"can't get approved for adoption" ?

queenjane · Jul 12, 2012

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<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by violetbrown <a href="/community/t/1244587/cant-get-approved-for-adoption/40#post_17042948"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a> We told them. We didn't want to keep any secrets that might come back to bite us in the ass later. Apparently honesty was certainly not the best policy.
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Ok....but it still doesnt make sense. I suspect there is more to the story that you arent wanting to divulge here (which is fine)...does your roommate (not clear if its a relative or just a friend living w/ you or what) have a "drinking problem" or do they merely drink occasionally? if its the former....then personally why would you want to bring a child into that situation? i can totally see an agency not wanting to...and i dont know if you are doing a domestic/infant type adoption or foster care adoption but w/ foster care...these kids have seen enough addiction, adoption is supposed to free them from that life. Not put them back in it. And if its the latter (roommate drinks in a non-addicted/normal way)...then why would that be "keeping secrets"? If it was asked "does anyone in the home use drugs or alcohol?" and your answer was "well we dont drink, joe occasionally will have a beer, but thats it!" and they refused to approve you on that alone, i can see how that might be "bullshit" and you would want to look for another agency.
 
Usually....agencies are looking for an overall picture of stability and a functional family. Usually (barring certain legal convictions) there isnt ONE thing that would absolutely cause an agency to say "nope, not approved!" but rather they might tell you what you need to fix/improve on in order for you to gain approval.
 
As far as honesty....its a fine line. Personally, i didnt VOLUNTEER information that might cast me in a bad light or cause them to want or need more clarification but i didnt withhold pertinent info they outright asked either. When talking about, say, mental health i didnt volunteer seeing a therapist when i was fifteen....twenty years later i didnt feel it was relevent. I didnt volunteer my views on cosleeping since my son was older at that point...why rock the boat? We were radical unschoolers but i phrased it in such a way that the social worker could understand ("We homeschool using an interest-driven child led approach that i feel supports my child's developmental and educational needs" or some such thing rather than "we're radical unschoolers, so if my son sleeps til noon and stays up all night playing videogames, its all good!" <img alt="orngtongue.gif" id="user_yui_3_4_1_1_1342135616926_1130" src="http://files.mothering.com/images/smilies/orngtongue.gif"> )

mammal_mama · Jul 13, 2012

As to the OP's question, I wouldn't assume that people are lying if they say they wouldn't be approved for adoption -- or, for that matter, if they say they simply couldn't adopt.
 
In our case, we've never tried but I feel relatively sure that, with a family income of under $20,000, we probably wouldn't be selected by a biological mom who would undoubtledly have more lucrative prospects to choose from when deciding who she wants to parent her unborn child. Even if we could be approved, it would be unfair to our two children for us to go into debt coming up with the adoption fee.
 
I also think it would be highly stressful to us, in our unique combination of circumstances, to attempt becoming foster parents.
 
So I"d say it's not possible fo rus to adopt, even though I honestly haven't really made any effort to do so.
 
Seriously, why do you care whether they literally can't or are just saying that they can't?
 
This seems similar to wondering whether moms who say they couldn't breastfeed or can't afford to be SAHMs really can't -- it's just none of my business. I'll admit that I used to be so nosey as to wonder about such things, but I'm much happier now that I just mind my own business.

GoBecGo · Jul 13, 2012

Surely people say "we wanted to adopt but we couldn't" to adopters in the same way as people say (to me, without being asked because i do. not. care) "i wanted to have a homebirth but i couldn't" (i've only had homebirths)...?
 
I mean on deeper exploration the people who have said this to me couldn't have a homebirth because:
they had an elective csection instead (no idea why)
they had an induction at 38 weeks for convenience reasons (which included dad who was about to go on tour wanting to be at the birth - i'm NOT knocking it as a reason, but you can't do it at home)
they decided to use a hospital which had no homebirth provision and didn't want to switch
they believed the baby was most likely to die if they did (due to misunderstanding the facts, not a medical issue)
they just plain didn't want to!
 
The vast majority of them COULD have had a homebirth if they really wanted to. They didn't really want to. Doing it when you don't really want to is probably one of the stupidest ideas out there! 
 
To me it means "i want to converse with you and am clumsy about finding common ground so here is some i am inventing for the sake of still talking to you in 3 minutes time". I just change the subject to something we might have actual common ground on.

marsupial-mom · Jul 13, 2012

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<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by mammal_mama <a href="/community/t/1244587/cant-get-approved-for-adoption/60#post_17043938"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a>
 
Seriously, why do you care whether they literally can't or are just saying that they can't?
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Because when the issue comes up, they are almost always strangers or mere acquaintances and they want to talk about how they "cant' adopt" - to me and no one else - merely becuase that's the only thing they can think about when thy see my family - adoption, nothing else - it's really annoying. My family is about more than adoption. And I really don't need to hear people spread myths about adoption. My son doesn't need to hear it either.
 
I care an awful lot about kids who need families - foster kids and kids in orphanages.
So when people trot out these wacky myths about adoption and then use those myths to justify inaction and to absolve themselves of society's duty to these children, it really makes my blood boil.

mammal_mama · Jul 13, 2012

(Posted before I read the above post.)
 
LOL, I've just realized that if someone wanted to assume the worst about me, they could probably accuse me of lying in my previous post about minding my own business.
 
Technically, if I were always just totally about my own business and no one else's, I'm sure I wouldn't be going around reading random posts that catch my eye on MDC.
 
And I think it's also true that many of us say we can't do something when we literally could but it would really just be very difficult or inconvenient for us, or we just don't want to.
 
Sometimes we may even say we can't do something for someone else because it sounds ever so much politer than saying we don't want to -- as in "I'd really like to help you out but I can't" in place of, "I really just don't want to help you out even though I technically could."

mammal_mama · Jul 13, 2012

<div class="quote-container">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by marsupial-mom <a href="/community/t/1244587/cant-get-approved-for-adoption/60#post_17043986"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a> Because when the issue comes up, they are almost always strangers or mere acquaintances and they want to talk about how they "cant' adopt" - to me and no one else - merely becuase that's the only thing they can think about when thy see my family - adoption, nothing else - it's really annoying. My family is about more than adoption. And I really don't need to hear people spread myths about adoption. My son doesn't need to hear it either.
 
I care an awful lot about kids who need families - foster kids and kids in orphanages.
So when people trot out these wacky myths about adoption and then use those myths to justify inaction and to absolve themselves of society's duty to these children, it really makes my blood boil.
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It looks like we cross-posted. I see your point in the first paragraph. I'm glad that this mostly happens with strangers and not with people who are really important in your life; that sure must be a pain in the neck to deal with! Maybe others in a similar situation will have tips for dealing with folks like that.
 
As to the second paragraph, I have a hard time with the attitude that "society's duty" means everyone who "technically" would be allowed to adopt, should do so or else they're attempting to "absolve" themselves of responsibility. To me, it seems pretty obvious that I don't automatically become responsible when someone else doesn't want to take responsibility for his or her child. Yes, we as a society need to help everyone who needs help, and it is really awful that there are children growing up outside of a loving family, but the people who say they can't adopt either really can't, or else they don't want to, and I don't think anyone in either of those situations should be adopting.

Linda on the move · Jul 13, 2012

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<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by violetbrown <a href="/community/t/1244587/cant-get-approved-for-adoption/60#post_17043889"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a> Furthermore, if I had a biological child today, I could take that child home from the hospital regardless of who the hell lived in my home no questions asked, and that is exactly what makes it bullshit. 
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the people that is unfair to are the children born to those who are not capable of being good parents, not people turned away from adoption because of choices they make.

lauren · Jul 13, 2012

I would add that children already born to someone using drugs deserve assurances that when they go into foster care and or foster/adopt deserve assurances that their experience won't be repeated. Hence the home study for foster/adoptive parents.

marsupial-mom · Jul 13, 2012

I'm not saying everyone who can adopt should. I'm just saying its really annoying to me when people spread myths about adoption by giving BS reasons for why they "can't." they might not mean anything by it but they are making it harder for kids to find homes by spreading these myths. 
Just like how we know it's usually BS when someone says they "can't" breastfeed, if they go around saying that unchallenged then they're spreading lies about breast feeding that can make it more challenging to encourage others to do it. 
It would just be nice if people were more honest.

mammal_mama · Jul 14, 2012

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<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by marsupial-mom <a href="/community/t/1244587/cant-get-approved-for-adoption/60#post_17044324"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a> 
I'm not saying everyone who can adopt should. I'm just saying its really annoying to me when people spread myths about adoption by giving BS reasons for why they "can't." they might not mean anything by it but they are making it harder for kids to find homes by spreading these myths. 
Just like how we know it's usually BS when someone says they "can't" breastfeed, if they go around saying that unchallenged then they're spreading lies about breast feeding that can make it more challenging to encourage others to do it. 
It would just be nice if people were more honest.</div>
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Agreed.

pumpkingirl71 · Jul 14, 2012

This makes me care for three reasons:
 
I happens all of the time, though less now that my kids are older. And the acquaintance always brings it up, not me.
 
Adoption is emotional for me and it is emotional for my child. It is really just not an appropriate conversation.
 
And most importantly, it is this weird fake jealously that is not grounded in fact. If I have adopted a child with significant emotional and medical issues, I have a lot on my plate. I really should not have to be the one to politely deal with the weird fake jealously of almost strangers. I get it that I do have to deal with it, and I will be polite. But I deserve to be annoyed. I really do <img alt="wink1.gif" id="user_yui_3_4_1_1_1342271975686_837" src="http://files.mothering.com/images/smilies/wink1.gif" style="width:15px;height:15px;"> And of course it is my business if someone is putting me in an awkward situation, especially in front of my child.
 
 
<div class="quote-container">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by mammal_mama <a href="/community/t/1244587/cant-get-approved-for-adoption/60#post_17043938"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a> Seriously, why do you care whether they literally can't or are just saying that they can't?
 
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mammal_mama · Jul 14, 2012

It sounds like this situation doesn't really compare to having biological children and being told by a mere acquantance that I'm so lucky because she really wanted to have children but was never able to become pregnant, or was never able to carry a pregnancy to term.
 
No matter how stressed I am, I feel no annoyance and only sympathy for someone in this situation. Hearing something like this can actually even remind me of how lucky I really am in the midst of the stress. And I don't think this kind of conversation happens nearly as frequently as what you and the other adoptive moms here are describing.
 
Knowing all of this will certainly make me more aware in the future.

christophersmom · Jul 17, 2012

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<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by marsupial-mom <a href="/community/t/1244587/cant-get-approved-for-adoption/20#post_15641047"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a> 
I'm talking about people who say they can't get approved when in fact they're just speculating. By claiming that they can't get approved they're spreading rumors about adoption. And that annoys me.</div>
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You're not the only one bothered by this. I hate people starting a conversation with me about adopting or fostering then saying I can't do that. I don't care, I didn't ask you, too. Stop lying to me and yourself and just don't say anything.

queenjane · Jul 18, 2012

<div class="quote-container">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by christophersmom <a href="/community/t/1244587/cant-get-approved-for-adoption/60#post_17047732"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a> You're not the only one bothered by this. I hate people starting a conversation with me about adopting or fostering then saying I can't do that. I don't care, I didn't ask you, too. Stop lying to me and yourself and just don't say anything.
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It IS really weird. Its not like we're going around saying "you should adopt!" if the subject doesnt even come up. I would assume if someone said "oh we cant adopt" that they wanted to adopt and something prevented them from doing so, and i would feel sorta obligated to ask why and correct any incorrect assumptions they have (for example, some people think you have to be well off, or married, or own a home etc)

queenjane · Jul 18, 2012

<div class="quote-container">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by rubidoux <a href="/community/t/1244587/cant-get-approved-for-adoption/40#post_17041305"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a> When I first opened this thread I felt a little rush of excitement because I thought somehow that there were a lot of people out there who thought they were not eligible to adopt, but they were mostly wrong and it turns out its not so hard after all. I don't know if I've ever told anyone other than close friends and my mother, but I'm pretty sure we'd be ineligible. I'm in default on what is probably now $180 in school loans, I haven't had any income in over ten years, we live in a two bedroom home with our two boys who share a room (well, sleep with us, but that's just another strike against us, right?). I can't see any way that we will be able to have a home with more bedrooms anytime soon as we are totally underwater with our house. Dh and I have both been in therapy and he has been on SSRI's (this I can't believe would disqualify us, but I have read online that it can and does). Our kids are mostly not vaxed and we never do well baby visits. I am sure there are more... but maybe that is just because I perceive us as being kind of a mess and assume that anyone looking in would run screaming. 
 
At any rate, when I think about how I feel about the fact that I believe that we wouldn't be approved, I feel pretty sad and down about it. It's something that I feel sort of helpless and overwhelmed by. I'm 42 years old. I imagine that by the time I'm 50 the economy would be a bit better and we'd be in a better position to get a larger house and by then I sure hope I'd have gotten good with my student loans and even paid them down quite a bit. But then I'll be 50. So is it really true that we are not going to have another child just because I made the stupid decision to go to school when what I wanted most was to be a sahm? Gah! 
 
So, no I have not pursued every possible avenue (or any actually!), but I do believe honestly and wholeheartedly that I would not be approved. I think I will continue to keep it to myself, though, I'm not terribly sure why it would be offensive, even after having read the whole thread. 
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Im not sure anyone replied to this but i wanted to address it.
 
I think the biggest issue in what you wrote as reasons why you're pretty sure you cant adopt would just be the financial stress you may be under. Its not the money so much as an agency might be hesitant to place a child with you if there is stuff going on that is putting pressure on you right now....they wouldnt want to add to the pressure until thats resolved yknow?
 
I dont know much about how hard it is to get approved for private infant/domestic adoption or international but i can speak to my experience in completing three adoptions from foster care.
 
No one probed my finances. There was a worksheet where i needed to list my expenses and my income, i needed to provide proof of income such as a tax return or pay stubs. I needed to list the amt in bank acct on the worksheet but didnt need to provide proof (although my friend says she had to give more extensive info about their financial stuff so who knows.) I dont think there was any place on that form where you would need to disclose being in default on a student loan and they didnt check my credit or anything like that. You not being employed wouldnt be an issue at all if there was another adult in the home bringing in income and basically what most agencies want to see is that you have enough income to cover your bills. Many agencies (at least foster care ones) will accept many forms of "income" (like if a couple is retired and getting a pension, or if you are on social security or something like that)...it really just depends on your situation. They WANT to approve you so if there is any way at all, they will find it (if they are the right agency for you, and if not....move on to another one!)
 
As to bedroom space...it depends on the regulations where you live. Where i live, for a foster care adoption, they go by square ft...there must be 40 sf of bedroom space per person occupying that room. So a room that is 80 sf can be occupied by two people. There are additional regs. like a baby under three can room in with a parent, and children of opposite genders can share a room if they are under five years old, things like that. This varies widely between states. So again, it just depends on your situation. I generally did not bring cosleeping up to my agency (with my first homestudy my son was 9 and though he coslept parttime he had his own room and bed so i did not share that info.) Do your kids have beds in their room? Depending on the agency and how they seem to feel about it, i might not volunteer info about (they mostly want to see that there is a bedroom set up, not where your kids end up at midnight yknow?) You dont want to LIE really but more like not volunteering info they dont ask for. I am not sure how old your kids are, but if you were going to try to, say, foster an infant for possible adoption, that infant might be able to room in with you and the older kids would technically have their own room. I had a portable crib (not pack n play but an actual mini crib) set up in my room that took up very little space. When i was fostering and adopting i had three kids plus me in a two bedroom apartment, it was fine. Once my daughter was going to move in, i had to move to a larger place but only because she was a girl and couldnt share my oldest son's room.
 
About being in therapy....again, what they want to know is if you are in a stable situation. If you are currently in crisis and thats why you are in therapy they will likely ask you to wait before adding another stressor (a new child) to the home. They will ask about mental health on your forms and that will be explored in the homestudy process...my friend's husband had to get a letter from his psychiatrist stating he was stable. Usually its not an issue, again depending on your agency, and again if one agency won't work with you, another usually will. You just need to advocate for yourself and be persistent.
 
Vaxes/well baby visits....might not be an issue depending on where you live/the philosophy of the agency. My kids arent vaxed, its not an issue (but i live in a very liberal state for vax regs)...where i live every family member must have a physical form turned in. I dont have insurance so i usually just go to the urgent care clinic and get a quick physical by some random doctor, and thats always been accepted. I do like to have a relationship with a doctor for my kids, so they go each year to the ped., but are not vaxed (well my kids were when they were foster but not since adoption)...i do not do well baby visits either but do go at least yearly just to maintain a current physical on the kids. Some agencies will be freaked out by nonvaxed kids who dont go to the doctor, others will not. The important thing is that you can explain your reasons without sounding crazy. <img alt="winky.gif" id="user_yui_3_4_1_1_1342626717416_1512" src="http://files.mothering.com/images/smilies/winky.gif">
 
The thing with adopting is....its not like someone is going to come knock on your door and hand you a kid, or the first day you walk into an agency they sign you up and send a baby over. The process is hard. Sometimes its SUPER hard and sometimes its not-so-hard...but its not for the faint of heart. Its usually months of paperwork, intrusive questions, home visits, classes (depending on the type of adoption)...then once you are approved its many more months or years of waiting to be matched. If you decide to do foster care with the hopes of possibly adopting (which sounds like might be a good option in your situation) there will be even more headaches, and heartbreak, and hoops to jump through. You HAVE to be willing to go through all that crap, to advocate for yourself, to fight your way through the system etc etc. You can't be passive. You can't give up at the first obstacle or hurdle.
 
The biggest advice i would give you is, dont wait. (Unless you feel now is truly not the best time to add a child.) At the very least, send for info from some agencies, go to a couple of info meetings or orientations. There is no obligation. At least you will have given it a shot. I put off adopting for years because i thought i wasnt ready, thought my situation wasnt "good enough" and i wasted so much time. My only regret was not doing it earlier.
 
I'm a single mom, nearly 40, with a nontraditional job. When i was first approved i was living in a 2 bedroom apt with my son. I now have four kids (live in a four bedroom house now, yay) and technically my income puts us at "poverty level" but i know i will have no problem getting approved when i'm ready to adopt another child from the state. I have three adopted kids, all placed as foster children (one, post termination with the purpose of adoption by me) one was placed at three weeks old (adopted 11 months old), one placed at 16 months old (finalized at three years old) my daughter placed at 8 yrs old (finalized at nine years old)...my boys are totally healthy normal kids, my daughter has some emotional issues but is otherwise healthy.

rubidoux · Jul 18, 2012

Thanks so much for your reply, Katherine! I had read a bit online about all of those issues, but it's very different to hear someone's opinion about my actual situation. You make me feel much better about the possibilities.
 
Dh and I are undecided about adoption, even if everything was perfect and easy. We both *really* want to, but we have felt pretty spread thin by the two we have. Also, I haven't worked since getting pregnant with my older son, so the idea of adding a job (which really has to happen, though I'd love to stay at home) and a child is overwhelming. I'm in the process of trying to get back to work -- taking the California Bar next week -- but I have no idea how the dust will settle. I'm hoping that by this time next year I will have a job, will have "rehabilitated" my loans, and have a better idea about whether we can afford a bigger house in the foreseeable future. I hope that nailing those things down will make it feel safer to us to have another child. I really hope to have a third child in the next few years, but I don't have the sense that I did after number one that if I didn't have another it would be a personal tragedy for me. 
 
I'm so relieved to hear that nobody did a credit check for you! I thought that was routine. When I first started reading up about adoption five years ago, I became really attached to the idea of adopting from Ghana (combo of personal experience with Ghanaians, what I could find about how the children were taken care of, and more liberal rules than some places). My sense is that finances are more of an issue with international adoption, but obviously I'm not sure about that. 
 
But since then I have come around to feeling more open about possibly fostering to adopt. My only negative feelings about doing that are that I don't know how one handles foster children coming and going when you already have children. I recently had an experience that made me feel both more optimistic about that idea and less. I found a kid (now adult) online that I worked with in a social-worky capacity (though in a lot of ways my job was really to mother him) and was very close to 15 years ago, when he was 8 to 11 years old, and he is doing so, so amazingly well and it just melted me and brought back, in a visceral way, the memories of how easy it was to fall in love with him and his sister. Having found him really highlights to me the issue I was worried about -- I don't have a relationship with him because his mother came around, went from seriously messed up crack addict/prostitute who was not able to take care of her kids at all to a devoted and loving mom in the three years I knew them (another thing that I found when digging around online was that someone is actually doing a documentary which in large part is about her and how that came about, and she's still doing really great and is still clearly very devoted) and it was time for me to step out, my job was done. I moved away from Chicago at that point and never had any contact, which was so, so hard for me, but I am pretty sure the right thing for their family. But part of me really wishes that I did have a relationship with him, that things maybe didn't go so well for her (I would never wish that, except insofar as it fits into a fantasy where those kids end up mine) and one thing led to another and I ended up raising them. It was really painful for me to walk away. So finding him makes me very much aware of the ups and downs in maybe temporary/maybe permanent caregiving. 
 
That is all a story for another day, though... Eventually I'll start a thread. I bring it up here partly because I wanted to share where I'm at with you, Katherine, since you took the time to seriously consider my situation! And also because I wanted to say that I very well could be that person to say to some adoptive mom "I want (or wanted) to adopt, but I'm not eligible." There is some truth to OP's position that I haven't jumped through enough (any?) hoops to have any idea and maybe that is because I'm not serious enough (or sure enough, or to that place yet, maybe) about wanting to adopt. But it is not true that its just a flippant thing I'm throwing out there not having given it any thought so I can look like a bigger person. If I were to say it, it would suck to have it be offensive to the mom I'm talking to. Had I not seen this thread, that would be totally from out of left field to me and I likely would have no idea what I had done wrong.

rs11 · Aug 14, 2012

I think a lot of people really want to adopt but honestly feel that they wouldn't be approved and that is where the miscommunication comes in. It doesn't help that there are so many reasons you can be turned down. I've known or heard about people who've been turned down because: they had too much student loan debt (even though they could pay cash for the adoption), they weren't Christian, they were Christian (different agencies, different rules), and because someone had a serious medical issue (cancer) over 10 years before applying. Not to mention the LGBT issue, which is what we're facing going into the foster care system. We know one lesbian couple who managed to adopt. Their daughter came from China about 14 years ago now after their third time of applying and on the last try one of them moved out during the homestudy. No joke.
 
Then there's the money issue. When I told one of my good friends we were thinking about trying to adopt, she gasped and immediately said "Where are you going to get that kind of money?" It certainly isn't correct, but the popular assumption is that all adoptions cost $40k these days. I believe that leads a lot of people to think they couldn't adopt.
 
Finally, there are the horror stories of nosy social workers who go through people's closets looking for porn or turn a good home down because there's some dirt or worse, the stories of SW's who tell families that not only can they not adopt, but they could have their own kids taken away. An example of a latter case is an Amish or Mennonite family who tried to take in some foster children a few years back and was told that a) they couldn't and b) the state could legally take their own kids because they used an outhouse and didn't have running water in the house. People hear these stories and immediately believe they could never adopt because they wouldn't put up with that or risk that.

mamarhu · Aug 14, 2012

I am one of the people who might say I can't get approved for adoption, to a stranger/acquaintance, meaning I have experience with the system, and wanted to adopt, but it would be far too painful to tell my whole story, take half an hour, and really is none of their business. "I can't adopt" (or more specifically, "I tried, but it didn't work out") is a brief, one-liner cover story that lets me show some understanding about the issues of adoption without dredging up my grief (one year old, and still fresh). This actually comes up pretty frequently in my work as family advocate for families with kids in the mental health system - several of my clients are foster and/or adoptive families. 

For me, fostering was a Plan A choice. I have 3 bios, and waited till they were ready to have high-needs siblings. I spent years setting up all aspects of my life. I rented a house with extra bedrooms. I set up a home business to have income and still the flexibility to meet kids' needs. I researched all the local agency options, and chose the one that seemed to fit. I educated myself about the issues and needs and treatment common to abused and neglected children. I did therapeutic level fostering for 4 years. I was all set to adopt 2-4 siblings (long story), had been to court, done mediation with the birth-mom regarding visitation, the kids were even told this would be their "forever home", when they were removed from my home, under really awful circumstances. I can't tell the story without crying. And this isn't the half of it. I would still love to adopt. But #1- I probably can't get approved, due to false allegations made against me by unscrupulous lawyers (and no more money to pay a lawyer to fight it) , #2- I don't have it in me to set up my life to foster again, and #3 - I can't risk the heartbreak again. For me, "I wish I could adopt" is all I can say in some circumstances. Without knowing my story, I can see how someone might think I just hadn't tried.

marsupial-mom · Aug 14, 2012

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<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by rubidoux <a href="/community/t/1244587/cant-get-approved-for-adoption/60#post_17048830"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a>
 
But since then I have come around to feeling more open about possibly fostering to adopt. My only negative feelings about doing that are that I don't know how one handles foster children coming and going when you already have children. I recently had an experience that made me feel both more optimistic about that idea and less. I found a kid (now adult) online that I worked with in a social-worky capacity (though in a lot of ways my job was really to mother him) and was very close to 15 years ago, when he was 8 to 11 years old, and he is doing so, so amazingly well and it just melted me and brought back, in a visceral way, the memories of how easy it was to fall in love with him and his sister. Having found him really highlights to me the issue I was worried about -- I don't have a relationship with him because his mother came around, went from seriously messed up crack addict/prostitute who was not able to take care of her kids at all to a devoted and loving mom in the three years I knew them (another thing that I found when digging around online was that someone is actually doing a documentary which in large part is about her and how that came about, and she's still doing really great and is still clearly very devoted) and it was time for me to step out, my job was done. I moved away from Chicago at that point and never had any contact, which was so, so hard for me, but I am pretty sure the right thing for their family. But part of me really wishes that I did have a relationship with him, that things maybe didn't go so well for her (I would never wish that, except insofar as it fits into a fantasy where those kids end up mine) and one thing led to another and I ended up raising them. It was really painful for me to walk away. So finding him makes me very much aware of the ups and downs in maybe temporary/maybe permanent caregiving. 
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I just want to say that you can adopt from fostercare without fostering. There are children in the system who are already cleared for adoption and have their parental rights terminated. They are literally just waiting to be adopted.

MountainMamaGC · Aug 15, 2012

<div class="quote-container">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by marsupial-mom <a href="/community/t/1244587/cant-get-approved-for-adoption/60#post_17075946"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a> I just want to say that you can adopt from fostercare without fostering. There are children in the system who are already cleared for adoption and have their parental rights terminated. They are literally just waiting to be adopted.
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We have that here too. The news will do a segment on a child that is ready to be adopted, called Wednesdays Child. The have a biography of all these children including any special needs they have on the governement website.

"can't get approved for adoption" ?

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