How to adopt a child who got rescued from the polygamist sect?

Question

Hi all,

I and my wife are planning to adopt a little child from those kids who recently were rescued from the polygamist sect in texas. I heard that nearly 160 of those children are in orphanages now..

How should we proceed in this matter?

Whom should we contact?

What are the issues/ problems involved in this?

Answer 1

Hi Google Reddy,

That was certainly a tragic situation going on there in Texas, wasn't it?  As a previous poster mentioned, USA does not have orphanages.  What happens when protective services steps in, is they move the children to other families who have already been pre-certified by the state to provide temporary foster care.

The objective of foster care is supposed to be to reunite natural families after the parents have been given the time & resources to correct whatever problems led to where the children were endangered in the first place.  What we have with the Texas example is unique in that it is not the mothers abusing their children.  The mothers are equally the victims here and have also been rescued from the polygamist sect.

What I predict is that they will make efforts to keep the mothers with their children and help them all until they are capable of taking care of themselves independently of both the sect and the state.  I'm sure those families love each other.  They have been through some traumatic events lately and it would only compound it to permanently separate them from their families on top of everything else.  They are going to be experiencing a mini-culture shock of just being in the outside world for the first time.  They will have additional needs that will be need to be addressed.

To answer your question, I really do not believe those particular children will ever be available for adoption.  However, there are still about 140,000 other children currently in the U.S waiting for adoptive families.  If you would like to become an adoptive or foster family, contact your state dept of children & family services for details.  If you are in Texas, here is the link to get started:

http://www.dfps.state.tx.us/Adoption_and...

If that is not your state, there is a dept of children & family services for every state.  Hope this helps.  Thanks for caring & good luck,

julie j

reunited adoptee

Answer 2

Who said those children were up for adoption?

From the media scrums they've been having, the women and children are being housed together at this point.

They're in protective custody while this is investigated.

Answer 3

I don't think your information is correct.  All of those children were taken away along with their mothers.  Over 400 of them are all living together in protective custody right now.   All of those children still have their mothers taking care of them.

Answer 4

In addition to what My3Boys has already said, I'd like to add that there are no orphanages in the USA anymore.  We have foster homes now.

Answer 5

Don't be so hard on this guy. He's only trying to do something good. Maybe he doesn't have all the facts and doesn't know how to proceed but that's why he came here.

Let's try not to jump on every person that comes here seeking information on the adoption process. you can usually tell the ones that have ill intentions (trolling) from the ones who are honestly just seeking information.

Adoption is a hard hard thing but it's not always the wrong thing. If there were suddenly a mass of children placed in an 'orphanage' or foster home wouldn't YOU want to help however you could? He just didn't have all the information he needed and thought this is what had truly happened.

If you and your wife would like to adopt I would suggest doing a LOT of research and preparing yourself. Please feel free to come back and ask any question you need help answering. Don't let this experience disuade you. We are usually a very understanding group, just caught us all on a bad day I guess :)

Good Luck with your search :) and feel free to contact me directly if there is anything else you need help with.

Answer 6

they still have orphanages they are called group homes in the USA.  the children are not up for people to adopt them.  Not to say that they would me.  I was in a group home at one time not that long ago  

to adopt any of them if ever up for adoption  you will have to become a foster parent and go through the testing that they give you   contact hss and they will tell you what to do but don't do that until you know that they are going up for adoption.  The issues and problems involved is a long one some of them children are going to never want to change the way of live that they live.  Some are going to hate everyone in the world and if you don't have patients then don't even think of it because you have to have patients for children like them because of all the emotional things they are going to go through.  If your family live at home isn't strong then don't even think about bring a child into the pitcher until things are really good at home with your family first

Answer 7

Excuse me, but those children are not available for adoption!  The parents are under investigation, that's all.  Even if any abuse allegations are found, then the state will go through Family Reunification services to attempt to reunify the families, by having them sign contracts for counseling, testing, supervised visitation, etc.  This may continue up to a year or two.  If the state requires certain alleged perpetrators to be removed from the children, then that must be done as well.  All attempts will be made to put these families back together.  That is the way Child Protective Services works.  So, even under verified abusive situations, the state works at keeping biological families together.  And, in this case, the mothers are with the children.  They are not in orphanages, as the U. S. doesn't have any orphanages anymore.  They are being housed in an old military barracks, away from the compound with the men.  Lots of investigations, lots of interviews will happen now.  There was a 24 hour emergency hearing to justify keeping the children in custody, and then in two weeks, there will be a Show Cause hearing, where the state has to proove that the children need to remain in custody.  Then everyone will be required towork toward the first of often many final hearings, to try to decide the final outcome, which can take 1-2 years in many cases.  In this situation, I suspect the judge may rule much sooner.  

So -- the good news is, there are many, many children in foster care right now, whose parents rights have already been terminated.  These children do need a loving and patient family, who can help them adjust and work through the pain and abuse they have known.  Maybe they need you?  

Good luck to you!

Answer 8

Sorry to tell you, but the children aren't up for adoption. And even if they were, it's a long process to make these kids adoptable. Like a couple of years. Firstly, the judges for the cases would have to consider the mothers and fathers unfit to raise the children. Just because they are in a sect doesn't mean they were bad parents (interestingly enough). Second, the parents would most likely fight you to the ground for their kids because they love them and want them. Unlike what people generally believe, it's not a quick thing to adopt or make a child a legal orphan. It would be much easier to foster/adopt a child already in the system. Then, IF any of the children do go up for adoption, maybe you can adopt them as well?

I hope this helps,

Skatergurljubulee

Answer 9

I missed the part where these children were available for adoption.  

Adoption in any manner (domestic, international or foster care) should be done only with careful thought, planning and research and through the legal process.  

It really isn't something you do as a cause du jour.  

If you're thinking about adoption, please do research on your options.

Answer 10

Those kids are in child protective service -- not orphanages.  They were just put there over the weekend, so they are far from being available for adoption.  Plus, their mom and dads want them -- even if they are part of a werid religious sect.

Answer 11

From what I heard on the news, those children are in the protective custody of Child Services in Texas.  Not in orphanages.  All of them have their mother's with them until the investigation is complete.  Many, if not all will probably go back to the sect compound.  If they are removed from the parents, it will be years before the investigation is complete and parental rights are severed.

Answer 12

I would like to do that as well,  I guess you would start with the state of texas and find out from there.

Answer 13

they are in foster homes with cps in different towns around texas...i know they are in houston and areas around.my husband and i are foster -adopt parents with cps.for the time being they children are not up for adoption.children that come in to care have to be in care for a least 6-12months and then the court has to end the parents rights.i know this because we have fostered 7 children in just the passed year and we have been fostering for 4 yrs..in jan we got a little one that we are going to adopt.so to let you know there is a lot to do before you can adopt a child.besides this children and they're families are being looked in to by the fbi and state officers and cps and a loads more people.this children could be all returned this is not a closed case yet.but good luck with adoption.you need to get a homestudy and all your pride trainings and other trainings done before pick one a child...this will save you and your husband a lot of heart ache.good luck and god bless