As of today, both Caleb & Baylee are still technically our foster children. I actually even filed the petition at the courthouse for Caleb's adoption in January. After we file the adoption petition, there is one last form that has to go to the state for final permission before we can get a court date. Around this same time, our social worker began the paperwork for Baylee's adoption. This confused the State.
The State Dept of Human Services contacted the social worker and asked what was going on. Why weren't they doing both adoptions together? The social worker explained that it was because they were born & placed at different times, over 10 months apart. The state, in all of it's wisdom, decided that Caleb & Baylee have to be adopted together as a sibling group, otherwise we need special permission to do the adoptions separately because the state would then view that as them not being placed with siblings?!
So, the state that currently has a huge budget shortfall would rather pay us a few more months to keep Caleb in foster care, and then pay us "monthly maintenance" for both Caleb & Baylee (because adopting a "sibling group" qualifies as a special need) than allow us to proceed with Caleb’s adoption as planned. I suppose technically we could tell them we don't want the money, but like I told the social worker, if they really want to give us this money, I would hate to hurt their feelings by not taking it. Plus, we have 5 kids; the extra money will probably come in handy. We're not talking about a huge amount each month, but I still think it is quite humorous.
We started the adoption process over about a month ago, so who knows, we just might have these two adopted by the end of this year, although I certainly won’t be holding my breath!
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