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Hi Becky! Thanks for saying hi! I don't mind that you couldn't really answer my questions; after we get our future little ones settled we are planning on switching over to a regular foster license and becoming foster parents... It's just nice to know that we aren't alone...so many people think we are crazy for wantind to adopt a sibling group, but for us it makes sense! We can't wait! I actually made our first inquiry today for 2 little boys and now am waiting to see what I hear back! Trish

Trish - Welcome!! Like Becki- I can't offer a lot in the way of using the SNAP system. I have adopted 4 from foster care (3 from Indiana and one from TX- a sibling to an already adopted kiddo, so no real matching process there). My 3 from IN were all placed with me as foster placements (newborns) who ended up staying with us forever :) Best of luck in your journey!! I'll look forward to following your story!!

Thank you Naca for the warm welcome! I recieved a form letter saying that if the caseworker was interested in us they would get back to us. So for the moment we are just waiting..... Trish

I also wanted to say welcome. I had placement of my newborn grandson from Birth.. it was afterward that I did the classes to become licences FP at his CW instruction. I have since finalized his adoption. So even though I have learned a ton throughout this journey.. I also have no answers for you. Im sure there is someone who will. I also might say get ready for the ride of your life! Good luck!

Thanks for the welcome Lori! All I can say now is that I am rethinking our decision only to be a pre-adoptive home as I am seeing so many families that were created when the children were placed in a regular foster home. Yet again, I really want to complete my family before taking that step. I look forward to getting to know everyone!

Hello! We are about to finalize our adoption of a sibling group of two boys. We are snap approved as well. Our situation seems similar to what you posted. We chose foster to adopt after infertility. We were clear that we were looking for an adoptive placement and then, once we had our forever family, would be open to straight fostering. We were officially licensed and snap approved in May 2010. We got the call about the boys on June 16 2010. We picked them up June 18...no transition visits or anything. TPR wasn't completed when they moved into our home but it was low legal risk (even though no one can promise you they won't be moved or reunited before tpr that is as close as you can get...our worker told us there was no way they would be ru'd but legally she didn't have control over that). All parents signed rights over once they knew the boys were in a stable home where they could be together. Now we are just waiting for a finalization hearing. We were supposed to finalize in December, then February now they say by the end of next month. Just waiting on some paperwork issues to clear up. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions...I am also a therapist who works for a private foster/adoption agency.Good luck!

Wow Csutliff, you were matched rather quickly! At least that addressess my concern of a caseworker disregarding our homestudy since we were just recently licensed! The little boys we inquired about had already been placed; on Tuesday our homestudy was submitted for two little girls and they stopped accepting after 48 hours so now we are waiting to see if we are chosen for an interview!

Honestly, we inquired on a few kids/sib groups that were on the photolisting or in the state book and although we were in the narrowed down groups for one of those the others already had a potential family identified before we ever knew anything about them. With our boys our licensing worker called us about the boys and told us to call their worker ASAP. She thought they were perfect for us and didn't want their worker looking any more. We called and he decided while on the phone with me we could pick them up Friday. I'm sure our worker and he exchanged info but it was WAY more simple than expected. We thought we knew they were "the ones" based upon the info we were told via phone but once we saw them in person it was clear! Everything fell into place and there has been no looking back. They aren't "perfect" in the typical sense but we are definitely perfect for each other.

My husband and I have just finished taking the required foster parent/adoptive parent classes with DCS. When I initially talked with our county DCS office I was told that ONLY being licensed to adopt from the DCS system was hardly ever done. So we ventured into foster care training with the intent to adopt. I'm concerned that the county we live in does not have many foster to adopt placements. We live in a rural county in northern Indiana. We are not licensed yet, but are working hard to get the paperwork filled out so that we can get our homestudy done. I'm afraid that we will never receive a placement because of where we live. Have any of you other Indiana families worried about not getting a placement?

Spunky monkey, My cw is sending me profiles from children all over IN; so I feel that just because you are in an rural area will not prevent you getting a pre-adoptive placement but you may have limited short-term foster placements. But of course I am still learning the ropes so I could be totally wrong! Our foster license is as a preadoptive home; however, we may occassionally provide respite care for other preadoptive homes. Hope this is helpful! Trish

Spunky,the rural county we live in had only done (literally) two or three adoptions in the past ten years and at least one of those the kids were from a different county. All the calls we have received were from a different county. I wouldn't be too concerned about not getting a placement due to geography since the system is set up regionally and once you are licensed your info is available for any caseworker to access.

When we first started fostering we lived in a rural county. We were licensed strictly as foster parents & had 5 placements the first year -2 of which we ended up adopting. Since then, we moved to a neighboring county and have not had a single call- mainly b/c we got blacklisted after fighting for our adopted daughter's newborn siblings (we lost & no more calls).. We did manage to adopt another one (AS's newborn sibling) from our old county & also one from TX (AD's sibling).. but we haven't had a *new* placement for 3yrs. Things are now regional so you have the option of placements from several surrounding counties.. Hopefully that will help you. We will only take infants & the state is supposedly tryign to keep them with the fathers or family more now so we haven't gotten anything new. Good luck!!

Ladies, you are awesome! Thank you so much for replying to my note regarding my concerns. I feel better knowing that other families have rec'd placements even tho they lived in a rural area. We are going to 'forge ahead' with our plans!! :thanks:

We submitted our homestudy for two girls on the 19th of April; Today we got the much anticipated call ! We are interviewing on the 19th!!! There are three other families being considered; so I am trying not to get to excited! From those families who have been with the interview process, what kind of questions can we expect? What kind of questions should we ask? Did I mention that I am soooo excited!

Good for you! I don't have any advice on the interview stuff since ours didn't happen that way but GOOD LUCK!!!!