Anyone just starting the process?

Well, we are moving along too! We have finished our classes/training and have a few things left to complete before our homestuday (i.e. fire inspection, copies of college degrees). We are SO ready to get the homstudy completed! It seems like it's taken forever to get even this far....and we started the first week of January. I know that's not long comparatively. Of course, now the REALLY hard part begins. HOME STUDY - HERE WE COME!!!:clap:

Hello Everyone! Hope you are all doing well and I look forward to going on this journey with you wonderful people. My partner and I adopted our first as a newborn through foster care. Only now when we are going through this process again do we fully understand how lucky we were. Basically the bio mom was homeless and my son was removed. Instead of fighting she just voluntarily TPR right away! His adoption was finalized 7 months later. He is now 5 (and a half!) and is my son-shine. Anyway, we are beginning the process over again for baby #2 and I'm already a basket case! We are done with everything and are waiting for our final in-home visit to complete our home study. We got the call today that the visit has been scheduled for Monday, yay! And also OMG at the same time! I know the end result is amazing but getting scared as I am getting strapped in and the roller coaster is SLOWLY approaching it's first drop. My spouse is no help-I'm wide awake an anxious while she is somehow able to sleep soundly, lol. Hoping some of you guys understand.

O how things can change, it looked like we would be adopting next month and then we got a phone callthere is something wrong with our case. CanŒt go into the details but there is no risk of my little man being taken away just more work needs to be done before we can adopt. We should know in the coming weeks how long of a delay this will take, but I am guessing 3-6 months before we adopt at this point. you never know what will happen next when you go down adoption through CPS. All you can do is roll with it.

Glad to hear that there is no risk in your little man being taken away, but sorry to hear of the delay. This process is a, "Hurry up and wait," one for sure. ;)

If Your Are Looking To Becoming A Foster/adoptive Parent, PM me.Edited to remove phone number. Kakuehl

My husband & I are just beginning the process, orientation meeting on Monday. We are interested in adoption, possible high risk for a boy, age range of 5-8. Reading everyone's stories have been wonderful, we have no experience with adoption or foster care and are somewhat terrified of the process. How is everyone doing? It has been a while since anyone updated.

Looking back it has been awhile since I updated but not much has changed. Due to red tape and people NOT DOING THEIR JOBS!!! I am not sure when we will be able to adopt. I thought when bio-mom got her rights terminated last October that everything would be down hill, and in a way it was, but that was more of the emotional downhill, I no longer wondered if the little guy I was wanting to call my own would be taken from me. I did a big happy dance after the 90 day. It will be next year before we adopt for sure at this point. But we are not letting that stop us from having fun and living life. We celebrated our one year as a family in Aug, we took a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge. SO MUCH FUN! Little mans birthday is coming up and this year he is excited and ready to have a party. Behaviors have improved but we are still working with a therapist and I love having the extra support. I am surprised at how many memories he has, they come up out of left field. This is a journey and no 2 journeys are alike. It just shows how off the system is, little man came into custody when he was 3years, mom rights terminated when he was 4 but will not get adopted until he is 6???

Quick update from our home: We have been matched with a beautiful 2 y/o who will be coming to us in a couple weeks. He's a very "good" legal risk case and parental rights should be terminated this November. WE cannot wait for him to join our family!!!!

That's great Anastasia supper thrilled for you. November will be here before you know it. Hopefully you get TREX in time so you can celebrate an awesome 1st thanks giving as family. ps thanks for the PM.

I have been debating how best to provide an update, it has been so long but yet nothing has really changed. Next Saturday will be the 2 year anniversary from when we meet my little guy. Looking back at that time, so much change was about to happen for everyone. We STILL have not been able to adopt. I know it will happen, just red tape and people not doing their job is slowing down the process. It took CPS a year to get his birth certificate and there was an father listed on the birth certificate that did not have his rights terminated, we did however have a DNA test on the guy and it came back not a match. So we wait and wait and wait for everyone to figure out what to do. We are currently sitting at a year and a half delay already (we had been in adoption prep for 2 months before this problemӔ was identified). The country attorney keeps changing his plan, delaying court, apologies to us and the court for not getting it done. But in the end the Child is who suffers. He is getting older and wonders why his name is different, we have to keep up our license, paperwork, and home visits going. 2 years, on a case that had rights terminated 2 months after the child moved in. The money the state is spending boggles my mind. So we wait, wait for something to be done. It is not all sad for us. We have had 2 great years with our boy. He is growing so much! He is healing and learning to grow through his past. It is an amazing process. I can understand why his write up said he would do best in a no kid household. Not that it always needs to be that way, but he needs to be the center of someone universe for once. I have so many lessons learned and things I wish I knew about the system in the beginning: - Find a doctor, dentist, hospital and emergency clinic that takes the foster care insurance BEFORE they move in. The first ear infection on a Saturday night we drove to 5 different places before finding one that took his insurance. The kids insurance is great but you will wait months to see a specialist and have troubles finding people that take it, understand this and learn to work with it. (I live in Houston so I did not think it would be a problem) - The original write up cant be right all the time. Most of the time it is written by a caseworker that has seen the child a hand full of time. In my case the child moved 3 homes in 7 months so no one has spent enough time with the child to get the full picture. I am so thankful we said yes, we almost did not. - DonҒt be afraid to change therapist. The first therapist was a great play mateӔ for my child but they never got to the meat of thing, the therapist was still a great resource for us the parents and we took too long to realize this. Once I changed and found a therapist that was good for the child and us parents it has been night and day. I have a great one to recommend if anyone needs one, her office is off of hwy6 and west little York area (NW side of town) - Always be on the lookout for triggers, there is a reason why the child is upset or happy learn what they are and share the knowledge. - Keeping up with the mileage reimbursement for doctors trips has really helped. I let the amount build up and it has come in handy around birthdays and Christmas - People will ask you inappropriate questions about the child and their history. Figure out what you plan to share or not share ahead of time helps. In the end, I would go through this process to help other children. It is an emotional rollercoaster, things change, things move slow and then overnight something can happen. Anyone else have any lessons learned they want to share?

This is the first I've heard that we are reimbursed for mileage. Where is the mileage report sent to and is it for all appts? Do visits with the parents count in the mileage? Can you point me to a website that explains it?

I am trying to remember if I called the number on the back of the kids insurance card or called MTM directly to set it up. To get setup you have to send in a copy of your drivers license and insurance card for all the drivers (for me my husband or myself takes him to appointments so we both had to send in our information) MTM is the company that manages this service in Texas, here is their website: [url=http://www.mtm-inc.net/texas/]Texas Non-Emergency Medical Transportation[/url] - The part that Foster Parents can use is the Ride Reimbursement portion. I do not use their service to transport my child. When you call let them know you want to be set up for "Ride Reimbursement". It can be used for all medical, dentist, specialist (examples: ENT, Allergy doc), and therapyҒs. There is no current reimbursement program for taking children to their visits. I set it up for one time trips and reoccurring trips. It is another thing to have to set up and keep up with, but I find it worth it. and payment is super easy, we opted for the Visa card that they just reload 2x a month and I get a text letting me know when the balance changes. Let me know if you have any more questions on this service.

Thank you so much for the information! I will look into it immediately

We are FINALLY getting close to adoption. Someone was thoughtful and had our redacted files court ordered so by the time we got an adoption caseworker assigned they had our files in hand. Negotiating subsidy was an interesting event, he outright qualifies but they put us through the ringer. With us getting close to adoption I looked to the local library to see what books we can use to help our little guy understand what is going to be happening. These are my favorites: My new family : a first look at adoption / Pat Thomas ; illustrated by Lesley Harker. We belong together : a book about adoption and families / Todd Parr. This has been a long journey and we have learned so much about this process. Looking forward to taking a break from all the paperwork and classes.

Hi Jam! I'm so glad to hear you are finally getting close! It's about time! I haven't been on here in a while. The "process" had me so stressed that I needed not to think about it for a while. We closed our home not long after our adoption. I love helping kids but I hate the system. Our family is doing great. Everyone is more adjusted. Amazing how things change over time. Life finally feels normal again. Can't wait to hear you are finalized!