The Process: Foster-to-Adopt | New Rhythm Project

This series of posts will break down what exactly goes into the adoption process. The first is about an?international adoption; the second details a domestic adoption; and the third describes a foster-to-adopt process.

Scott and Amy Ness have adopted 8 children through foster care in Maryland?all of them siblings. They also have 2 children, half-siblings, adopted through a private agency, and 3 biological children, for a total of 13 children.
Total time invested: 4 years, 6 months
Total cost: None; the state provides foster parents a subsidy to help cover the children?s needs.

Scott and I decided to become foster parents in 2004 after the birth of our third child. We began the training and home study with our local services in early summer 2005 and completed both in fall of that year. We hoped to eventually adopt one ?or two children, but God had entirely different plans for us.

Scott and I had decided that we had to be in agreement about each child that was placed in our home. We told our social worker that we did not want any babies placed with us. We preferred children ages 3 to 8. Our third biological child, Carter, was still a baby, and we had just adopted a baby girl privately through an agency. About six months later, in spring 2006, the calls started coming in asking us to take children. Scott kept saying, ?It just isn?t right yet.? Finally, in October 2006, we were asked to foster identical twin premature, drug-exposed baby boys?and I just knew that these were the children we were supposed to take in. And Scott agreed! We thought we didn?t want any more babies, and here we were taking in two more little five-pounders!

Before I even got to the hospital to meet little Bradley and Chad, the social worker informed me they had five siblings living with grandparents. I knew immediately that this was why all the other placements weren?t right for us: These were our children?all 7 of them!

Within a few months, in early 2007, the twins? five siblings were visiting our home for weekend respite. They were eventually placed with us in June 2007. The state of Maryland had to grant us an exception to have 11 children in our home as Comar Regulations allow for only 8 when adopting through the foster care system. The birth parents ended up signing off their parental rights when they learned that we were willing to adopt all 7 of their children.

Destiny, Kasie, John, Samantha, Ashton, Bradley, and Chad were adopted on September 30, 2008. Their birth parents had another little girl in July of that year and DSS placed her with us as well so she could be with her siblings. The adoption of sibling number 8, Skylar Grace, was finalized on November 20, 2009.

That?s the end of our story of adopting that sibling group, but God wasn?t finished with our family yet. During the process of adopting Skylar, the birth mom of the little girl whom we adopted through a private agency, Destiny (yes, we have two daughters named Destiny), contacted us and asked if we would be willing to adopt her other daughter, who was two. It seemed like the right thing to do as Destiny is biracial, and we figured it would be good for her to have someone to identify with physically. Who better than her biological half sister! We redid our homestudy through a different private adoption agency and adopted Tatiana in 2010.

Source: http://www.newrhythm.org/the-process-foster-to-adopt/

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