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We have had our license and homestudy complete since September 2012. Right away we were on the table for 4 kiddos, but ultimately were never matched. We have had absolutely no activity since Nov 2012. It's discouraging because a few families we know have already been placed.My question is... at one year, we can start talking to other counties, so how exactly does that work? Do we just send our license and homestudy to all surrounding county placement workers? Do we have to redo everything with that county? What about other states? Can we inquire about a child in the adoption photolistings from another state? I'd much rather stick with our county but we just feel so discouraged.
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Are you licensed with the county? I had heard (and I don't remember the source--so it could be wrong or only apply to LA county) that if you are licensed by the county they will only place you within their own county.
Do you ever follow The Heart Galleries or Wednesday's Child type of thing for those counties you are interested in? Maybe if you had a specific child/children you were interested in you could convince your office to send your Homestudy over to the worker assigned to that child. It works the same with AdoptUsKids.com too if you wanted to go out of state.
Can you do anything to raise your profile with your own office? Are there any upcoming "events" you can attend, education classes, volunteer stuff, support groups, etc? Do you still have the contact info of the worker assigned from the sibling set and you can shoot them a quick email and let them know your home is still open?
I'm sure your age range is pretty wide if you were considered for a sibling set of four but is there anything else in your home study or your preferences that could be limiting you somehow? Maybe there is a typo in the computer that makes it look like you aren't available any longer. I'm just throwing out ideas :confused:
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We weren't considered for a sib set of 4. :eek: We were considered for one sib set, and 2 singles. We were told we were "considered" for the matching table twice, but didn't make it for those kids, and ON the matching table for one of the kiddos but he was matched with a different family.
As for what to do to increase our odds.... I'm at a loss. We are drafting an adoption profile to enter the relinquish/safety surrender program, which should increase our odds a bit. It's an overwhelming profile. Aside from that, I just don't know. I'm just starting to look into this.
We are licensed with the county. We were told by both our licensing worker and our homestudy worker, that they must assist with other counties after one year if we decide to adopt outside. I will look at the website you mentioned. I do think it would be easier to submit our homestudy for a child directly, but most kids are not in a public database so I don't know exactly how it works.
Oh, I see. And is your age range pretty young? I noticed it says baby boy in your signature. Those websites and AdoptUsKids are for children that are legally free which is why they can put their faces out there. But they are typically older because they've been in the system longer. But the safe surrender is a good idea. I'm surprised they haven't called you for a baby that has tested positive at the hospital because our agency said they get A LOT of those. But up I heard they come in "waves" so maybe you just need some luck on your side. Fingers crossed for you! I can't imagine waiting since September because we've been waiting six weeks and have had five potential matches that went nowhere and I'm going crazy :arrow:
I feel like the kid on the bench JUST PUT ME IN COACH!!
See, that is why I am so discouraged here. Our workers continue to tell us that we are still in a healthy wait time... but then others we know got calls right away. We know two families that were placed RIGHT after they were licensed and one was an infant.
Our range is 0-12 months with a sibling up to 6 years. We have just discussed (with our worker) increasing the age to 24 months and sib to 7 years. Our homestudy worker told us that aside from us preferring only a boy (older sib-boy or girl), 0-2, that our preferences are wide. There are a few medical things we don't feel comfortable taking on, but I think we are pretty flexible with birth parent background, and the childs mental and medical needs. I know its the age range holding us back.
I am willing to do just about anything right now. Just viewed the heart gallery for our county. I had never seen it before. Will send that worker an email NOW!
Sounds like you are in top of things. Have you seen these ones?
[url=http://www.cakidsconnection.org/]California Kids Connection[/url]
[url=http://www.myfoxla.com/category/237906/wednesdays-child]Wednesday's Child: Children looking for loving families - Los Angeles Local News, Weather, and Traffic[/url]
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It's progress :clap:
We got a computer match of a sibling set of boys lat week and as soon as we said we were interested their worker went on vacation. So we are in a holding pattern for a little longer :hissy:
you'd think I'd learn not to tell anyone about these potential matches but I can't help myself. Now we've got texts, phone calls and emails to return from interested friends and family.
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