Foster Care

There are two facets to receiving children into your home that are in state care. The first is foster care, and the second is adoption. There are substantial differences between the two.

Foster Care

In foster care, you receive a child into your home that has been removed from their primary caregivers for abuse or neglect. This is intended to be a temporary placement with the primary goal being reunification with their caregivers. Often these caregivers will have to go through drug rehabilitation, parenting classes, etc. before they can regain custody of their child. Your job as a foster parent is to provide love, stability and security to the child while assisting with the reunification process. If there is absolutely no possibility of reunification with his or her biological family, you may be able to adopt a foster child in your care. This is known as foster-adoption. However, your number one goal in caring for a foster child CANNOT be to adopt this child permanently. Yes, about 50% of children who enter care do end up being adopted and most are adopted by their foster parents, but you will experience great heartache if permanency is your objective when entering foster care.

Foster Care Adoption

Adopting a child from the foster care system is a permanent arrangement. A child who is available for adoption is said to be “legally free for adoption.” This means that the courts have permanently terminated the biological parents’ rights, all possible relative (kinship) placements have been evaluated and rejected, and the foster family has declined to permanently adopt the child. When the state selects you to adopt one of these children, you are committing to be this child’s family forever. These children are at least toddlers and are typically school age, not newborns.

The eligibility and requirements to work with a child in state care varies from state to state. However, you do not have to own a home, be rich or be healthy to be approved. You do need to be mature, responsible and stable. We will help you ascertain the exact requirements in your state.

Adoption from foster care can range from free of charge to a few thousand dollars. There are state and federal programs available that will reimburse you for up to approximately $15,000 in expenses.

Foster care and adoption from foster care is a challenging practice that takes a great deal of patience. It is possible though. We help you identify children available for adoption, gain details on their health and social history, and ascertain the requirements to be approved to adopt from that particular state. At Creating Christian Families we are leveraging our reputation and relationships with various state agencies to network for your family, so that you can be the one “chosen” to adopt a particular child.