? Foster to Adopt

Foster to Adopt means that you foster and then you adopt, the catch is that foster care is always about Reunifying the family, only in the case that that is not possilbe is a child adoptable. Only a child that has already had Termination of the Parental Relationship(TPR) is available for adoption and those cases are fairly rare, especially in a child preschool aged. Those children have been a in a fosterhome already, and if not adopted by a relative are usually adopted by the foster home. Unless rights have been terminiated, DCS has no way in the beginning of knowing what will happen in any case. They have to work the plan or not, while the child is in fostercare for that to be determined. Even a low legal risk placement is just a "Guess" on someone's part. If you aren't willing to have a child for a year or more and then send them home if that is the way the case goes, I wouldn't recommend adopting through DCS. Foster Adopt doesn't mean your sole intent is to adopt, you have to be willing to do the foster part as well and with it come the unknowns, there are no guarantees. DCS has always done foster to adopt homes, they are their everyday foster homes. All families I have known, have eventually adopted, but each one of those has had their heart broken when a child goes homes as well.

Here is our example, we became fosterparents hoping to one day adopt but were also willing to just foster. Figured if it was meant to be than we would eventually get a placement that became available. We had a lot of placements the first year and most were fairly short term. Just before our first anniversary as FP we also became SNAP approved which made us eligible to adopt a child in IN who was already or close to TPR. We did several inquires and even interviewed for young sibling set but weren't chose. Then at our 1 year mark we were placed with a legal risk situation, he was our 9th foster child placed. It did work out for us and he will be adopted but it didn't go as smoothly as CW expected. Like I said, we had 8 placements before we got one to adopt and there were 2 heartbreaks in those. We are currently on our 11th child and actively watching for a child through SNAP. Now I view every child as a child going home oneday. I do know that if we keep fostering there will eventually be a another child that stays forever but know that is the exception. I am not sure what the odds are but in may experience only 1 in 10 placed with us became available to adopt. Good luck with whatever you decide to pursue.