Another difficult case in foster care and the reality of siblings getting adopted involved four brothers. Each boy had his own difficulties with different degrees of mental retardation, and severe behavior problems with violence, aggression, autism, speech impairment, and so many more issues. All the boys were in a therapeutic foster home, two separate homes, three boys were moderate care and one boy was specialized care. The boys had not lived together since the youngest boy was born (boy’s ages: 3, 4, 6, 7) because the older boys were harming the younger ones. The goal was to reunite these brothers in an adoption placement. There were some people involved that had great concerns with placing the boys together for good reasons. The main concern was the boys standing a real chance of being adopted together due to their disabilities and major problems would be a lot for any one family to handle. Would keeping them together lower their chance of being adopted because of the challenges the family would face? When the boys first became available for adoption, they were 2, 3, 5, and 6 years old, they have been waiting for an adoption placement together for three years. Another concern is that the boys has of now have not lived together for four years, and their first adoptive placement would be placing them together, not knowing if the boys would continue abusing each other.

The youngest at the age of three years old had a number of interested families wanting to adopt him. A few families did look at the entire sibling group, but once they were aware of the needed care and the challenges that each boy faced, it was too much for one family to take on. If they separated the boys into two sibling groups, since they spent much of their family living this way, would the boys stand a better chance of finding a forever home with a family that could meet their needs? They could still have contact with their other siblings if they were adopted into two different homes.


Sibling Attachment at Adoption.com


Siblings in Foster Care: The Facts