Adoption Series - Blog Post #10
Hello everyone,
I hope you are all having a great day. For those of you who are not, I hope it does get better. If it has been rough, know that every storm passes. Some can take longer than you would expect, but they all pass.
Today, I want to tackle the paperwork required when you begin an adoption process. The first adoption is the most overwhelming one. It's your first time and it is a lot to take in. But, if you take it step by step, it can be a smooth process...although, honestly, it will have its challenges. But remember that you are not doing this alone. You have your spouse and your social worker is there to help you as well.
The paperwork that this post is dealing with is the one that comes with your home study. Most of it will be documents regarding your marital status, citizenship, employment and other matters related to your family. If you have children, you will need to file CPS (Child Protective Services) reports to prove there are no files against you. You will also need to provide financial documents and a house tour will be required to finalize your home study.
Further to those documents, you will both need to undergo a physical examination and be fingerprinted. Depending on the state from which you are adopting, references will be needed. Usually, they ask for both family and friends to be references. They will be sent a simple document they will need to answer and send back to your adoption agency.
All this paperwork will be done via a web portal. This will allow you to download all your documents and give you time to fill out the many fields necessary to provide them with the most accurate picture of you, your spouse or partner and your family.
On the portal, you will be asked to fill out autobiographies. These are the longest documents to fill out because they are lengthy and quite elaborate. They entail your family life, your relationship with your parents, how you were educated and parented, how you intend to parent...it's a long one. We would do four hours a night and then give ourselves a break. You may choose to do it all at once, but it will get very overwhelming...so, take a break - it's okay and good for you!
The time it will take you to complete the whole process depends on you. If you do it consistently and are able to gather all your documents fairly quickly, it can be all done within a month or two. But, that is dependent on you. It took us about two months to get everything done, including physicals and fingerprints.
When you have provided all the documents and filled out all the fields on the portal, you will need to have a couple of interviews. These can seem scary, but know that your social worker just wants to get a real view of who you are as a person and not just what is written on paper. Your social worker will go through what you have provided and your autobiographies. It's also a great time to ask all the questions you have.
Once your personal interviews are done, a home inspection will be the last and final step. Here, they just want to see your home to give hem a better idea of what your family life is. If you have children, they will want to meet them and maybe, if they are older, ask them questions.
In our case, we kept the same social worker. Each time she has visited us, she got to see how big the kids have gotten and it's nice to show her how our family is growing.
Home studies can feel like an invasion of privacy. It can also be very frustrating because you have these parents who conceive naturally and are just awful parents - yet, here you are, having to justify everything. Many are unable to go through the home study because it is invasive and you pretty much have to divulge a lot of information, some extremely personal.
However, throughout it all, you need to remember the end goal - becoming a parent. If you keep that goal in mind and never lose track of it, you will get through the home study.
We have done three so far, and the second and third ones were the easiest because we had all the paperwork and most of it was the same thing. Also, the autobiographies were already done and there was no need to do them anymore. So, it gets easier.
If you are currently going through a home study - remember the goal! If you are about to embark on one, don't be intimidated by it. It's a process that is annoying, but that is nothing compared to the joy you will get when you hold your child for the first time.
Until my next post, take care,
SM
I hope you are all having a great day. For those of you who are not, I hope it does get better. If it has been rough, know that every storm passes. Some can take longer than you would expect, but they all pass.
Today, I want to tackle the paperwork required when you begin an adoption process. The first adoption is the most overwhelming one. It's your first time and it is a lot to take in. But, if you take it step by step, it can be a smooth process...although, honestly, it will have its challenges. But remember that you are not doing this alone. You have your spouse and your social worker is there to help you as well.
The paperwork that this post is dealing with is the one that comes with your home study. Most of it will be documents regarding your marital status, citizenship, employment and other matters related to your family. If you have children, you will need to file CPS (Child Protective Services) reports to prove there are no files against you. You will also need to provide financial documents and a house tour will be required to finalize your home study.
Further to those documents, you will both need to undergo a physical examination and be fingerprinted. Depending on the state from which you are adopting, references will be needed. Usually, they ask for both family and friends to be references. They will be sent a simple document they will need to answer and send back to your adoption agency.
All this paperwork will be done via a web portal. This will allow you to download all your documents and give you time to fill out the many fields necessary to provide them with the most accurate picture of you, your spouse or partner and your family.
On the portal, you will be asked to fill out autobiographies. These are the longest documents to fill out because they are lengthy and quite elaborate. They entail your family life, your relationship with your parents, how you were educated and parented, how you intend to parent...it's a long one. We would do four hours a night and then give ourselves a break. You may choose to do it all at once, but it will get very overwhelming...so, take a break - it's okay and good for you!
The time it will take you to complete the whole process depends on you. If you do it consistently and are able to gather all your documents fairly quickly, it can be all done within a month or two. But, that is dependent on you. It took us about two months to get everything done, including physicals and fingerprints.
When you have provided all the documents and filled out all the fields on the portal, you will need to have a couple of interviews. These can seem scary, but know that your social worker just wants to get a real view of who you are as a person and not just what is written on paper. Your social worker will go through what you have provided and your autobiographies. It's also a great time to ask all the questions you have.
Once your personal interviews are done, a home inspection will be the last and final step. Here, they just want to see your home to give hem a better idea of what your family life is. If you have children, they will want to meet them and maybe, if they are older, ask them questions.
In our case, we kept the same social worker. Each time she has visited us, she got to see how big the kids have gotten and it's nice to show her how our family is growing.
Home studies can feel like an invasion of privacy. It can also be very frustrating because you have these parents who conceive naturally and are just awful parents - yet, here you are, having to justify everything. Many are unable to go through the home study because it is invasive and you pretty much have to divulge a lot of information, some extremely personal.
However, throughout it all, you need to remember the end goal - becoming a parent. If you keep that goal in mind and never lose track of it, you will get through the home study.
We have done three so far, and the second and third ones were the easiest because we had all the paperwork and most of it was the same thing. Also, the autobiographies were already done and there was no need to do them anymore. So, it gets easier.
If you are currently going through a home study - remember the goal! If you are about to embark on one, don't be intimidated by it. It's a process that is annoying, but that is nothing compared to the joy you will get when you hold your child for the first time.
Until my next post, take care,
SM
·
Comments