If you're adopting from foster care, then you've certainly probably heard of the MAPP or Pride classes.

These classes vary from state to state, however, they are an excellent resource to hopeful adoptive parents regarding adoption of their children.

When Tony and I took our PRIDE classes, the first thing we noticed was how many people that were in the classes were Kinship Adoption.

In our class alone, 95% were kinship adoption, 4% were foster care, and 1% were foster to adopt (like us).

In our state, you can take the PRIDE classes for any of the situations... more

This is the third question in my series of the most common questions I see asked from Hopeful Adoptive Parents.

Question: My social worker told me today that I may qualify for WIC or food stamps when I adopt. SHOULD I take advantage of this? I don't feel I really need it, and don't want to take it away from someone who DOES.

Answer: My advice. If you qualify, TAKE it!!!

That way, your cash can go to other, out of pocket things, such as doctor's visits and medicine, savings or college savings, vacation cash, and the like.

Receiving... more

Upon posting about our Adoption Party yesterday, I've come up with some folks making the suggestion that the children we met are possibly affected by attachment disorder.

According to 3rd hand hearing from their SW, the children do not have attachment issues, but it is the "common knowledge" of many adoptive parents that there is at least SOME level of attachment issues with any adoptive child.

Well, I still stand by my opinion that after 3 hours of skating and talking, that I view it normal for a child to express they'd want us to adopt them being we got along SO well.

However, the consensus on that one particular board says "no".

So, I sought out resources... more

Tony and I just got home from our VERY FIRST adoption party.

If you are not adopting through the foster care system, this will more than likely not apply to you, however, it is very interesting to learn about.

The scene: Skating Rink about 100 miles away (for convenience to all families). The time: 11 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. The children: 100 children, ages 7 and up, individuals and siblings.

We got there at 9:30 a.m., and were right on time. There were already about 20 different families inside.

We were given books to review that had the profiles of all the children expected to be at the party, and a little "grab bag" of free goodies.

Quite... more

Foster adoption is what my husband and I are doing.

In short, we are adopting a child(ren) from the system who are currently in foster care, but those children that have reached the level of adoption in their "permanency plan".

A permanency plan is decided by the social services representatives...a team of caseworkers, their supervisors, the state in which the child is in custody, as well as doctors, psychiatrists/psychologists, etc.

A lot of the child's permanency plan has to do with their birth parent(s) being able to complete a designated program or set of steps to basically earn the right to parent them back.

They may have to do one thing, or several things...such... more

Can you love a child, unconditionally, and then, sometimes even after 2 or 3 years, love them enough to let them go? Perhaps give them back to the people that caused them to be placed with you in the first place?

That is the life of a foster parent.

A foster parent takes over the role of the biological parents when the biological parents have problems that have been deemed by the child welfare services to be disruptive or unsafe to the emotional, physical, and mental growth of a child.

They do EVERYTHING a bio-parent would do, in addition to healing the wounds of the things the bio-parent has or has not done for their children.

It is VERY hard sometimes to... more