Starting foster to adopt classes!!! Any advice?

Hello all Mama's and future Mama's! :-) We have made the first step in becoming foster-to-adopt parents! Yay! Our classes start next month and last the whole month. Then after hours are completed we will have our HomeStudies. This is all new to us so any information about classes, home visits, etc, would be great! I have read some pretty scary and negative things about fostering but my DH and I are committed to staying positive and sooo excited to help children in need and one day hopefully having a little girl to call our own! ;-) We have 5 boys and a huge family with so much love to give. I swear if I could save all children I would! Currently we are fostering 5 baby kitties that my sons rescued. Haha. It's a good start. ;-)

That is AWESOME!!! I have many many friends who have done foster/adopt and ALL of them have evenutally adopted! Some on the "first" try some it took a few kids to find the "keeper".

We are currently "foster/adopting" a beautiful 6 yr old little girl. She was only supposed to stay a few weeks but her biomom has already lost her weekly supervised visitation and the aunt who wanted to adopt her last year knows us (mutual friends) and has said that Bella is much better in our home than hers. We are a bit shocked (to say the least) and are really not sure we want to adopt her, as she does have family (the aunt) but we will see what happens down the road.

I am very excited for you, PLEASE keep us updated. Adoption is SOOOOO awesome. I can't seem to stop. :O

PS- my best advice is take it one step at a time and be prepared for it to take longer than you think. It might not, but expect the worst, that way you won't be dissapointed. :)

I have a private blog, if you want to read about our journey then PM me and I will let you in!

congrats. please keep me informed. i have 5 daughters about the age as your sons and people have been giving me negative comments as well when i mention adopting a boy. someone told me i wouldn't be allowed to adopt because i had too many children already. glad to see that isn't true. good luck on finding a little girl to call your own

Eightin08- Thank you so much! We truly are thrilled where the Lord is guiding us. We have so many questions that I'm sure will get answered during all of our classes. We are keeping an open mind and totally trusting in what God has planned. So we have decided to accept all races, 4 and under, and possibly a sibling group. I am nervous about the home studies as every lady has mentioned here. We have a beautiful home on 2 acres but I'm afraid we might not have enough bedrooms? We have 3 bedrooms upstairs and 1 bedroom in our finished basement but my boys won't go down there! Haha. Do you know how many bedrooms you have to have per children? Since we have ALL BOYS and hoping to get a little girl, she probably would need her own room??? What do you think? Thanks for your support! If you don't mind, I would like to stay in contact with you thru our journey! :-)

Newbaby2011- I will keep you updated on our Journey. My DH and I have talked for years about foster to adopt. We feel now is the time! As far as to many kids, I don't think that is true? The foster lady asked how many children and birthdates of our boys and said nothing but positive things. I would never just take someone's word for it. You can always call your local county and ask? Good luck on whatever path you decide to take, remember everything happens for a reason. I know my DH and I are being lead in this direction, but I understand it's not for everyone! Talk to you soon!

our5sons:

Do you know how many bedrooms you have to have per children? Since we have ALL BOYS and hoping to get a little girl, she probably would need her own room??? What do you think? Thanks for your support! If you don't mind, I would like to stay in contact with you thru our journey! :-)

 

You have to see what your state guidelines say. Some states they stop at 5 and some stop at 6.  (Our state is 6, yours sounds  like it is too). You can get a waiver depending upon bedrooms and space, like we did (we have over 4000 sq feet, 7 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms plus 2 offices.)

If you have 3 bedrooms upstairs and no kids downstairs (they will not let a foster kid sleep on a different floor) then all 3 boys will have to bunk in one room so she can have her own room. If that is what they say then tell them she will stay in your room. She is allowed till the age of 5.

Hope that is clear. PM me and I will send you my EM addy :)

Hi there! We started the licensing process about a year ago and then went half a year of being licensed with no placements. We had possibilities we accepted, but those never ended up coming into foster care for various reasons. Almost a month ago, we finally got a placement that happened. A three day old baby girl right from the hospital. We still don't know exactly what will happen with her, but things don't look good for reunification, but we don't know about the dad, relatives or exactly where her half siblings are so we will see what happens. As for bedrooms, when we were first licensed, we only had the three bedrooms up with two boys per room. We also have a main floor office that is technically a bedroom. Since then, we've finished a basement bedroom and moved our older two there completely freeing up a bedroom on the second floor since my younger two boys still share. However, she basically sleeps in our room and they were fine with that for a baby under 1 initially too. We will take 0-2, up to two kids. I didn't want to take any child younger than my youngest who is now about 3. Oh and here they don't really have "foster-to-adopt". They refer to it as "concurrent planning" and they consider most young child placements as that so it's really hard to know. Basically you support reunification and then relative placements, but if those fall through, you are willing to adopt to avoid yet another move for the child. I've heard here about 20% of child protection cases end up adoptable to the foster parents. Good luck! My boys are loving it. They like babies in general but they really love having her here and are so helpful!

Aww, Congratulations on your first placement! How exciting, I bet your boys are thrilled to have a little baby girl at your house. I know my boys are excited at the thought of fostering to adopt and possibly get a little girl. :-) thank you for sharing your story. Sounds like we should expect it to take a year before placement? When you went through your classes did you have your homestudies done 1st? I'm wondering if we possibly went through these classes and then after all that they tell us we can't adopt for some reason??? I just don't know anything about how this process works. Lol.

Eightin08- thanks for all the help. I tried to pm you but it wouldn't let me?? I would love to read your journey. It's awesome you have so much space in your home. Our house is 4,000 sq ft but only 3 bedrooms upstairs. I can for sure put my 4 older boys together in a room cause it's a large room. But, my 2 oldest want to move downstairs anyways to have their "own" space. :-) I can free up a bedroom upstairs so I don't think we should have a problem with adding more children. Did you take your classes before or after your homestudies?

our5sons:

Eightin08- thanks for all the help. I tried to pm you but it wouldn't let me?? I would love to read your journey. It's awesome you have so much space in your home. Our house is 4,000 sq ft but only 3 bedrooms upstairs. I can for sure put my 4 older boys together in a room cause it's a large room. But, my 2 oldest want to move downstairs anyways to have their "own" space. :-) I can free up a bedroom upstairs so I don't think we should have a problem with adding more children. Did you take your classes before or after your homestudies?

 

It didn't let you PM me? Thats odd...EM me SA 3 at aol.com (no spaces, obviously).

Sounds like space is not an issue, put the boys where you need to and she can have her own room.

Yes, we did classes first, almost everyone does. Do not worried about not passing the HS. It is VERY rare that you don't pass, and mostly it is because you have things in your past that you are not upfront about. Just have a safe home and you will be fine!!!

Eightin08- ok I just e-mailed you, let me know if it goes through? ;-)

For us, classes take place over 6 months and they want you attending them while you're in the process of being licensed. We still are missing like 2 of the 12. They like you to get at least half of them done before a placement. As for how long, it really varies as to your county and what their needs are. We were surprised to wait as long as we did because they seemed to really need baby/toddler homes during the process, but it really slowed up over the spring/summer.

our5sons:

Eightin08- ok I just e-mailed you, let me know if it goes through? ;-)

 

I dont see it, I also looked in my spam folder. Send it again with an obviously title, maybe I deleted it by accident?

I'm soooo sad and mad girls! The foster to adopt lady just called to say that we do not qualify to foster cause we already have 5 children. I guess 5 children are the max. Do you guys know if it varies county by county??? I have been doing research and I found some counties that 6 or even 10 was a cut-off. I'm really confused now. So sad that they would turn us away even though we can provide a safe stable home. I feel like they are against "BIG" families. It should be based on families individual qualifications!!!! UGH. I sure hope someone can give me better news.