Should I Foster a Younger Child or Teen First? - Weekend Wisdom
Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption, Foster & Kinship Care
01/04/25
•4m
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Question: My husband and I are licensed to foster/adopt, but there have been no placements yet. We initially thought our age preference was 2-6 year olds, but as we have gotten more information/education we think we may be a good home for teenagers. We have no children (adopted/fostered/biological) between us but this also means we have no one else in the home at this time. We are still interested in fostering (and adopting should the opportunity arise) younger children as well at some point. My question is would it be "better" for us to start with teens and move to younger children after the teens have left our home (for college, work, general adulthood independence) or would we be better prepared for teens after having younger children first?
Resources:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Previous Episode
An Adoptee's Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging
January 1, 2025
•44m
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Join our discussion with an adult adoptee about her search for her birth family and her identity. We will talk with Julie Ryan McGue, a domestic adoptee and an identical twin. She is the author of Twice a Daughter, which explores her coming to terms with her adoption and her search for her birth parents, and Twice the Family, which explores more of her relationship with her adoptive family.
In this episode, we cover:
- Tell us your adoption story.
- What role did adoption play, if any, in your childhood?
- Feelings of needing to be perfect.
- Fantasizing about birth family.
- When did you begin to search for your birth parents?
- Was searching for your birth family something you knew you would do from a young age?
- After considerable effort, you located your birth mother. At first, she said she did not want contact. How did that leave you feeling?
- After you had phone calls and met, you didn’t want to tell her much about your adoptive parents.
- How did your mom (your adoptive mom) react to your search and when you found your birth mother?
- How do you wish she had reacted?
- What happened with your search for your birth father?
- Did you feel the same sense of shame, embarrassment, and rejection?
- Your birth mom’s reticence to help you find your birth father and your continued search caused a rift in your relationship. How is the relationship now?
- The tension between the birth parents’ right to privacy vs. the adoptee’s right to know.
- Your experience with online adoptee forums.
- The primal wound.
- Importance of adoptee support groups.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Next Episode
How to Adopt in 2025
January 8, 2025
•51m
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Are you considering adopting a child this year? We've got answers to all (or most) of your questions. Join our discussion with Teresa Bernu, the Executive Director at Adoption Center of Illinois. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has worked extensively in the areas of domestic infant adoption, foster care, and guardianship. We will also talk with Steve Valdez, the Chief Operating Officer at Hand in Hand International Adoptions. He holds a Master of Divinity and an M.A. in Psychology. He’s an adopted dad of 5 kids through foster care adoption.
In this episode, we discuss:
Domestic infant private adoption in the US
- What is the process?
- What are the reasons that pregnant moms are placing their children for adoption?
- Matching-Expectant parent choice
- The Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC)
- Open adoption
- Special needs of children available
- How long does it take? What factors influence this time?
- How much does it cost? What factors influence this cost?
- How do failed matches when an expectant mom decides to parent rather than go through with an adoption plan impact the cost of domestic adoption?
- Adoption agency and adoption attorney
- What is the first step prospective adoptive parents should take if they are interested in adopting a baby?
Adoptions from foster care in the US
- What is the process?
- Adopting your foster child
- Adopting a waiting child
- What are the reasons that children come into foster care in the US?
- What age and race of child is available for adoption from foster care?
- Special needs? Trauma, prenatal substance exposure
- How long does it take?
- How much does it cost?
- What is the first step prospective adoptive parents should take if they are interested in adopting from foster care?
International adoptions to the US
- What is the process?
- What types of special needs do children available for adoption from abroad have?
- How long does it take? What factors influence this time?
- How much does it cost? What factors influence this cost?
- What is the first step prospective adoptive parents should take if they are interested in adopting internationally?
Additional resources:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
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