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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.
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