Legal Risk Adoptions
Thu, 12/11/2008 - 12:34
When my wife and I adopted, we basically said, "If we foster this kid only to have her taken away and replaced in her biological family, we don't know if we could do it a second time."
When you engage in an legal-risk (or fost-adopt) adoption, you risk not ending up with the child you have taken into your home, begun to nurture, and hopefully have helped give a leg up in the world.
Are you a foster-adoptive parent? Have you lost a child that you were foster-adopting? Did the risk of losing the child that was placed into your home factor into your decision to fost-adopt or not?
Comments
In most cases Social Services does not place a legal-risk child back in the bio-parent's home. However, the system is (rightly or wrongly) set up to try and reunite the child with family. This could be an aunt or an uncle or grandparent for example. It is up to the GAL, the Case Worker, and child's Therapist to help identify the best possible placement. More often than not, it is the foster family who have indicated they want to be the "for ever family".
It is scary though.
http://adoption.about.com/cs/wantingtoadopt/g/legalrisk.htm