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: : I am a month into the matching phase of foster care adoption through our local DHS. I thought I was told on "average" per year there are something like a few hundred children on the adoption list in our state; however, I now realize they might have meant "currently in the foster system" and not necessarily "legal free to adopt". That being said, it looks like for my approved criteria to adopt, there are only a handful currently available for adoption and half of those are "on hold" status, meaning their case worker is no longer taking home study submissions. Doing the basic math, of the 4 children that I've felt confident submitting my home study on this month ... there are most likely anywhere between 25 -50 or more potential parents expressing interest in the very same child as well, so clearly those odds are certainly not in my favor that I'll be chosen much less considered out of the whole bunch. Should I be concerned that this means I could be in the matching phase for years? Yikes! And does that also mean I have to do all the "advertising" of myself on my agency's site and the other foster adoption marketing platforms just to even get noticed at all by a case worker? I don't want to ask my adoption worker yet because I'm not ready to hear disappointing news. lol. ; ) Just curious what other people's experiences have been. Thanks. : :
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I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it's pretty common for hopeful adoptive parents to wait months or even years to adopt, even through the foster system. I'm not sure about the advertising, I think you'd have to ask our worker on that as there's not a universal rule as far as that's concerned. That being said, don't give up hope! Some people wait years, but some people only wait weeks or months. It's very subjective and there are no hard and fast predictors.
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Have you heard of adoption photolisting?Have you talked to your Case Worker about going outside of the state?Have you asked your Case Worker about the average wait for someone with your same set of criteria for a child(ren)?As Annaleece said, you could wait years -- but you could also wait weeks. A lot will depend on what your criteria is (do you want only an infant?) I don't know what your criteria is for a child -- but if you'd like to post, I can give you a little more info. Someone interested in an infant is going to wait a LOT longer than someone open to a 9 year old boy with a 7 year old sibling, you see?
Last update on November 15, 4:52 am by Sachin Gupta.
: : Annaleece, that makes sense. I kind of figured it was that way (no concrete way of knowing how it will go and not necessarily hard and fast rules to follow to increase odds of being chosen) ... which is really challenging in terms of trying to prepare for this next phase of life and not being able to get into any sort of new routine - not to mention not even knowing when the new routine will happen. And Brandy, to answer your questions I'm approved to adopt one child with mild to moderate special needs between the ages of 4-10. The challenge, I believe, is that I'm adopting as a single parent working (almost) full time and as a first time parent (although I'm an aunt to 7 children and two are adopted, and I have an extensive solid support system of close friends and family that are all parents and some even educators, social workers, and CASA volunteers so that helps for sure) ... but as I mentioned, there are only a few children currently available in my state that meet my approved criteria and I imagine lots of potential parents are also submitting on those kiddos. While I don't have an amazing travel budget to contribute to the adoption ... it might be doable to adopt out of state, but that is a whole other process I'd need to look into with my adoption worker. ( And I would imagine it would be much more complicated than in state). We'll see what the next few months looks like before I move towards that as a possibility though. I'm actually just not looking forward to the "advertising" myself to increase odds process. Ugg. lol. ; ) I just e-mailed my adoption worker about what realistic expectations look like at this point. : :
Last update on October 5, 3:26 pm by Bethany Reed.
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