New from Sacramento and looking for Guidance

Hello and welcome. I am half an hour south, in Lodi. Are you going with the county or agency? Just remember that the babies and children go to county foster families in Sacramento first and agencies second. Advice: Ask lots and lots of questions. Keep an open mind. Never give up if this is the option for you. Be patient. Follow everything up if you are not 100% sure that it has been completed. Remember that everything will take longer than you thought it would. Expect it to be a wild and crazy ride. Best wishes.

Welcome. I'm from north of Sacramento, have fostered and adopted - almost all my kids have come from Yolo County.

Thank you for your kind words. To be honest no option is closed to us we haven't necessarily ruled out one over the other but we are going to start with County. My husband works in law enforcement and puts children into CPS all the time and that is more where our heart is. But like I said we are not closed to the idea of anything. We want a family and are willing to put in the time and effort to achieve this.

Can I ask how you both started your journey? Who or where do you start with the County?

I am with an FFA but except for a single respite placement all my kids have come through Yolo County (about an hour away from me). One of my close friends (in law enforcement) recommended the FFA to me. Another friend of many years is law enforcement and chose to go with an FFA in Sacramento because he had concerns about accepting placement of kids locally and running into family members. When my kids became legally free I had to get a separate adoption homestudy completed, but now it just gets updated (working on adoptions 4 and 5 at the moment).

I am completely new to all of this so I apologize if any question I ask may seem dumb but what does FFA stand for? That's actually a great help that you mentioned the information about your friend in law enforcement and that is definitely something we didn't consider with running into family members. Thank you for that insight and I imagine that would definitely pose as a challenge. Now if we choose to go through one county specifically do we have to complete everything for another county as well if say we choose to look in multiple counties?

An FFA is a foster family agency, sometimes referred to as a private agency. There are pros and cons to both county and FFA. With county you may get the first phone call, and the kids may be easier in terms of behaviors, but you're also limited (as I understand it) to kids from within your county. With an FFA you can get calls about kids from other counties (as well as your own) but the kids may have some more challenging behaviors (or not). Don't be afraid to do respite care. It gets you on the radar of many different social workers. Once they know you they are more likely (in my experience) to call you for placement. Three of my five kids initially came to me as respite care.