"He came home with us in June," said the Worthington resident and adoptive father of 14-month-old Kalis.

The Web site listing Ohio foster children in need of homes is gone now, their smiling faces replaced by a gray directory of county agencies.

State officials had touted the site as efficient and effective, one of the best ways for parents and professionals to search for waiting children.

"It listed photos and stories," said Greg Kapcar of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio. "And it's one of the casualties."

Slashing of the state budget eliminated the Adopt Ohio program and took away $43 million for adoption services -- about a 40 percent cut -- over the next two years, Kapcar said.

Money for recruiting and training parents is down, one-time assistance for adoption expenses has been cut in half, and the state has reduced its share of subsidies for families who adopt low-income or special-needs children through public systems.

Kapcar said the 3,000 Ohio children waiting to be adopted will pay a price.

He and other advocates covered the Statehouse steps yesterday with hundreds of photo frames -- many of them empty -- to symbolize the children who wait for a place in a family picture.

Christine Johnson told the crowd that she spent four years in foster care and was moved 10 times before she and her two brothers were adopted. She's now 24, but the pain still isn't gone.

"I learned that you had to start over each time with each family to try to earn their love," she said.

Declining subsidies are likely to have a chilling effect on adoption, which costs taxpayers less than foster care, said Ron Browder, executive director of the Children's Defense Fund-Ohio.

Many of the children who are adopted have expensive needs, while many of the families who take them in have incomes in the middle- to low-middle range, he said. "Why wasn't there some thought to finding ways to hold these families harmless?"

Monthly subsidies vary from less than $250 to more than $1,000 for a child with disabilities. The state has dropped its maximum contribution to $240 a month, down from $300.

The rest of the amount comes from federal or local funds, and county child-welfare agencies are struggling to make up the difference.

"Some counties are asking families to renegotiate their subsidies," Kapcar said.

State Sens. John A. Carey Jr., a Republican from Wellston, and Dale Miller, a Democrat from Cleveland, have sponsored a bill to restore about $8 million that was cut, advocates said.

Marynell Townsend, a mother of five from New Concord who adopted two children, said Ohio can't afford to go backward. Families who want to know about available children might turn to other states with better online resources, she said.

"We're a technological society. There are wonderful families in Ohio who are going to adopt. We want them to know about our children here."

rprice@dispatch.com