Paperwork

If you decide to do foster care you have a lot of paperwork to do. Adoptions from foster care are the same.  International adoptions require a crazy amount of paperwork.  If you continue to foster or adopt the paperwork never ends.  Annually you do SLED checks, fire inspections and such.

About two years ago we decided that we wanted to adopt through the foster systems again.  We wanted to stop fostering and do a straight adoption.  Emma and Michelle were adopted this way.  It may not seem that way since they did not have TPR when they came but they were.  Actually they came from a disrupted adoptive placement.  Anthony, Larissa and Kassi were our foster children and we adopted them after they had TPR's.

We finished our homestudy paperwork and then tried to pull away from foster care.  We had a huge problem with that because they are short of foster homes here and I have a hard time saying no to a placement.

After a very busy year of over 20 placements we told DSS that this last short term placement would be our last.  We really wanted to adopt another sibling group.  The short term placement has turned into a possible adoption placement.  We didn't go out and seek an adoption of a single infant.  Funny how our plans don't always work out the way we plan.

Since it has been almost two years we have to redo all of our paperwork.  This means physicals for everyone, SLED checks, financials, Child Factor Checklist, discipline agreement, emergency planning, application, bioparent contact agreements, pet shot records, and gun records. There might have been more, we just sat and filled out and signed a huge stack of papers.  We are still working on the physicals.  I need to take my mom and two more of the kids.  Adults have to get TB tests but kids don't.

You have to be committed to constantly redoing the paperwork and inspections.  They tell me that often no matches are made in the first two years.  I can't imagine how I would feel if I was redoing my paperwork and hadn't had a match in the first two years.  Would I give up?  I wonder how many people don't renew their homestudy.

This time in our paperwork we were able to put that we were trying to adopt a specific child, our Little Man.  We do have some court dates.  In May they have a pretrial court hearing.  This is where they determine who has to be at the TPR trial, what needs to be done before the trial and it is an opportunity for the biomom to request a lawyer.  If she doesn't show up for this hearing then she will probably not have a lawyer for the TPR trial.  TPR is scheduled a month later in June.

So we will gladly prepare our paperwork.  We are delighted to have some court dates. We finally see some progress.