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.
My family adopted 3 foster kids. (One was a foster newborn) In our case there was no cost in the actual adoption. They were with us for 3 years before the adoption. As a foster parent we did get paid. If I remember correctly we got 7 dollars a day per kid. .. We were living large. Going out just about every night. Even when we didn't fell like it. It was awesome. ..
Of course we were going out to buy baby food, diapers, runs to the doctors. When we weren't going out we had little kids crying with nightmares.
Of course I am just messing around here. The doctor bills were covered so that was not a concern for us. The 7 dollars a day (I don't really remember that exact number it wasn't the reason we were foster parents).
The money we got was for food, diapers, clothes, things like that. I know the funds did not cover the cost but it was a help.
To be honest with you I think that maybe people should not be given any money to take care of foster kids. Medical care should be covered but everything else should be paid for by the foster parents. Maybe that is an area where churches should step in.
Why am I saying that? Because I have seen what some foster parents were doing. It was not good. What some of these people would do for just a few dollars a day would break your heart.
We only meet the foster care case worker once a year or so. I think we were supposed to meet once a month.
The reality was this. Those case workers were overwhelmed with cases. We were not a problem for them so they only came by when they needed something at the end of each year. The kids would have visits with their parents. Most of the time we drove the kids to the meeting. The foster care system would offer to pick up the kids but some random driver would pick them up. Those kids were already messed up. They did not need more strangers in their lives.
I can tell you this. When you hear about a case worker that is accused of overlooked a problem take a look at their case load.
It is like the system overwhelms people. If they try to do the job right because they care about the kids they can't get it done. If they don't care about the kids they have an easy job.
It's no wonder so many kids get lost in the foster care system.