Our Home Study Visit

In a fashion true to our life, this month has been CRAZY and frankly I don’t see anything slowing down before the end of the year. We leave in less than 48 hours for a big vacation we’ve been planning since February. But Zach and I have been so busy with work, there has hardly been any time to think about the vacation. OH, yeah.. and then we threw a home study in to the mix.

What’s a Home Study?

Anyone, aside from like a step parent or direct relative, that hopes to adopt in the USA must undergo the home study process and be signed off by a social worker. Essentially, in a home study a social worker is just making sure that you are stable people, living in a stable home, and you seem capable of taking care of a child. It’s comprised of a bunch of background checks, finger printing, oodles and oodles of paperwork, personal references, educational classes, notes from your doctor, etc. And it’s capped off at the end with a personal visit to your home from the social worker you’ve hired to complete your home study.

Everywhere I read in countless number of support groups on Facebook kept reiterating that the home study visit was nothing to stress about. And I really did believe them… So much so that I barely even thought about the home study visit. All of the paperwork and other items had been finished for about a week, all that was left was the actual visit. We keep our house pretty clean to begin with, but sure we went the extra mile to ensure our house was tidy and organized.. that was about it. Our visit was scheduled for a Monday at 11:00am and I was totally as cool as a cucumber about the whole thing.. Until about Monday at 10:15am.. When I felt a little like this:

And then our social worker arrived and ya’ll… She was so incredibly nice! Super friendly, super knowledgable, very prepared.. and just as everyone had prepared me for: it was a breeze!

Basically, we gave her a tour of our home. We talked a lot about the adoption process: like what to expect, how the process works, different medical risks, when to prepare, how we planned to pay for adoption, etc. We went through our paper work together, and then she talked to Zach and I separately about how we saw the other as a parent, how we thought we’d be as a parent.. She gave us some referrals for different agencies and lawyers to research. And then she clearly outlined what our next steps should be.

“Good job! The easy part is over!” She exclaimed at the end of our visit before going over again what we needed to do next.

This is what I feel like that list looks like. But essentially it’s:

1. Research the list of agencies and lawyers we were given
2. Find a pediatrician and schedule a consultation with them
3. Start touring day care facilities and put your name on the wait list of your top choice if there is already a wait list.
4. Create an Adoption Profile Book (essentially a photo book about your life that is shown to expectant mothers, it’s how expectant mothers pick an adoptive family.)
5. Get our Adoption Profile Book created.
6. Pick 2-3 Agencies/Lawyers to partner with
7. in 7-10 business days receive your completed home study, read through and edit for any inaccuracies
8. Fill out the application paperwork for the 2-3 agencies/lawyers picked out, send in application alongside profile book(s) and completed home study.
9. Wait. AKA officially become an “active waiting family”
10. Start receiving opportunities to present our profile book to expectant mothers.

And do all of that in like the next two weeks. In the midst of your super crazy, you get exhausted just thinking about them, vacation plans.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m super pumped and excited. It’s finally real! But at this current moment in time I’m feeling a little like:

All in all, I do hope to get to “active waiting family” status by the week of November 4. It’s a little bit of a crazy goal, but I really think Zach and I can accomplish it.

Do you have any questions about our home study or the home study process in general? I’d love to try to answer them in the comments below!