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One of our clients, "Mark”, graciously took the time to talk to us and tell us about his and his wife's journey of fostering and adopting older children.  Over the span of 30 years, this inspiring couple has adopted five older children.  I asked, "How did you get involved with becoming foster parents"? As newlyweds, Mark and his wife became aware of foster care children that attended their church. They came to know these children individually.  They saw that so many children are waiting in the foster care system to be adopted, so they decided that that was how they were going to grow their family. Mark expressed that it's hard when children have had several transitions throughout their childhood.  Going from home to home and family to family is traumatizing.  Ultimately, when fostering a child, you want to limit their transitions.  People may think it's more difficult to parent an older child, but the reality is that parenting, in general, is hard.  Yo...

Although many people feel best equipped to parent a newborn, adding an older child to your family can be a source of great joy. A recent article written by Dawn Davenport featured on the site Creating a Family, describes a few of the many benefits of adopting an older child. As a potential family for an older adopted, an important aspect is understanding your child's prior life. When kids reach the age of about 8-10 years, they are able to communicate their life story.  This helps you have a better understanding of what they have gone through. Being able to communicate also helps out in counseling because they can be fully involved in the sessions. It's also easier for them to do things your family enjoys- At an older age children are discovering what they like and dislike. Your child may not like everything you like, but there will be something you can find that you can both do together. Older children are more self- sufficient and are able to do things on their own.  They ca...

In early May, USCIS, (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services), proposed to raise the majority of its filing fees. This is a big problem for parents of international adopted children: USCIS Filing Fee Increase and the Impact on Adoptive Parents                                                                                                                        Current Fee     Proposed Fee    I ncrease                                           ...