foster adopt

jen4018

Hi,

My husband and I are just starting the process to adopt through foster care.  We live in IL.  I called the number on the DCFS website and gave my information to a women there.  She told me they only adopt out kids who are waiting in IL.  We don't want to be limited to the children in IL.  Can anyone point me in the right direction of who to contact or how to find the right agency?  Thanks for any help! 

aligross

I think more of the national based agencies will help you find waiting children throughout stateside! I don't know how it works for foster adopt if you aren't in that child's state. You'd have to ask an agency social worker about that one! I know that Bethany Christian Services (based in Michigan but has numerous offices throughout the nation) work with placing waiting children! Call around and ask private agencies about their procedures! Good luck! 

JennaNAaron

I think with foster to adopt it is generally just in your own area.  I think in most cases unless it's a relative placement that foster care isn't done in another state.    It sounds like you might be looking more toward just plain adoption.  

lizlemon2

You can adopt through adoptuskids.org from other states. This will typically be older children, Special needs or large sibling groups.

mysticl

I used to be a foster care worker.  Foster kids are placed in foster homes in their own state.  They are usually only moved to other states in special circumstances (such as placement with family) because the process to move them to another state is kinda complicated and can take a long time.  I've seen it take a year to place a child with her own father in another state.  

sisibelle

Hello,

We are currently pursuing adoption through foster care and it is truly a difficult maze to navigate through. DCFS will only be interested in placing children from their state. Call and find out what contracting agencies they work through in regards to adoption and start the process of training and your home study with one of the agencies. Most states work with Bethany Christian Services so that might be a good place to start.  Listings of agencies the state works with are usually ( although sometimes hidden) on their website. 

With a completed home study  you can start looking at Adoptus Kids for multiple photo listings and information. Please know that many children will not make it to this level and are available for adoption but you will not know until you have completed your home study and your agency brings them to your attention. 

Good Luck!

l

ARC 07

Hi! We are adopting through foster care as well. Been on this journey for almost a year now. Once our home study was completed(Early April), we were told we could certainly look at kids from other states(specifically ones on adoptuskids.com) but that trying to adopt from another state would be a much longer, more complicated process, and that most states want to find homes for the kids within their own state. So...it isn't impossible, but there are more hoops to jump through, and more waiting time.  

I would start with looking at a local agency to see what you need to do to be able to adopt(for example our state required us to attend a PS-MAPP course which ran for 10 weeks before we could even get a home study done). Once you have a caseworker assigned to you and a home study completed, they can be the ones to inquire for you about kids you are interested in. 

Good luck!  

A+B2007

I am not sure about adopting from other states, but I know my husband and I also first began our fostering process by looking at children available for adoption.  Many of the children were older and we wanted a child under 2 due to our biological sons age.  Realizing that this wasn't going to happen through straight adoption with the state we became certified as a concurrent planning home.  Which basically means we will begin each placement as foster, but are willing to adopt if the goal is changed and we would like to keep the child.  In this process we were able to state that we would only accept placements that were 2 years old and under.  Within a week of being certified we had a 2 month old baby boy and a month later added a 15 month old baby boy.  They have now been with us for over a year and we are currently working toward adoption.  But know that with this process you also have to be willing to submit to heartbreak should the child be returned to their biological family, as that is the goal at initial placement.  I am not sure the reason you would like to look outside IL but hopefully this will help if it is due to the fact of the age of adoptable children in your state.