Son in bathtub -- "Daddy look at me, I'm a chocolate milkshake with whipped cream (suds) on top, do you want to put a straw in me and drink me up!?!? " TEARS OF LAUGHTER!!!! :-)
That was a recent Facebook post by James Higgins, child advocate, adoptive father of two young children, and stay-at-home dad, or as he describes it, "The President and CEO of Chocolaty Niblets, Inc."
Clearly, the man enjoys fatherhood.
When James and his wife Stephanie, an attorney and bank compliance officer, decided in early 2009 to adopt a daughter through foster care, he assumed it would be pretty easy. After all, there are 68,000 children in foster care in California. Over a quarter of these children are African American, four times their proportion of the general population. James worked at a San Diego nonprofit that trains Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) to protect the best interests of foster children. James assumed that as a two-parent black family, a child advocate and an attorney, a couple who had already became parents to a son through a private adoption, California's child welfare system would welcome them with open arms.
James was wrong.
The entire process, from application to finalization took almost two years. The problem was not the private agency they worked with. James raves about how responsive they were. For James and Stephanie, their experience with California's public agencies is where the adoption process became a story of frustration, unreturned calls, and irrational bureaucracy. It took over a year before they were even considered for a waiting child. Their struggle presents a case study in the obstacles that face anyone trying to adopt a child from a public agency in California:
California's budget crisis -- As a result of the huge shortfall in California's budget, the state cut $121 million from child welfare services, including $80 million for county child welfare services. Phone calls to county adoption offices that used to take weeks to be returned were not returned at all.
Difficulty in adopting across county lines -- California is one of about 10 states that have a state-supervised, and county-administered approach to foster care. Each one of California's 58 counties is largely self-contained. In a county-administered system, each county's goal is to find families interested in adopting their kids. The same dynamic that makes interstate adoption rare also serves to discourage adoptions across county lines. In this system, it is rational behavior for San Diego County to keep a family (such as James') waiting for two years rather than adopting a child from neighboring Orange County tomorrow.
California is not actively recruiting families for children -- According to the North American Council on Adoptable Children, there are 20,832 foster children in California waiting to be adopted. Go to the website that lists California's children in foster care who are available for adoption. Click on "Find a Child" and you will discover that there are only 216 children in the entire state of California currently listed on the state's directory of waiting children. 216.
I'll do the math for you. 20,832 waiting children divided by 216 children listed means that for every child listed in the directory, there are 95 children who need permanent, loving adoptive families and are not listed. Is it any wonder that in 2007, over 5,000 children in California "aged out" of foster care without a permanent, legal family.
How would James and his wife even find out about any of these children who are not listed?
But James is a ferocious advocate. He made call after call, argued, cajoled, and held the system accountable. In January of this year, James and Stephanie finalized the adoption of a beautiful little girl that James describes as "a pure blessing to our family." The only reason James and Stephanie were able to adopt is that they went through a private agency, one with a state license and a handful of offices throughout California. Had they gone to their county program they would have been limited to San Diego County and still be waiting.
Many parents trying to adopt children from foster care wait far longer than James and Stephanie did. In the greater scheme of things, the two years it took is not a long time.
Unless, of course, you are a hurt child waiting for a loving family.
Follow Jeff Katz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JeffKAdoption
Michael Piraino: Fostering Reunification
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We don't mind waiting so much but it's hard not having any sort of time frame. We visited my elderly father in April and have basically cleared our calenders in anticipation of a placement in the next few months. Once a child is placed with you, you need a court order to leave the COUNTY. This means we can't visit my either mine or my husband's family without a court order for 2 years or so. It's ridiculous, but we'll do it because it's the law and because we want to adopt. It's also hard to prepare my three-year-old for a sibling when we have no way of knowing when a child might be placed with us.
We've been through interviews and background checks,training etc. -- all of which we're happy to do. But if the need is so great, why not move things along a bit faster? Children should be with their parents as soon as is reasonable. The more a child is moved around, the more problems they have adjusting and bonding. We can't wait to meet our new child(ren) and start living our lives as a family.
Congrats to James and family!! Thanks for sharing your story.
GOOD LUCK and KEEP THE FAITH :-)
James
It is unfortunate that neighboring counties don't communicate with each other when there are waiting children. And that's the issue I'm glad Jeff Katz brought up -- that children are waiting for permanent families -- and we're here waiting for them. Now can they find a way to move it along a bit?
Of the 68,000 children waiting In the state of California there are 50,000 who are ready and waiting to be adopted TODAY! There is no rationale to keep a vetted, checked, and credentialed family waiting more than a couple of months to get matched. Training, home study, etc...can easily be completed in 3-4 months. At that time families should be presented with binder upon binder of children to choose from. Once matched, yes they have a mandatory 6 month wait where they are still being visited by the State, but by then the child is in the home and just waiting for finalization. If done properly this entire process SHOULD take less than a year, not 4 years which is the norm.
As I stated earlier, I went through my county and I have nothing but praises to sing about them and the workers I interacted with. I was matched twice before my daughter, they just didn't end up working out. Of course I never knew what kids I was being matched with...the matching team did that sight unseen. The thing is, just because one submits for a child (looking at binders scenario) doesn't mean it's the best match. Also when one goes through an agency, (in Ca) you're also dealing with submitting for kids that maybe the respective counties still want to find a home within the county....maybe that needs change? In my Pride class the people that were homestudied right away (including myself) were the people that turned in everything asked and all homework.
Of course the system is broken....it is a system, but compared to other states, I find that california does a pretty good job even if not perfect. (thanks for the dialogue)
from orientation meeting to finalization took around 2 years for myself as well. But I had my daughter in my home for at least a year....so it was pretty fast. Fast and easy isn't the way to go sometimes.
Oh and I went through the county I reside in and had phone calls returned. Sometimes it's just lousy workers
This is not about my family, or your family, but rather the children who will end up emancipating at age 18 because they never got adopted. The system much change in California. If nothing else, make it easier for a family in San Diego to adopt child in LA County. If you are trained and have a STATE license, it shouldn't matter what county you reside.
The latest of these outrageous, grievous examples is Jeremiah Lovato of Colorado Springs. This foster to adopt case yielded a 119 year sentence for abuse!! http://www.gazette.com/articles/colorado-117329-abusing-lovato.html And it is just the LATEST!
Let them take their time to properly VET prospective parents! No child deserves less.
Mirah Riben, THE STORK MARKET: America's Multi-Billion Dollar Unregulated Adoption Industry
One of my issues is that after being cleared/vetted many wait for YEARS to be matched with a child. Yes, my family "only" had to wait 2 years from start to finish, but that was due alot to the fact that I am "stubborn" and refused to just sit idly by and wait for the system to do the right thing. The fact is most folks going through this process aren't like me, don't know the laws, and are afraid to push a little bit in fear of "retaliation" of their social worker. One thing Jeff did not mention is that my family was one of 3 who was "competing" for our now daughter. All these children in California yet four families competing for one little girl. That is insane.
In the 2 years of our journey I have not met ONE other family who has been matched with a child, let alone finalized an adoption, and all of them started a year or two before we did. I'm also in contact with a handful of families who started their training more than 2-3 years ago and they are STILL waiting for a home study to be finished. This should have been completed within the first few months.
While I too want our children placed in safe/loving homes, that's not the reason our children are not being adopted. We must make the process simpler.
James
AKA: The Dad from Jeff's article :-)
Thanks to James and Stephanie for being relentless in pursuing their dream of adopting and for educating others about the process.
Without federal legislation or funding the provinces will go their own ways. ACC is the most likely organization to have statistics on waiting children and they struggle to get the information from the provinces.
Hopefully that report from 2009 will help Ontario make changes to improve their system, and encourage more cooperation between the 53 CAS.