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hey everyone welcome back to my channel I'm so happy to finally be playing another video for you guys I feel like I keep promising y'all videos and then life happens so I'm really sorry about that but I am finally filming one for you and getting it out there so here it is if you're new here my name is autumn Renae and I am currently a foster parent if you've watched my earlier videos you know that I started out this journey as a single foster parent so if you're interested in learning more about that my journey as a single foster parent I'll definitely leave some videos down below today we're going to be talking about adopting from foster care so whether you are single or a couple or any stage of life if you're interested in adopting for foster care or maybe you're about to go through the process and you're interested in how other people's experiences have gone this is for you so a little bit of background for those of you who maybe don't know where we are right now I got my current son a little over a year ago at the end of February of last year and so he was about five months old almost six months and I got him as an emergency placement and then all the night didn't think he was gonna be with me that long and then turned out he was going to be a very long-term placement it's not very common I would say in foster care especially for young ones to end up being adaptable and staying your care for so long usually they end up going back to a relative or back to their parents or some other place but I am very lucky and he's gonna get to be mine so they let me know probably last fall in November that most likely his case was going to go to adoption at that point in time his bio parents had not done their service plan I'm not going to get into details in this video about situation with his bio parents or anything like that just because that's private information that they may choose to share if they want to I'm not going to break their privacy by telling you guys there's story or my son's story without his consent so I'm not going to be that part of that out of this video but I will just let you know they did not do what the judges had asked them to do in the situation and it just was determined if the best thing for the child was to not be in their care so at that point they started kind of getting the ball rolling for the termination of parental rights so that's usually how the process starts you know you'll be fostering the child most the time you do not get a child in your home it's automatically adoptable if you are interested in only adopting you're not really interested in fostering at all you can get an adopt only license which is where your only take adaptable placements I don't have any experience of that because I didn't go in here getting adopted me license I actually have a video about the different kinds of foster care licenses and what they mean that I'll link down below if you kind of more interested in that but what I got was a foster to adopt license which means I could both foster and adopt from foster care so I definitely began this journey thinking I was gonna foster for several years and then adopt but it just turned out that my first place that ended up being adoptable and of course I want to adopt him because he's my son I mean I wasn't it to me so that's kind of where we ended up so in his case started out not thinking it's gonna be adoptable but as time went on you know parents and show up for visits they didn't do what they were supposed to be doing didn't have a stable home and all those kinds of things which eventually ended up being in the case that he was going to need a new more permanent place somewhere else at that point they did I really threw out the entire case they've been looking for kinship placements if you don't know a kinship placement is a family member or relative or close family friend that maybe he could take the child in either temporarily or permanently while the parents try to get back on their feet in his case unfortunately there was just no one there was no extended family no close family friends anybody who was eligible or able to take him and if you're wondering like what would make someone eligible it could be a couple different things you know drug use or being a being in prison having a record against kids have already having a open case with CPS those kinds of things so it was just it was really sad but just everyone in his life was just unable or not willing to take him or want him so I got him so they told me that most likely the case is gonna be going for adoption and at that point I was not I did not have to adopt it was not a you have to do this it was completely a do you want to do this for sure in fact my social worker actually thought that item wasn't even interested in adoption when she first brought it up to me so that was kind of a surprise for both of us when she brought it up anyway so that kind of led to us starting the adoption process she she told me in fall like hey this is where the case is going you know are you interested in adopting and I was like yeah I am and she was like oh really and then we kind of started the path from there from there they tried to start they basically told the parents like hey by this date you know things need to happen or you know you're gonna lose your rights and so that date was set I actually got pushed back a couple times and just because I'm the attorney for the parents is fighting for the rights as they should and so that day ended up being moved to February of this year so that termination of parents rights hearing happened in February this year their rights didn't were terminated the judges decided that was what was best for the child and he is now going to be up for adoption so now that's kind of where we are unfortunately the situation of the world then worldwide pandemic has closed the courts in my area and his adoption has been on hold until further notice so I'm kind of stuck in the middle of the adoption process right now you know we've got parents all rights terminated they're looking to start the adoption process for me and where I am in Texas there's a 90-day waiting period so after rights are terminated for the parents there's 90 days for Annie like failing members to step forward and be like hey like I'm interested in this child so once that 90-day waiting period passes then that's when the adoption process can officially start unfortunately for me they're all the courts are on hold and they're not doing anything so I'm kind of just in a holding pattern right now I know some areas are doing like court online and stuff at the moment in my area they're not doing that but I hope eventually they will so they don't know how long this will last but I am thankful to know that you know my social worker knows he's gonna be with me there's no family members fighting for him you know there's not any real feasible thing that could happen that would jeopardize his adoption at this point so it's not as nerve-racking as it could be I definitely know people who have been in much worse situations but do know that that is something you could encounter if you're trying to adopt for foster care is family members or other family close friends you know trying to fight for the kids and at that point you really do have to kind of well one you have to follow what the state goes with because at the end of the day you know that child is not yours yet so you kind of have to go with what they say and whether or not you choose to try to fight them on that really just depends on the situation yeah I've known I've known situations that ended up great both ways you know they ended up with a kinship placement and a relative that ended up being great and I've also known situations where it didn't end up being so great so that's really a case-by-case basis I've mentioned this in other videos but definitely do not assume that relatives or bio parents are horrible people because every case in foster care in fact the majority of cases in foster care are not these horrible abusive cases you hear about you know his well I'm not gonna get into their situation but just know that like you know there's there's not always this horrible ill intent and terrible things that happen as far as bio parents are considered you know a lot of times they're really wonderful great people one there's just you know they've had things out of their control in their life so just keep that in mind when you're getting into foster care not to be quick to judge others on that matter people have not walked the same road as you have so just keep that in mind that is something you may encounter if you are interested in adopting from foster care so just to kind of recap once you start fostering and they if the parents are not working their service plan and they decide that this child is going to permanent home somewhere else they will look into other placements kinship placements if none of those pan out they will eventually set a date for the parents to have to meet their case by usually it's a year I'm sure it can vary a little bit and I know there's up to a six month extension where I am but usually it's a year the parents get to kind of get their life back in order or fix whatever they needed to fix in order to properly care for their child and but if none of the family members and/or bio parents work out and their rights are terminated then generally you have that waiting period for anyone to come forward if you pass that then they're basically yours and you can adopt from there now as far as the actual adopting goes obviously I have not gotten there yet I will definitely make a future video when I've gone through all of this but from what I have been told basically you get an attorney certain children qualified to get like a free attorney so well it's actually your attorney but you can qualify if your kids are qualify basically that's in my area that's any minority kids who over the age of 2 or any kids of any ethnicity who are over 6 so they're kind of considered special needs in that case which I know that sounds like that term is usually used for like learning disabilities or mental or physical disabilities but in this case special needs just means children who were harder to be adopted so any kid who is a minority over - or any kid of any ethnicity was over the age of 6 and those may vary based State that's just how it is in Texas anyway so if they meet those special needs criteria which at this point since my son's adoption has been delayed he will actually meet that criteria then they will actually reimburse you for your attorney fees if they are not if you're adopting a really young infant at the time of adoption they're still an infant or they are you know a white child who's gonna be under the age of 6 or other certain circumstances then you may have to pay the attorney fees obviously I mean it's completely worth it for you know adopting your child at this point if you're at this point in the process I mean I'm sure you will do anything and everything for that child but just so you know that is a thing that you will encounter as you will have to get an attorney to kind of handle all the adoption stuff and the fees and they also I was just told this a couple weeks ago when they told me that the adoptions were gonna be on hold she did my social worker did go ahead and let me know that since the adoption is getting pushed he will be eligible for adoption subsidies and adoption benefits and same thing if the child falls into this special-needs category then you were eligible for those things and this stuff probably range is also by state but I know for here it's he'll get free college tuition in any state school he'll have free health insurance and then you'll also get an adoption subsidy I don't know how much the adoption subsidy is but I do know that that's something that your attorney will like negotiate and I'm sure it's dependent on the needs of the child so just know that that's something you may encounter if you are adopting an older child or a child of a minority or also a sibling group can also be a special needs kind of case so just know that if you are adopting any of those kind of categories that you may have you have an attorney to help kind of negotiate some of those benefits and things for you a lot of it set by the state but some of it is negotiable so just know that that's kind of the next step in the process is giving that attorney and getting all that stuff set up and then you will get your adoption date I'm sure there will be a lot of paperwork to fill out like I said I haven't actually gotten to this point in the process yet but when I get there I will definitely let you guys know like what it all entails and how it works and so at this point that's kind of where we are in the adoption process if you guys have any questions about the adoption or you're more curious about my journey up to this point how I became a foster parent what it was like being a single foster parent when I was younger definitely check out the videos below I'll link them below so you guys can go and revisit my story and I will talk to you guys next time hi