Help Me!!

Hello- and welcome. I can't speak for Washington...but I know that in large metro areas a lot of infants do come into care usually do to drugs. I know that in my state they would put them as "concurrent planning" cases- so the goal may start as RU but if they feel that there is a chance it could go to TPR then they would place with a concurrent home that would be the adoptive resource if RU wasn't an option -or if family didn't step in. I would say in most areas bio family gets the first "right of refusal" so to speak and can step in...even pretty late in the game- and have the baby moved to them either while RU is pursued or to adopt or get guardianship.Of course the longer you have the baby with you the better chance you have of "trumping" bio family if it goes to adoption- because of bonding. But you will read some heartbreaking cases on here where the babies were with a foster family for a year or more and still moved to bio family. In my area it DOES happen that foster parents get to adopt- but even if you have a newborn placed with you it might be 2 years or more before you legally adopt. You have to be willing to foster first- and from personal experience- it is devastating to bring a new baby home from the hospital and love them even for a few months only to have to say goodbye. I hope someone from your area can chime in- because it is so different everywhere. It sounds like you could get around the living situation if you kept the baby in your room for the first several months- maybe long enough to get a bigger place if you need to.It sounds similar to mine based on what the worker said though. I would say if you are willing to risk losing a placement (or many) before adopting and you are also aware that most infants who come into care are not healthy- could be drug exposed or other issues- foster care adoption would be something to consider. If you don't want to deal with that then I would go into private. As for us- we are on our second placement after hoping to adopt via concurrent planning and it will be very hard if we lose this placement after our first experience- we've decided we would switch to private after this ...at least until we adopt. Then we would consider fostering-to-adopt again.Good luck!

I am a single mom with a 2-year-old son who I adopted privately. I am in the process of becoming a foster parent and hoping to adopt; I have been very clear with the licensing worker that I am in this to adopt. I know others who have done the same thing, and have requested to only be placed with children who are most likely going to become free for adoption. That doesn't mean that a child would not be RU'd, but at least where I am the workers are pretty good about being honest about the chances. But yes, the worker was being honest that if you are looking for straight adoption, it is unlikely you would be able to adopt an infant through foster care.What really surprises me in your situation is that kids can't share rooms age 6 or over. Here they can if they are the same gender, although I think there is a rule about how big the age gap can be.

Welcome! It is possible to adopt an infant through foster care, but you do have to take the chance that they will leave. I was placed with my Soon To Be Adopted Daughter (STBAD) when she was just 3 days old - yes she was drug exposed, very tiny, had a few minor medical issues - but now at 10 months is doing great. Adoption should be final by the end of summer. Because foster parents do have first choice, when there are no appropriate family members, it is less likely that one will get a legally free infant placed, as an adoption placement. But it does happen, there are foster only families, who do not want to adopt. Here an infant can be in the parent(s) room until they are two. Two children of the same sex can share a room, not sure it there is an age gap limit, no one has mentioned it and my age range is 0-10, so would have thought they would have. Children of opposite sexes can share only until 5 or 6 - not sure if it is different if they are natural siblings or not. If children can't share a room after they are 6 years old, that means that each child 6 and over needs their own room - that is crazy, this would greatly limit those who could take sibling groups. I wonder if she meant to say that there can't be more than a six year gap between children sharing a room? That would make more sense.

Thanks for Answering my question. Everyone post have been very helpful. I will look into the 6 years information. I will change my application from adoption to foster to get a better chance in adopting an infant. If I get approved for the process I will let my future LW know Im only interested in kids who will possible go into adoption. Thanks for the tip