Has anyone "picked" their older child from foster system?

Bonnie Sue

So, I'm wondering how this works.  I know that I can go on websites like adoptuskids and see older children who have been waiting to be adopted and who's parental rights have already been terminated.  I'm wondering what the system is.  Can you choose a child and tell your social worker that that's who you want? Does going this route shorten the wait time?  I'm very curious. Thanks in advance for the advice.

JerseyGirlAtHeart

Im not sure how it works with the Adoptuskids website, but I know in my state its still a wait. From what was explained to us is that if we "like" a kid on our states website, we tell our worker. Our profile gets submitted to that childs worker and then based off of the profiles the child recieves, they pick who they think is best suited for the child. Once that is done, the prospective parents have meetings with everyone involved (workers, therapists, foster parents, etc) and see if those childs needs (if any) are OK for the family to handle. From there you get visits building up to the actual placement before adoption.

beaureve

I agree with the previous posters. You get to pick who you are interested in being considered for, however, that does not mean their agency thinks you are an appropriate match for them.

znianiswan

From what was explained to us is that if we "like" a kid on our states website, we tell our worker.

 

 

 

mommytoconnor

I can tell you from experience that the AdoptUSKids website is difficult to use if there is a child that you feel would be a good placement. When I was in the process and was waiting, there were several kids that I thought I could give a home to.  You contact their social worker, who then contacts your social worker and they get your homestudy. After weeks and weeks go by you hear that this child is unavailable.  I have spoken to many people and we all have had similar experiences with that site.  I have yet to ehar of anyone who was able to get a child placed with them that was on that site.

beaureve

We located our DS on the AdoptUSKids website. 

Bonnie Sue

Thank you all for responding. I've mainly been looking through a few counties websites around where I live. We are already planning on using a private agency to foster adopt, but I appreciate that advice. I was just curious to how the process works, in case we choose to do that.