Exactly a Year

October 29, 2014

Thank you for your interest in N. Her adoption specialist is CH. You may contact her at x@dss.sc.gov for more information.


which led to a phone call during which we found out the only way to adopt an "older child" (non-infant) in SC, is through foster care... Four days later we attended a foster care information session at our church.


November 3, 2014

Dear Jennifer,
Thanks so much for reaching out to The Bair Foundation for more information on becoming a Foster Parent! We are excited to speak with you more. A packet of information will be put in the mail within 48 hours...

Sincerely, 
The Bair Foundation


which led to lots of prayer, documentation, home visits, etc...


August 3, 2015

Jennifer,
Hope you had a wonderful vacation and glad to hear you are home safe and sound.
Your packet has been approved by the licensing agent! Her supervisor just has to sign the final license. We should be getting the e-mail with your license any day now, but we know that you are approved! Praise the Lord! We will keep praying now that He will lead and guide as we look for a child to be placed in your home.

Congratulations!

GK
Electronic Records Trainer
Foster Care Secretary 
The Bair Foundation


which was followed by a couple of difficult phone calls and our two wonderful respite visits. Between which I went back out to the DSS website where we had first found N.  She was back, as well as a little four year old boy (Charlie's hope).


October 5, 2015

J,

I have a somewhat strange question...

A year ago when we first started to consider adoption, I sawa little girl on the DSS website and just fell in love.  It was actually through an inquiry on her that I found out that to adopt "older" children in SC you needed to go through the foster system, which ultimately led us to Bair --which has been a tremendous blessing.

The little girl's name is N, and of course I knew almost nothing about her.  Long before we were licensed, she was gone from the website, but over the past year plus I have thought of her often and have been praying for her.

We have had such a wonderful experience with T this weekend and will miss him dearly, and I already told L, but we would definitely like to be first on the list should he ever need additional respite care.  But, this evening for the first time in a long time I looked at the DSS site again -- and N is back, still listed as needing a forever home.

I know this isn't how any of this works, but do you all know anything about N?  Her case # is SCS-0000xxxxxx.  

That said, I also notice that there is a 4 year old little boy on the site named J who is also in need of a forever family. His case # is SCS-000xxxxxx.

I trust that God will bring us whatever child He has planned for us, but  with N having been on my heart for over a year and Charlie hoping for a 4 year old little brother, I just couldn't resist asking if you all knew anything about either of these children?  If either is being placed through Bair?

Thanks,
Jason & Jenny

October 7, 2015

Good afternoon,

I am so glad that you had a good first experience doing respite care with T. I saw him at the office yesterday briefly and it was great to see him smiling and more open in regards to communication which I attribute to his positive interactions with families like your own. Thank you so much for your willingness to do that respite.

The two children that you referenced in regards to the DSS Adoptions site might not be/ have been referred to The Bair Foundation if they are considered 'Basic' level children. That simply means that they do not have a diagnosis and therefore would not fall into the therapeutic category, which is our focus here. We typically do not receive a call for the basic level children unless they are part of a sibling group where one is therapeutic and in that case we try our best to keep the sibling group together.

Unfortunately I do not have any additional information to provide you about N or J as my contacts at DSS are mainly with Foster Care Services and not on the Adoptions side. Please let me know if you ever have any other questions and I will be glad to try and answer them for you.

JL
Intake Coordinator
The Bair Foundation


October 18, 2015

Dear Jason Batliner Jennifer Batliner, 
Thank you for your inquiry about the children waiting for adoption in South Carolina. A representative from the regional adoption office will contact you to give you information about the adoption process here in South Carolina. Again, thank you for your interest in our children and for choosing adoption as an option to expand your family.

Please do not reply to this email, no one monitors this address.
Best Regards,
SC Seedlings


October 26, 2015

Your message to x@dss.sc.gov couldn't be delivered.

C.Q wasn't found at dss.sc.gov and I would like to thank you for your interest in adopting N. If you would like to be considered as a potential adoptive resource, please have your worker send me a copy of your approved adoptive study by email to: x@dss.sc.gov  Thank you again for you interest in our adoption program and your willingness to make a difference in the lives of our children. JP Adoption Specialist SCDSS Region I Adoption Services and J, Thank you so much for getting back to me.  Before I contact Bair (the agency through whom we're licensed), do I need to ask them to make any special notations or take additional steps since N isn't one of their cases?  We just want to be sure to do everything correctly. Thanks! Jenny Batliner and G, Thank you!  He did, and we have not picked up a book yet.  I will try to do that in the next day or two -- and will bring in or he will email the Auto Insurance.  Do you all just need a copy of the little card he carries in his glove box? Also, this is kind of a long story, but almost exactly a year ago we found a little girl on the DSS website.  Through our inquiries regarding her, we were actually led to foster care and Bair, realizing and hoping that she would be permanently placed long before we were licensed, which appeared to be true.  Surprisingly, though, N reappeared on the site just a couple weeks ago -- still in need of a forever home. I contacted J a couple weeks ago, but he didn't have any information since N has not been referred to Bair for placement.  After some additional prayer, I went ahead and submitted a second inquiry online, but didn't hear anything for over a week.  Finally today, I sent an email to the lady who contacted us back a year ago, and I just received a note from another lady within DSS with very little information, but requesting that we have you all send her a copy of our approved adoptive study by email to: x@dss.sc.gov . I feel like we are circumventing the Bair processes and placements, and that is definitely not our desire.  We truly love working with you all, but N has been on my heart and in my prayers since October 2014, and I just need to do everything I can to make sure/find out that she is in a safe, loving home -if at all possible. Would you be the one to send our study to Ms P?  If so, is there anything else you need from me? Thanks! Jenny and Jennifer, Yes, all I need is a copy of the card. Regarding N, they cannot use the home study that we did because ours is for fostering only. However, do you have any other information regarding her? Do you know if she is a foster-to-adopt child or if she is therapeutic? If so, there is a possibility that we could help to get her placed in your home as a foster child with the plan to adopt her. Just let us know any information you have on her. Thanks, GK Electronic Records Trainer Foster Care Secretary The Bair Foundation and G, I really don't know any more about N than is on the DSS website (I've attached a screen shot).  It doesn't really say regarding foster to adopt or not, and doesn't mention anything about being therapeutic, either, I'm afraid.  Her Case # is SCS #00000xxxx. Any direction you can provide would be great! And I will be by tomorrow or Wed with the insurance and to borrow a book. Thanks! Jenny October 27, 2015 Ms. Batliner, I am no longer the adoption specialist on this case, however I have forwarded your email to N’s current Adoption Specialist JP and her supervisor CC. Thank you, CH Adoption Supervisor Region I Adoptions and Ms H, Thank you so much for getting back to me!  Ms P actually emailed me yesterday morning.  I have given her information to our contact at Bair (GK). G was initially concerned that since we are licensed to foster to adopt through them, our home study may not work.  I sent her N's case number and write-up, though, and she was going to try to look into whether or not N would be eligible for foster to adopt.  I am hoping that she contacted J yesterday at some point, but right now just waiting to hear. Thank you again! Jenny and Good afternoon, I just wanted to let you know that I've reached out to DSS Region III Adoptions to find out more in regards to N and will be in contact with you once I have a response.    Respectfully, JL, MCJ Intake Coordinator The Bair Foundation October 29, 2015 Good Morning, Ms Batliner,                  I wanted to inform you that at this time I have not receive contact from GK and I will be out of the office from October 30, 2015 through November 09, 2015. JP Adoption Specialist SCDSS Region I Adoption Services and Ms P, Thank you so much for letting me know!  I have no idea what happened. Jason actually spoke to J at Bair yesterday morning and he mentioned that he had made some calls.  I reached out to them as soon as I got your email and copied you.  I truly hope that they get the information to you before you leave town -- and also that you have a wonderful vacation. :) Do you happen to know if the fact that our home study was for foster to adopt, rather than straight adoption will be a hindrance in this situation? Thanks! Jenny and G & J, Please see below.  Is there any way we can get our info to JP today -- even though it's a Foster to Adopt home study rather than the other?  She will be out of the office tomorrow through November 9. Jenny and Jennifer, I just called JP and left her a voicemail. I will try to help with anything that I can, however, I did find out that it is against Bair's policy to give out the home study that we completed. If there is anything else that I can help her with I will be more than happy to assist her. GK Electronic Records Trainer Foster Care Secretary The Bair Foundation and Ms P, Now knowing Bair's policy regarding the home study -- is there anything we can do?  We are licensed to foster to adopt through the state -- and I can provide that license number as soon as I get home this afternoon, but I am hoping we're not stuck without the home study? Jenny and, finally Mr. and Mrs. Batliner,                 At the moment I am talking with G from Bair Foundation. She informed me that you are license for foster care and do not have an approved adoptive home study but wish to adopt. We did talk about your child factor check list that you have filled out for your foster care license to see if it could potential be a match with N. After discussing the factors that you have indicated, we believe that N would not be a match with your family due to the severity of her needs. I do wish you well on your pursue of adoption and encourage you to complete an adoptive home study, which you can get started by calling Heartfelt Calling at 888-828-3555.    JP Adoption Specialist SCDSS Region I Adoption Services By today I was fairly convinced that the whole last year had been a long process to adopt the little girl who kicked off our journey.  I completely bought in to the worldly drama of it being "exactly one year".   Even now I'm feeling very torn.  Why isn't she a fit?  Is it really a bad fit?  Should we be asking more questions?  Should we be pushing?  Should we throw out our parameters altogether for the little face whose been in my prayers for a year. But my prayer has always been that she find the loving, safe, Christian home that God intends for her.   Much prayer went into selecting as broad of parameters as we could and still feel that Charlie is protected and that whatever child God brings us would be a good fit for us. I guess now I will just continue to pray that N finds a loving, safe, Christian home, but start to pray that if our parameters are wrong and our effort to have a good fit is leading to disobedience, God will set us straight. And I've had to remind myself that this wasn't all for nothing.  I have to remember that when we started down this road a year ago we didn't think N would join our family because we hopefully assumed she would find a home much sooner.  We didn't do this to bring her home.  We've done all this for T and for Z and for all the other children God will bring us...I just have to figure out how to remember that.