Waiting for Placement
By Hope McCubbin
My partner and I are taking foster care and adoption classes through the Department of Children's Services in Knoxville, Tenn.. Many children who are in children's service custody have suffered abuse, abandonment, neglect, loss of a parent to illness or death or a combination of these. The aim of the classes, called Parents as Tender Healers, is to help us understand their needs in an adoptive or foster home. The department provides their services for free and offers monetary support and medical insurance for children in foster care.
We are also participating in background checks, writing autobiographies, getting ready for a home study and doing parenting homework.
We have been warmly welcomed by our caseworker and the other prospective foster and adoptive parents in the group. Out of 10 attendees, only two would fit the description of young, Caucasian, heterosexual and married. The rest of us are mixture of singles and couples, some of whom are over 40, are gay and straight, and African American or Caucasian.
We have also received support from gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in our community who are attending other classes or have already completed the classes and have children in their home. We want to participate in social support with these folks as well as any other GLBT parents looking for support, as we will be new parents.
I do not yet know when we will adopt a child or what age they will be but I think by Christmas we should be on the road to knowing something.
August 26, 2002