is there a secret to finding adoptable kids

The adoption process is often a very long process, the quick adoptions are few and far between. I would recommend reading through some more of these forums for not only advice about your question but also for support and advice from those who have been through this long process themselves.

It is a very slow process to be sure. When you are looking for an available child to adopt, you are the last resort. It means that everybody in line before you said no and that includes family&kin, foster families and even other adoptive families who have been on the list longer. Generalities here: most of the children on posted sites have moderate to severe issues. So it is extremely unlikely that you will find a child through those methods that fits your criteria. I will add a caution in here that if you find a child without a mental issues(delayed, etc), that appears to be fine and "normal", that child is most likely suffering from some type of attachment issues. There are plenty of people on these forums who post regularly about the situations they face having a child with RAD or similar diagnosis. I'm not saying all kids, but you need to be informed that attachment issues can be severe without you knowing ahead of time. Most of the time in fostering it is luck of the draw as to what child comes into your home. Having a good relationship with the case worker/placement worker at your agency is helpful because when a child comes into to care you will be the family they think of for placement. This is why both of my girls were placed with us. My worker knew us really well and called when each came into care. If you are licensed through an agency rather than the local CPS, it is imperative that you stay connected to your agency and keep the line of communication open with them so when a child comes into care, they will think of you. Central Placing(in Texas) handles the placing of children by sending out a posting each day(sometimes several times a day) with children needing a home. It is up to your worker to see that posting and act on it. The agency that responds first gets the placement if CP agrees with the agency's choice of homes. The region you are in can affect how many calls you get. I live near a major city, but one county over. When we were fostering, we could have kept our house filled all the time because the need for homes was so great and we got calls from counties east of us because there were practically no homes there. Many times we took kids from over an hour away. Statistically, summer is a slow time for intake fo kids because there are fewer people observing the kids day to day. Intake into foster care picks up after school starts because educators are more likely to notice problems and make the call. The only other item that limits placements is if your criteria for a child is too narrow. We started by taking kids under 9, and eventually open up to teens as our daughter aged. We ended up adopting a 2 yr old(now 7) and a 14 yr old(now 17).

Are you with an agency? If you are willing to foster while waiting for the right one(s) to adopt, I would recommend it. An agency will give someone else to advocate for you rather than just contacting Case Worker through websites or waiting for CPS to get to you on some random list. I am told by my agency that summer is slower, and they are expecting things to pick up very soon (I had one placement that just went to family and was called for an infant this morning - but haven't heard back about this one yet, so suspect another family was chosen). It can talk awhile to find the right child(ren) for you, but if you only want a boy between 4-8 that severely narrows that options that are out there. If you are open to either girls or boys or especially siblings, that will really open up your chances of getting calls and placements. But if you know what you want and that is all you really are wiling to take, great, just hang in there, the right one(s) will come along at the right time.

It's been 10 years. We stopped for five and have been up and running again for 4. In those 4 years, we have had 2 placements and 2 respite. Both respite we would've kept, but both went to family. One was even legal risk. That's it! In 4 years. Yes we're open to foster and everything else. We're 20 - 25 min from a major city. Initially we never went more than 10 days w/o a child, but they were always teens, 14, 15 year olds and one 16.... The 14 year olds we had for 3 years. But we were trying to get a sibling for our then 3-5 year old. Now he's 15.... That's why we're looking for 4-8 ish, 9 on the outside. It'll take a year (prob) to get the child here (we're looking outside the state too). We also know that the numbers of the kids avail are larger in this age group, also there are more boys than girls avail. And yes we're good friends with our case worker (s).... They said they're just not getting many referrals for any kids... just teenagers 15 amd 16 year olds primarily. There's been one 8 year old, that for some reason I didn't get the notice in my email for several days.... I have since told them to call me.... I'm just getting frustrated. All I can see is all of us getting older to the point that our age is going to be a deterrent... and we're not going to want to add to our family anymore. I would love to go over sea's, but we can't travel (medical) anymore and the agencies I've talked to said that you HAVE to travel...and we can't. I'm just frustrated and am trying to find out if we're missing anything. Do we have all our bases covered? I can feel in my heart that there's one more child for us, I just can't find him/her.... I guess it sort of feels like I'm failing him/her.... Does that make sense?

There is no magic.. I inquired online for my daughter then got matched. Then year and half later was asked if I wanted two boys ages 11 months and 2 legally free- I couldn't say no. Now same county wants to see if I was a 6 yr old girl.. And my 10 yr old foster son is legally free... Then they want to place sib group of 2 ages 10 and 14 and was just told they can't go home either--ah! Plus I have a 6 yr old foster son awaiting his fate..

It sounds to me like you are licensed with an agency that is not in favor with your county. Is it possible to go directly through your county as a foster/adoptive parent or through another agency that might get more calls? This happened to us when we were first licensed foster parents back in 2006. We went with an agency, wanted to foster 5-12 year olds, and we ended up with a 17 year old. When she moved on, we sat empty for months. They told me they just weren't getting any referrals for kids in our age range. I ended up calling our county directly, and discovered that there actually WAS a huge need for foster parents of school aged kids. We left our agency, got licensed with our county, and haven't been empty since. We finalized our third adoption through them this year. All of our kids came to us as infants.

this may seem like a dumb question, but how do you do that? How do you register with the county. Our county is fairly large.....

Have you tried to Google 'foster care' in your county? My county is the largest in the state and has a website just for foster care. There it tells a prospective foster parent the steps needed, and has dates for orientation sessions, along with phone numbers to call and register.

Yeah, poke around online to see what you can find, and call your county directly if you can't find the DFS/OCY/etc number. We live in a pretty large county, and there is plenty of stuff online if you look. Our foster care dept also has a facebook page that lists upcoming training sessions for brand new foster parents. When my county licensing worker heard what agency I'd been previously licensed with, she rolled her eyes and told me they really try NOT to place with that agency because they are difficult to work with, not on the ball, etc. That pretty much explained everything-- we weren't getting called because our agency wasn't getting called by the county unless no other agency could find a home.

Find your local CPS office and contact them about getting your license moved. Usually you would have to go through their classes, but everything else should already be done because you are already licensed. In some places being licensed through CPS is better for placements. It really does sound like your present agency isn't going after placements, but waiting for CPS to ask them if they have a place open. That's probably why you aren't getting kids. The agency has to be proactive in reading those alerts. On any given day in a major city, there are kids being taken into care and a good agency is constantly looking for kids that will match their families.

Move agencies. My first reaction is they aren't placing you because of something behind the scenes with your family. But when you say you are in good with your worker & they aren't getting referrals....that's a sign it's the agency. This may be your last chance to have a forever child. I would move my license ASAP!

Definitely get a new agency. My agency is really good about checking alerts and calling foster parents promptly. I don't know anyone who has waited any real length of time. A few weeks tops.

My agency SW came by today to finish up the paperwork for Li'l Abner and said that our case was one of three emergency placements the agency did in the past 24 hours;, so it looks like things are picking up, more kids coming into care. Agencies that don't do emergency or legal risk will be slower than those who handle every type of case.

We had one alert for an emergency placement, but for whatever reason, we didn't get it until a day later (email - she calls now). We also had one legal risk, but she went back to her mom after 6 weeks. DRAT. We would've gladly kept her. Very sweet kid. This was her second removal - no one thought she'd go back to her mom.... But the judge decided otherwise. Are placements picking up in region 7? I think that's the region we're in. Not that we want kids to be in these kinds of situations, but.... We're getting a respite tomorrow. The family he's with is having problems with him. Who knows? Maybe.... But I'm not gonna count on it.