In the six years that I have been a caseworker in the Placement Unit at Marion County Children Services, I’ve noticed that more and more people in our community are interested in adopting a child.

Adoption has become acceptable to society; whereas, in the past, it seemed that adoption was more secretive for many reasons. And because the cost of private and international adoptions is greater than what many people can afford, there appears to be growing interest in public adoption which is essentially free.

People who want to add to their families through public adoption often say they don’t want to be foster parents because they want the security of knowing that an adopted child will remain in their care forever.

This is understandable. Foster parenting can be scary for people who want to provide love and care to a child, since the initial goal for all foster children is reunification with their birth families, at least until that option is no longer in the child’s best interest.

But 86% of the children in foster care who become available for adoption are adopted by their foster parents, primarily because foster parents do establish a bond with the children in their care. And because of their experience and training, they are often the best option for permanency for a child.

There are many advantages to being a foster parent before adopting a child from the foster care system.

Foster parents develop relationships with children while also learning how to meet the unique needs they have due to abuse or neglect. And foster parent training and support is designed to help ease the transition when children are reunited with their birth families.

Foster parents are trained on how abuse and neglect impact child development, how attachment and separation issues affect children, and how to effectively discipline children in their care. They learn about working with a foster child’s birth family and how being a foster caregiver might impact their own family relationships. They learn how to care for a child who has been sexually abused or a child with physical handicaps.

Foster parents essentially become “professional parents” who invest a great deal of time and effort into developing the skills needed to be able to deal with children who are coping with issues related to abuse or neglect.

In order to adopt a child through public adoption, you must take the same training classes that are required for those who want to be foster parents. But by becoming a foster parent, you are able to use the skills you have learned and experience what it is like to parent a child who is not your own. You gain valuable insight into what it really takes to care for a child who has been abused or neglected.

Ohio law now mandates how much time an agency can spend trying to reunify children in foster care with their birth families. If a child can not be returned home safely within 12 months of having been taken into foster care, Children Services must file for the parents’ rights to be terminated. If the court grants permanent care and custody of the child to the agency, then that child becomes available for adoption.

Given these time frames, if a child has been placed in the same home the entire time, the foster family and the child quite often have developed strong bonds. For many families, adoption is a natural next step.

Our agency is always looking for people who are interested in becoming foster parents, and we welcome those who want to be foster parents with the intention of eventually adopting a child.

If you are interested in being a foster parent or in foster parenting children with the intention of adopting, come to the information night we are hosting on Wednesday, June 1, at 6 p.m., in the Community Room at Southland Mall. Our foster/adoptive parent recruiters will be on hand to share information and answer questions, and you won’t even have to worry about dinner because free pizza is being provided.

The next series of state mandated training classes for people wanting to become foster or adoptive parents will be held at our agency starting June 9 at 6 p.m.

For more information about the training or about our program, please contact recruiters Toni Fisher or Terrie Robinson, or our foster parent training coordinator Jacque Knotts. All can be reached by calling Marion County Children Services Placement Unit at 740-389-2317.

May is National Foster Care Month. Consider what you can do to help a child living in foster care.