Fostering to Adopt: How to Adopt a Child or Teen in Foster Care
Fostering a child or teen can be an extremely rewarding experience that teaches everyone involved about love, family, and the power of compassion.
However, foster care is meant to be a temporary situation for the child until they are reunified with their family.
If the child is unable to be reunited with their biological family or relatives, then adopting your foster child can go a long way to get them out of the foster care system and into a permanent, loving family.
Adopted By Their Foster Parents
Adopting from foster care can be a great way to give a child a stable, secure home where they know that they are safe and cared for. It also has many other benefits, such as:
- You are already a part of each other’s lives and are familiar with each other
- Adoption can be expensive. A parent will not incur any cost adopting a foster child
- By working with your agency, the adoption process can be a lot more simple
- You get to experience them grow up
- The bonding process has already started
- Children make fewer moves which can stabilize their lives
How Long Can A Child Stay in Foster Care?
A child remains in the foster care system until they are 18 years old or 21 with an independent living program. However, fostering a child can last anywhere from a few months or until they age out of the system.
The point of foster care is to provide a safe and nurturing home for children until they can be reunited with their biological family. If reunification is not possible the goal is changed to adoption and a permanent home is sought for the youth. Every situation is unique to that child and families situation.
How Long Does It Take to Adopt a Teen?
Once the teen has been in your care for a six-month period the adoption process can begin. The timeframe can take as little as three months; however, it may take longer. Like most of the processes surrounding foster care and adoption, it can depend on the state or county.
Why Should You Foster to Adopt?
Fostering to adopt may seem like it’s adoption with extra steps, but it actually makes the process a lot easier.
Private adoption can be incredibly expensive. However, adopting through the foster care system does not cost a prospective parent any money. The foster child’s familiarity with your family is a great way to ease them into adoption. Whereas an adoption can be abrupt, going from foster care to adoption seems like a natural progression to both you and the child.
Fostering also proves to both you and your foster child that being a part of your family through adoption is a sustainable, attainable dream for everyone involved.
Foster Care and Adoption at First Home Care
First Home Care offers foster care and adoption services for children who require out-of-home, community-based placement in a family setting. Comprehensive, coordinated, and nurturing care is provided in the homes of trained treatment families with support, supervision, and 24-hour crisis intervention available from mental health professionals.
To learn more about our services, or to become a foster parent, call 757-393-7200 or email us. We are here to answer your questions and guide you through the process.