Our Foster Child Adoption StoryIf you are thinking of adopting a child, you may want to look into foster child adoption as an option, I did and I couldn't be more grateful. Hi, my name is Connie and I am pictured here with my husband of 21 years. We are happily married and 4 years ago our family went from happy to happily complete! Allow me explain. For many of us, we struggle for years trying to conceive a child only to deal with the heartbreak of infertility or miscarriage. For me, life was like a roller coaster. My emotions were up and down and doing loops. For many years we had tried to conceive, we love kids and wanted our own. We had all the tests, went through invetro several times. I had a miscarriage. 
In the mean time, I began working as an Early Childhood Educator. That at least gave me the opportunity to be with kids all day. I loved playing with them, learning about them and their behaviors. Some of the parents coming into the daycare were bringing in their foster children. They would tell me all about the little ones that would come into care and later if they went up for adoption, the foster parents were usually given first chance to adopt, especially if they had bonded with the child. I thought this sounded quite intriguing, so I looked into it further. There are so many kids who need a good home and who need to feel loved, especially during a time when their family life is in an upheaval of sorts. I knew that my husband and I could offer both and more, it was just a matter of all of the preparation that needed to be done. The Foster Care Process Once my husband and I decided that this is what we wanted to do, I contacted a private foster agency in my town. They sent a social worker to visit our home and speak with us. She ensured that our home met with safety standards and informed us of the additional things we would require once all the other paper work was approved. Things like kid proofing our home, smoke detectors in every room, extra fire extinguishers and carbon monoxide detectors. We were then required to attend a 2-day foster parenting orientation or training session. Some foster agencies such as the Children’s Aide Society now offer these sessions’ 2hrs/week, over a 9-week period. It is called “Pride,” and is now more advanced than before. These sessions are designed to prepare future foster parents for the often-emotional task of caring for children from dysfunctional homes. Once this was completed, we had to go through the home study assessment of my family and myself. The home study consisted of an hour interview asking some personal questions, and it included medical records, police checks and references from both of us. And then of course we would need some toys, single beds and because I wanted a baby, a crib would be necessary. We would have to get car seats, high chair, play pen etc. For the most part we got stuff from friends and family, but since it was used it had to be safety checked. Foster Parents at Last On Feb. 22, 2001 we were officially foster parenting. We received a phone call to take care of two little girls. The oldest was 13 months and East Indian/Caucasian and her younger sister was 8 months and African American/Caucasian. There was always the chance that they would go back home and I knew that was going to be difficult. They were still with us in January 2004 and the on Feb 2004, they became "crown wards" and the children’s worker came to us with a question. Since we had bonded so well with the girls she asked if we would consider adopting them? We really didn’t even have to think about it, our immediate answer was, as you may have guessed, YES!
Now that the Children's Aid Society were their legal guardians and we had been fostering for a private agency, we would be required to go through the adoption process (which is not all that much more different than the process of becoming foster parents) in order to become their adoptive parents. We had to go to adoption classes, training classes, retake the interviews, house inspection, get references again, medical report from our doctors, police checks and so on. We were finally done, now all we had to do was wait for the judges approval and signature on the adoption form. Needless to say, it was Oct. 2004 and I was feeling a little impatient, but the main thing was that the girls were living with us and we were all happy together. On Nov. 1, 2004 it was official. The girls were ours. We kept their first names, let them pick new middle names and gave them our last name. Four Years Later They are now 8 & 9 years old. Even though they are not our biological children, we love them dearly, and they are legally ours. My husband and I are so grateful that we were able to adopt these girls and it is more than just a little rewarding knowing that we have been able to offer them all the love and many of the things that they could ever need. We have located their brother and he has been visiting with his sisters. He is 10 years old and is still in the foster care system. We hope to have him come and live with us some day too. As his records are at a Children's Aid Society in a different county we will likely be required to go through the home study and so on again. This is taking some time, but we are keeping our fingers crossed and saying our prayers. As the saying goes, “All good things come to he who waits".
wedding in October of 2005. How I Named My Site When I began building this site, I had to of course give it a name. I came up with several names and finally narrowed it down to two names. At this point I couldn’t decide between about-child-adoption.com or child-adoption-matters.com So I asked my 9 year old daughter what she thought. She didn’t even think about it, right away she said “child-adoption-matters because it does.” Return from Foster Child Adoption to Home
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