Ok, so here's the scoop.... I have a friend who use to be in social work and worked with fostering and adoption. Here's how she explained it to me:
We submit our portoflio/scrapbook to the hospital (DONE). The hospital gets an abandoned baby. They call social services and say we have an abandoned baby and we have a couple who would like to foster and eventually adopt the baby. Social services then gets us to fill out all the foster parent paperwork, and we'd foster for the first year or so. Then we'd adopt.
Social services would much rather place a newborn in a home for fostering that they know intends to adopt so the infant can have a stable environment and not move from foster home to foster home.
There is an attorney involved during the fostering process to be sure social services and the hospital are doing everything legally. At some point there will be a background check on us, criminal check, etc. BUT because my aunt works at the hospital and has done for over 30 years, she can vouch for us initially, so all that could happen after we get the baby.
So, that's what I know. Some of you had asked about the legality of it all, and I had wondered and worried.
AND, since we will be fostering for the first year, my friend said we don't put the newborn on our health insurance, the baby will be covered by medicare (or medicaid), and as foster parents we should receive a stipend each month to help cover the expense of the baby. When you foster social services is the guardian of the baby, we are just taking care of it for them, is my understanding.
After we adopt, of course, everything will be our responsibility.
I'm feeling much better about this, but am still anxious wondering when will the call come.
(For those of you who don't know, we could not afford a "traditional" adoption, so this new option is VERY exciting for us. We thought all doors were closed.)
Thanks again for all your encouragement and support
Love and hugs,
Julie