end of our age range... so why not adopt from US foster care? Except we have TRIED, and TRIED, and without an agency, we can do nothing.
We are awaiting a packet from AAN as someone suggested, but they too have mentioned they generally place kids 10+.
If anyone in Virginia has adopted a child or two sibs up to age 8 , PLEASE PM me the agency you went with! :thanks: