Question for the group. Has anyone here adopted a child before. If so. How was the process, cost, is there any support u get after.
Just curious because i see many liberals attacking adoption and feel its a good time to analyze and fix this process and it starts with being aware of how it currently fuctions.
We adopted a sibling group of four from foster care seven years ago (started fostering them 10 years ago now). Well, we adopted three of them then, actually. To adopt the fourth, we had to wait until he was 18, but that's another story.
We couldn't bear the thought of adopting from other countries when there were so many kids in need of permanency locally. The foster care system is overrun with cases, short on caseworkers, and being a government-run system, is rather inept. Our kids were blessed with a gem of a caseworker, thankfully.
As far as cost, you must pay for a home study, which might amount to $1000 or so, but may not be that much, even. Foster kiddos come with a per diem reimbursement while they are in your home. When you adopt from foster care, you also negotiate an amount from the state and/or fed that you'll receive each month until they're 18. Beyond that, through foster care, attorney's fees for the adoption are covered, though many families incur fees when they have to fight the system itself along the way. That fourth adopted kid of ours was costly (and worth every penny). To sum up, there are some out-of-pocket expenses, but we were surprised about how much assistance was provided.
Of note, some friends were walking through the process recently and stopped in their tracks when they were asked to provide pics of all their weapons. I let them know (and verified) that this is NOT listed in the policies. Our foster care specialist never flinched about us owning weapons; she just wanted to insure they were stored "properly." And certainly we would not have complied with pics.
I'd be happy to answer any questions you have. Fostering/adopting is not for the faint of heart. The system is broken and working with the government is unpleasant. Ultimately, though, the ones who REALLY don't want to be there are the kids whose only way to permanency are loving parents.
Wow first off I just wanna say good on you for doing what u did. U helped change 4 lives and for that I just wanna say thank you and God bless.
So your testimony is slightly different than what others have said. So correct me if I'm wrong, your main struggle was just all the red tape and hoops u had to jump through. Not so much financial trouble. So there are ways to get support?
You say it's broken. So having been through the process as much as u have, what would u change, add or remove to make it a better system
There are two ways I can think of to improve the system vastly. 1) Every Christian who claims they would like to adopt, DOES IT. 2) Flood the system with Christian employees, from caseworkers through supervisory positions.
And you are correct. We didn't find the cost to be prohibitive at all, despite living on one income. Aside from a reimbursement amount per day, foster kids are supposed to have access to a bit of clothing assistance, too. In our area, there's even a clothing bank for foster kids. And kids who are young enough receive WIC, as well. There was a point when three of my four qualified, so I'd be THAT mom in the store check out, wrangling kids and getting her free beans, milk, and juice. When comments were made, I just learned to use that time to educate others on foster care. Most people are simply ignorant of how it works.
One of the most frustrating pieces of it for us is that foster children must be enrolled in a public or private school. As a homeschooling family, that was time poorly spent for our fostered kiddos, plus it was an additional government system for us to navigate. Once they were adopted, homeschooling helped provide some much-needed healing for them.
I love this thought my fren. Yes Christian's need to come together and start taking back some of these corrupt systems. Not because we are perfect ourselves, rather so God is part of the system.
This is interesting. Something I haven't really heard before. Thanks for sharing your testimony and educating me. I did know there are systems of help just wasnt sure how easy or accessible they are. Good on you for not taking in the negative from people, rather u used that time to help educate people. Great work.
I also did not know that about foster care. Of course they want the kids in the school system. Makes sense they would require it. Dont agree with it though. Learned alot about home school the past year and half. Lots of great people here that can speak on the topic. Learned so much I didnt know.
Spelling out the word 'you' is an adult thing to do. It's two extra letters.
You are correct it's only 2 more letters. Dont really feel it's an adult thing but we can move past that. You know if u took a little time and engraged in the post discussion or said something other than a correction, you might get better results. Just a thought. God bless u. I will work on it just for you though 👍✌🙏😁❤