The application came to us in multiple parts. We thought the original 10 pages or so was the full application, but in fact, that was only the first part. In total, we probably filled out about 20 pages of paperwork although some of it turned out to be repetitive information.

The blog post for this video: http://www.faintstarlite.com/2010/05/our-foster-adoption-journey-step-2-the-application-process/

Each states application looks different, but heres the questions you can expect:
- General information about the household with questions about contact information, education and income.
- Your familys history with drugs and alcohol and psychiatric treatments not just your households history but those in your extended family as well.
- Marriage and relationship history about divorce, co-habitation, and to some degree, your sexual history.
- Whether child neglect or abuse allegations have ever been filed against you or a family member.
- Financial worksheet that details what you are worth and how much you spend. This includes all monthly expenses and how much is in your various bank accounts 401(k), investments, and what your properties are worth. It also includes questions regarding debt on mortgages, loans and credit cards.

In addition, along with the application youll submit:
- Health reports. Every member of the household needs to see a doctor who will fill out a health report detailing if youre all got the required immunizations and are in good health.
- Fingerprints. Each member of the household above 18 will have to participate by submitting to an extensive background check that includes finger printing that gets cross-checked in the state database as well as the FBI database.
- Copies of all birth certificates, marriage certificates, Social Security cards, and drivers licenses.
- Copies of recent pay stubs and tax returns.
- Releases so that previous counselors or social services workers can be interviewed.
- Autobiographical questions about your relationship with your immediate + extended family, details about childhood experiences + traumas, and reasons for deciding to go the Foster Adoption route.
-Several references who have known you for several years and can speak about your character including a reference from your employer.

Watch Part 1 of the foster adoption series – Getting The Facts + Going To An Informational Meeting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJDbSRwIv3U

Thanks to Johnson & Johnson’s Health Channel for sponsoring this video series! I met the director of their channel at a conference awhile back and I ended up telling him about our adoption plans. I reached out to him after deciding to make a series of videos + posts on the topic and J&J said they’d be happy to sponsor it.

Check ‘em out at: http://www.youtube.com/jnjhealth

If you’re looking for more resources on American adoption or about foster care, a great resource is AdoptUsKids.org – they have photolistings, adoption stories, and details about contacting your state’s Adoption resource center.

Duration : 0:5:15

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Technorati Tags: adopt child, adopting, adopting in wisconsin, Adoption, adoption fees, adoption stories, adoption story, adoptuskids, adoptuskids.org, american adoption, Domestic adoption, faintstarlite, Foster Adoption, foster care, foster care adoption, foster care moms, foster care parents, foster-adopt, free adoption, legal risk, Open Adoption, photolisting, termination of parental rights, tpr

Generating website traffic through the use of freebies uploaded to the torrent networks.

Duration : 0:7:3

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I am 29, stable, married, but I have little experience with children. I am currently doing the big brothers/sisters program to kind of get the hang of it. The only pet I have is a cat, and I am worried I will be overwhelmed with responsibility if I adopt a child. I seem to always be looking at the Adoption Photolisting websites, and in my heart I feel like I want to adopt 1 child or a pair of siblings (I’m thinking somewhere from 4-10 years old). Does anybody have any advice?

My wife and I looked seriously at adopting an older child (8 to 12).
Should you? Only you can answer that. But here are some things to think about:
Your life will be very different raising a child. Don’t expect to just add a kid to your current life.
A foster kid will come with emotional baggage; no way around it. At very least they’ve suffered a big loss. You will have to become proficient at working with a kid and helping them get through that.

Some things you can do to gather data:

Go ahead and sign up for the Parenting classes that will almost certainly be required if you go forward. You will learn a LOT about what you’re getting in to.

If your company has an Employee Assistance program, go ahead and schedule your three free sessions with a counselor or therapist who deals with blended families and foster/Adoption issues. Get the therapist to ask you the hard questions.

8 minutes of photos starting with referral photos and time in Ethiopia to Wills first year with his family

Duration : 0:8:18

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Technorati Tags: Adoption

A collection of photos from our journey to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to bring home Zoie Senait!! We left as Gibson 4 but returned home a forever family of 5!!
www.mycrazyAdoption.com

Duration : 0:10:31

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Technorati Tags: addisababa, Adoption, Africa, children, ethiopia, Ethiopian, family, home, jesus, kidscare, orphanage, orphans, Senait, transitional, transracial, Zoie

We have been blessed with 2 kids through adoption and would like to adopt a toddler to complete our family. Does anyone have ideas as to how to go about doing so? We are looking online at adoptuskids.org and lots of the state photolisting sites, too. Both of our adopted kids came home to us via Private Adoption. It seems like most of the situations out there are for much older kids or for newborns. We really would like to stick to birth order but yet find a toddler who could integrate a bit easier into our family than a newborn baby would. Thanks in advance!
Oh geez! For all those worrying about the correct Adoption language, please worry more about these kids getting homes and less about being politically correct. My kids are all special needs and are both bio AND adopted and yes, we DO want to complete our family by adding a 5th child who we hope to be a toddler. I see nothing wrong with any of this. My kids are my family….and have come to us both naturally and through adoption…..and that is that. Anyway, thanks for those who wrote with good suggestions! I really appreciate the ideas. Take good care.

Try your local department of children and families to get on their radar. Sites like adoptuskids.org and state photo listings include only children who have not found adoptive placements with licensed homes in their state– which means they are often some of the more challenging children to place. While all kids deserve homes, if your own children are still small and you want to preserve birth order, you’ll probably do better matching in person with help from a social worker than finding a child on a listing.

Toddlers do become available for adoption, but they are easy to place and rarely end up on photo listings. So go straight to the state, and get licensed and matched.

Zoie Senait is OURS!!!! We passed court today!! A special collection of photos of our daughter waiting in Ethiopia. Thank you friends for the beautiful memories!!
Our Adoption blog: www.simplyloveproject.blogspot.com
www.mycrazyadoption.org

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Technorati Tags: addisababa, Adoption, Africa, children, Duni, ethiopia, Ethiopian, family, home, jesus, kidscare, orphanage, orphans, Senait, transitional, transracial, Zoie

Sarah Jane’s Adoption in Photos.. adopted at age 13 from China 9/07

Duration : 0:4:1

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Technorati Tags: Adoption, bifida, child, Luoyang, needs, older, special, spina

Video from the panel with Clay Myers, Elizabeth Doyle, and Jen Krause. Here’s some video of Clay’s portion of the workshop talking about taking great pictures!

Duration : 0:1:16

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Technorati Tags: animal, best, clay, friends, myers, photos, Society

Being a Best Friends staff photographer since 2002 has given me the opportunity to capture a wide variety of subjects and events. I’ve photographed everything from rescue missions to simple photos for animal ID cards, wildlife, geology, people, pets, parades, parties, protests and more.

I enjoy all of my assignments but perhaps the most rewarding ones are the adoptions. While Adoption events don’t hold the drama of rescue missions or the promise of splendid grandeur at a national park, they do exemplify a major aspect of what we do… finding new homes for unwanted pets. And I find that capturing the moment when people meet their new friend to be both personally and professionally gratifying.

I’m always amazed at the hard work our staff and volunteers put into these events. These people are good! And without them many pets would never find that new beginning. My admiration for the folks that put on our adoption events cannot be understated.

This slideshow includes photos from several adoption events in 2007. I hope these images tell the story of what is possible when people work together to help animals.

Thanks for watching,

Clay Myers
Best Friends Network Staff Photographer
http://www.network.bestfriends.org/

Duration : 0:3:18

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Technorati Tags: Adoptions, pet