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My husband and I have decided that we are going to start the process to be approved as foster parents in hopes of adopting a child. We currently reside in Tennessee about 45min from Knoxville. We have had issues finding somewhere to take the PATH courses. The classes offered through June are over an hour away so we have had to do some schedule changes with my work to make it. There are two classes one is through the state and the other is with Youth Villages. We are were really excited until we had our meeting with Youth Villages who said most of there kids are 7 and older. Because we do want to adopt, we would love a child birth-5 and would consider a group of 2 depending on age.
Has anyone worked with Youth Villages? Do you suggest working directly with the state? If we get certified through youth villages can we also get approved through the state without having to take the courses again?
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When we took our classes we had to drive an hour away and actually had to do the same for visits 3x a week. Its not that bad of a drive for a good county or agency. If the agency is telling you you probably wont get a kiddo under 7 then you dont want to go with them even if they are closer. Oh and we adopted our first kiddo. She was 6 weeks old when placed with us and absolutely perfect! Good luck!
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SamanthaAlvin1
My husband and I have decided that we are going to start the process to be approved as foster parents in hopes of adopting a child. We currently reside in Tennessee about 45min from Knoxville. We have had issues finding somewhere to take the PATH courses. The classes offered through June are over an hour away so we have had to do some schedule changes with my work to make it. There are two classes one is through the state and the other is with Youth Villages. We are were really excited until we had our meeting with Youth Villages who said most of there kids are 7 and older. Because we do want to adopt, we would love a child birth-5 and would consider a group of 2 depending on age.
Has anyone worked with Youth Villages? Do you suggest working directly with the state? If we get certified through youth villages can we also get approved through the state without having to take the courses again?
I can't speak for your state and county- I know in my area, we wanted the same. I tried to go through an FFA that my dad works with and they were very honest with me and said most younger kids are placed through the county, in concurrent homes. So if we wanted to adopt an infant or toddler or younger child, we needed to go with the state/county. That seems to be the case a LOT of places if you read the boards
I think, what happens in my area anyway- the only kids who are legally free or nearly legally free, are over 10 years old and/or have extreme special needs or are teenagers or have a lot of mental health issues. The exception would be larger sib groups.
The infants/toddlers/young kids that come into care here are on a foster/RU track first, but they will place them in concurrent homes if they feel they may not RU. That is how we got our hopefully STBAD. She came as a concurrent placement after a failed RU- she was 13 months old. She had been in foster care from birth to about 6 months- went home for about 6 months with services in place, then re-entered care at 13 months.
Even in her case, the CW wanted her in a concurrent (licensed for both foster and adoption) home but the goal was RU until this passed December. Now bio-dad relinquished and TPR is set for bio-mom next month. We are hoping to adopt her this year!
Some states/counties do low/high legal risk placements, or fast-tracked cases. I would do some research and see how foster care adoption is handled in your area for littles.
Good luck! It is a crazy journey but totally worth it!
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Thanks so much for your input. We have decided to work with the state instead of the agency.
We will start our 6 weeks of classes the first week of June. What type of things should we get to start setting up our room? Not knowing exactly what age makes it harder. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
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SamanthaAlvin1
Thanks so much for your input. We have decided to work with the state instead of the agency.
We will start our 6 weeks of classes the first week of June. What type of things should we get to start setting up our room? Not knowing exactly what age makes it harder. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
I'd hold off on getting too many things right now, but you could start looking at cribs (we got the kind that converts to a toddler bed so we were set for a range of ages). I also picked up small pack of diapers in each size, a bath seat, and child proofing items like outlet covers and cabinet latches. The child proofing and bed are what mattered most to or home development licensing person. For clothes, all our kiddos came with a bunch of stuff that the cw purchased for them so I think you don't really need to worry about clothes so much (even though I did stock up on a few items in each size when I saw a good deal). Congratulations and welcome to fostering...its awesome! :)
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SamanthaAlvin1
Thanks so much for your input. We have decided to work with the state instead of the agency.
We will start our 6 weeks of classes the first week of June. What type of things should we get to start setting up our room? Not knowing exactly what age makes it harder. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
Forgot to mention, you could also start picking up dreft, diaper rash cream, baby nose bulb sucker thing,lotion, baby shampoo (I love the Johnsons lavender kind over regular baby shampoo), first aid kit, thermometer, baby nail clippers, diaper genie if you will use disposable...
Also, you may want to join baby websites. I joined baby central and they sent me free safety latches. I'm also a member of huggies.com and they send me coupons
These are all nice things to have on hand and you will use them no matter what age or gender you get. In my state, foster kids get wic so that should cover all the formula...at least mine does. I have yet to find a resource that give diaper samples, but that would be cool if they did. Similac and enfamil both went me really nice starter packs of formula.
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If you have a wide age range it will be harder to be 100% prepared so just get basics. Im ages 0-18 months so a bit easier for me. One thing id suggest is to get one can of formula because wic usually take a week or two to set up and if your kid isnt coming straight from the hospital you wont be getting free samples the day of and youd have to run to the store. As long as the can isnt open it has a long expiration date. You may have time between the call and when the kiddos comes or it may be sudden so have basics on hand when you become certified...but before certification its basically just safety things. Outlet plugs, lock medicines up, cabinet locks, baby gate above and below stairs, lock up weapons/ chemicals, look outside for danger spots, fire extinguisher, fire drill plan with layout and exits of your house, family rules posted etc. Also if you havent already your agency will want your last year tax sheet, 2 paystubs, car insurance and registration, marriage cerificate, house insurance, copy of drivers licenses... and start asking people to be your reference. We had to have 3 reference each here.
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