Hi. I’ve been thinking about doing this and have been binge watching your videos. On the subject of adoption, I am curious what your thoughts are if you are thinking about doing this but don’t want to adopt? What happens if the kid can’t reunify but you don’t want to adopt?
I'm late to the party but I think the people who aren't ready to support reunification don't realise how much they are hurting the child. They assume that the child is better off with them and possibly even assume that by damaging the relationship with the bio parent the kid won't be re-unified but my sister was a social worker and worked with cases where the court had decided the bio parent was ready to take over care and the kid was unprepared for this move it just hurt the kid. It wasn't always or even often the foster parents fault, more often due to judges not setting a long enough time for building up that relationship not either bio or foster parent's fault, e.g. in one bio mum still not capable but bio dad has been located & demonstrated to be related by DNA so courts ordered bio dad should take custody not taking into account the fact that bio dad was a stranger to this toddler.
Hi Beth, the two options are truly night and day. Fostering is first and foremost a commitment to supporting a family's reunification. So if your hope is to adopt, I recommend one of two paths: either domestic adoption, or foster a child who is *already legally free for adoption with no plan for reunification.* If the plan is still for reunification, which is the case for most babies in foster care, you will really have a hard time supporting reunification efforts if your hope is to adopt from the get-go. I hope this helps, and I wish you all the best in your journey.
