NEW to forum: hoping to adopt from Foster Care

Kids on the photo listings are usually the ones that are harder to place -- sometimes because of the significant needs they have, sometimes due to age, sometimes because they are a large group. Yes, there are other kids in the system that may be available for adoption, but how each state handles that varies. Some states have foster-to-adopt programs while other states require you to be a foster parent (and you might have the chance to adopt your placement depending on how the case goes, or you might not.) In either case, foster parents have the first option to adopt if family is ruled out. We have foster-to-adopt here, but you pretty much have to be willing to take kids that have "legal risk" if you aren't interested in kids on the photo listings. Legal risk means the case is looking like it's heading to adoption but it might not (other states call this concurrent planning.) Legal risk is really, really hard to deal with but that's the only way you get placed with younger kids here.

ANY kid can potentially be adopted. It just depends on the circumstances. However, it can take a LONG time to adopt from foster care. Even with "legal risk" kids typically they have to be in foster care a certain amount of time and the parent has to be given a service plan (which you, as the foster parent, need to be able to support) in order to try and reunify the biological family. I only know the info for my state (Missouri) - but here the parents have 15 months to work their plan before the TPR (Termination of Parental Rights) process starts. TPR is it's own animal.... that can take several months just for hearings - and that's if there are no appeals. Once TPR is granted it can be another several months for the adoption to be finalized. That means if there are no 'hiccups' - like parents getting it together at the last minute, or bio family coming out of the wood work at the last minute - it would be TWO YEARS before your adoption was final.

In my state there are other children available, and the photo listings are the hard to place kids. Foster parents of kids get to decide if they want to adopt the kids in their home, and if they choose not to, then they are 'broadcast' to all agencies in the county if they are heading to termination or to the whole state if they are already terminated on (prior to termination bios have visits and need the kids close). Home studies are collected, and the child's caseworker picks the best match. This can be a long process, but then again most everything in the foster care world is a long process. OTOH we just adopted a baby we got from the hospital, and he is only 13 months old. :)