The Lesser Known World Of Foster Care Adoption

There are many misconceptions individuals have regarding the foster care system. Mainly, this is because their only exposure to foster care is based on what they see on the news or dramatic, episodic TV. And, sadly, the information is almost always (selectively) bad news.

What is foster care? Foster care is when a child is placed in the hands of an adult couple to care for them when their biological parents are no longer able to provide proper care. Many times, foster care parents opt to further their relationship with the child by expanding it to foster care adoption and assume all the legal responsibilities of a parent and provide a permanent loving home.

Other differences between foster care and foster care adoption include bearing full financial responsibility; bearing full parental decision making responsibility; and severing the foster parent relationship with the foster care agency as they are no longer foster parents, but full adoptive parents.

One of the most shocking foster care adoption facts is that at one time the agencies responsible for placing foster children in homes did not want a foster care adoption to occur! Why would they be opposed to a foster care adoption? The self serving interest that a foster care adoption would somehow harm the foster care system. Mercifully, this attitude towards foster care adoption is no longer prevalent.

Foster care adoption has many positive benefits to it. Most importantly, foster parents do not have the doubts some may associate with the adoption as they have spent time with the child and have grown to eliminate their own doubts as to their abilities to be parents. And the elimination of self doubt greatly allows for the foster care adoption to be as fruitful and beneficial to the parents as it is to the child.