Have you ever fostered to adopt?

Question

i just read that if a foster child's parents have no contact with them for a year then they automatically are up for adopting and all you have to pay is the court fees. . is that true becaus ei really want to adopt a baby or younger child and i have wanted this for awhile, me & my husband looked into foster care and if this is true i think its something i want to do, anyon ehad any such experience?

Answer 1

My aunt is going through this right now, hers is a little different tho. The mom of the little boy she is fostering is a drug addict so she has all these classes and rehabs to do to get her kids back. She has one year to get her life together but every month she goes to court to see her progress and most months its nothing or shes back in jail. Its very up and down, but the second the judge takes her parental rights away my aunt can adopt the baby. Which is the most likely the situation. So it is possible, and i have know other people that have adopted their foster children, all though they have always been older.

Good Luck!  

Answer 2

We just completed our adoption through Foster to Adopt.  While all programs have differences in how they operate depending upon the jurisdiction.  I'm in Alberta Canada and the only area that offers a Foster to Adopt program is the Edmonton area.  Other parts of the Province don't have this duel program, they have only a foster program and an adoption program.  

We got a call from the social workers telling us there was a 4 day old at the hospital due for release and she was going into our foster to adopt program.  We picked her up and acted as her foster parents for about the first 4 months till PGO was granted to the department.  During that time she would go for weekly scheduled visits with her birth parents who, on most occasions, would not show up or if they did they would leave early and not take full advantage of the time they had available to visit.  Once the PGO was granted though her file was transfered to the adoption side of the department and the adoption was completed with us as her new adoptive parents.  

It all took place rather quickly for us but that was primarily due to the circumstances and past history of the birth parents.  Normally things would not take place so quickly.  All throughout the process and right through to the completion of the adoption process we paid nothing.  The department took care of all paperwork and costs.

Answer 3

Not true.  

If there is clear abandonment or severe abuse, the courts can terminate parental rights as soon as possible.  

But under MOST cases, there is a miniumum wait time of 15 months (that is the law) before a parent's rights are terminated.  During this time, the bio-parents are supposed to be working their case-plans, which usually includes parenting classes, drug rehab, job training, etc.  If the parents are working their plan, TPR (termination of parental rights) will not happen, because everything is done to reunify the children with the parents.  

Sometimes TPR takes along time.  For example, say bio-parents begin working their case plan, goto rehab for a year and make progresss.  Then they are supposed to goto job training, well they never show up for 2 months.  The court threatens that they need to be in job training.  Well in the process they slip and start doing drugs again.  Now it has been 1.5 years and the kids are still in foster care, but the parents are goofing around.  This can go on for along time.  At some point, the courts get pissed and then order a TPR.

It is not black and white except under cases of severe abuse and abandonment.  And those are the minority of cases.

Answer 4

Every case is different, but what you describe is NOT what happens %99 of the time.  In most cases, the biological family is allowed contact with the child(ren) throughout the process, usually, it is a supervised visit, but totally cutting off contact is rare.  

Also, decision to place the child(ren) for adoption is made by the courts after many hearings, a plan for the biological family to get back custody, support of that plan from CPS and CASA, and searches for other family to take the children (if the biological parents cannot).  Then, if none of that works, and the courts decide the child(ren) are better off not living with their family and no other options are available, the child(ren) is placed for adoption.

Answer 5

It depends on where you live.  The people I know in Alberta who have fostered weren't necessarily doing it to adopt, and most of the children went back to their biological families (in some cases this was probably not a great idea, but sigh, thats how the system works).  When they eventually did adopt it was after years of fostering the children (like four years I think), and the parents weren't allowed to see the kids for awhile because they continued to abuse/neglect them during visits.  After a long while social services decided they wouldn't change so they were put up for adoption.  

Answer 6

Well, it's not that often that a child is left with no parental contact for a whole year while in foster care, unless they are incarcerated.  That would count as abandonment, but I've never seen it happen.  They say that if children are in foster care for over 12 months, there has to be a permancy plan, but that's a rough estimate.  If a parent is working on the plan, they won't likely recommend termination of parental rights.  However, if they aren't working the plan, they can recommend termination with adoption or gaurdianship.  

This is how it goes it Missouri.  And we didn't pay anything for the adoption.

Answer 7

I have done foster to adoption but each state is different when it comes to contact with the birth parents.  I would attempt to receive a safe haven or baby surrender infant.  That way you don't have to have contact with the birth parent.  My experience was great and I recommend you talk to your local department of social services or a private non-profit agency.  I went through Lutheran Family Services and it was flawless.

Good luck to you.