We understand everyone is experiencing a tremendous amount of change and uncertainty in their lives because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on the economy. While we know it has been a tough year, the urgent need to support children in foster care by connecting them with loving, permanent families remains. These children cannot
National Adoption Month and National Adoption Day With the turn of the calendar to November, Arms Wide Adoption Services will join other organizations across the country in recognizing National Adoption Month, as well as National Adoption Day. National Adoption Month is a nationwide effort to educate the public and prospective parents on the struggles many
Adoption Websites, Like TARE By now, you have most likely heard about the TARE (Texas Adoption Resource Exchange) website or others like it. The websites which “help match children awaiting adoption with adoptive parents.” Our staff encourages families to be cautious about adoption websites for many reasons. Our primary reason being to focus on matching
What is a match event? CPS workers host match events in each region. Match events serve as an opportunity for children who have not been placed yet and are legally free (biological parental rights have been terminated) to engage and spend time meeting approved adoptive families in the hopes of finding a match between them.
What is a family book? A family book is created by you, as a family. It is utilized in two main ways during your journey. You may also hear workers refer to it as a life book. However, I reserve the term life book for the books families make with children in care. This way,
Now that Arianne Riebel, our Director of Foster Care and Adoption Programs, touched on many steps of the adoption process through her blog series, she wanted to turn it over to one of our Adoption Coordinators, Kimberly Beck, who will fill families in on some of the more fine-tuned parts of the process. This week,
Pre-Placement Visits: The Purpose Thanks for checking back in for my next blog! Last time, I discussed redacted records and child presentation meetings. Now, let’s talk about pre-placement visits. The purpose of pre-placement visits is for the child to get to know the family they will be moving in with and to provide closure for
After A RAS Selection Thanks for checking back in for my next blog! Last time, I discussed the day of a RAS meeting. Now, let’s talk about what happens once you are selected in a RAS meeting for placement. This includes reading the redacted record and a child presentation meeting. As I mentioned last time,
RAS Assembly In my last post, we talked about what exactly a RAS is. This post, I explain what the day of a RAS looks like. On the day of the RAS, the child’s team will assemble at the CPS office. Agency workers for each family being presented will also assemble there too. Sometimes workers