Advertisements
My husband and I were just approved for foster to adopt in Susquehanna county. We would really love to add a little boy (2-6yrs old) to our family of 3 girls (6,9,18). In the process of being approved we learned of the amount of children in the PA foster care system. I'm not sure that I'm understanding how this whole thing works. All of those kids without homes and we are waiting to be matched. So far we've just been told that we will probably be waiting for quite a while unless we want to look at older children or a child in the right age group with older siblings. Does anyone have any insight that woulld help me to understand why we are waiting for a new child to be placed in the system when there may very well be a child who has already paid his dues in the system and needs a forever family?
Anxiously Waiting :grr:
Like
Share
Hi there-
If you are doing foster care with the intention of adopting & willing ot take the risk, then you may have an easier time. We want to straight adopt.
We are at the higher age range with our private agency in PA. We started out age 7-12, one girl, with up to moderate behavioral/emotional needs. We sent flyers out to all all counties in PA and we looked on the PAe website. We got picked for interviews for 2 different girls from the PA website, but we could not meet their needs. Last week , we purchased our HS for 2500.00. Our agency's policy is to look in PA and if not matched in a yr, you can have the HS for free. So, we bought it last week and have registered w/Adopt America Network and have inquired on a few other out of state girls. Our new age range is 10-13 yrs old, approved for ages 10-16yrs old in HS.
We basically did not want to keep waiting in PA and I could see it would be up to 3 yrs unless we could take on more needs. Our SW does not do too much. It is up to us to look for kids on the PA website.
Advertisements
mommaag77
My husband and I were just approved for foster to adopt in Susquehanna county. We would really love to add a little boy (2-6yrs old) to our family of 3 girls (6,9,18). In the process of being approved we learned of the amount of children in the PA foster care system. I'm not sure that I'm understanding how this whole thing works. All of those kids without homes and we are waiting to be matched. So far we've just been told that we will probably be waiting for quite a while unless we want to look at older children or a child in the right age group with older siblings. Does anyone have any insight that woulld help me to understand why we are waiting for a new child to be placed in the system when there may very well be a child who has already paid his dues in the system and needs a forever family?
Anxiously Waiting :grr:
I understand why you've limited yourself to that range. However, as pp implied, it's not terribly difficult for caseworkers to find adoptive resource families for single placements in that age range. Children under the age of 6 who don't have significant health or behavioral issues are not likely going to spend a lot of time looking for a forever family. It might take a while for the courts to complete the process, but that's about it.
The longer a child spends in the system, the more likely it is that s/he has some significant health or behavior issues. Even when the narrative with the photolisting doesn't sound so bad.
Would you consider a sibling set under 6? That may also help to increase your opportunities.