Home Study

I thought I'd write some posts about what August through November entailed as I completed the US side of things.  I learned so much.  I use terms now that I never knew before and I'm sure if you overhear someone talking about adoption you will wonder what in the world they are talking about.  I have a prayer team of three other mothers also adopting from Haiti.  We are all at different spots.  And I belong to a group on FB with all adoptive parents from Haiti.....so at least there we all know what we're talking about!

In August 2011 I was assigned a social worker to complete my home study.  Before the first meeting I was asked to get fingerprinted!  I received an email on Friday afternoon and my first meeting was Monday evening.  The government center does fingerprints from 9-11 am on Mondays but I was already back to school.  There must be another way!  I googled it and found out you can go to the county jail 24/7 for fingerprints.  This was an experience.  I drove downtown Sunday night and went in.  I actually went into the room where people are fingerprinted and booked and where bail was received. I went into a room with no lock on the door (anyone could walk in!) and I picked up the phone as instructed but no one came to help me.  I went in an out of this room and up and down the elevator several times before security got someone to help me.  And then the fingerprints were ready.

The visits with the social worker include about 7 hours of time in the home or other location (at least once in the home) where I am asked questions about EVERYTHING!  In the end it was a great experience.  Throughout this time, I also had to compile these things in order to finish:

• Copy of my birth certificate
• Medical Physical forms
• Statement of faith
• Physicians Statement of Health
• Physical description of my home
• Picture of my family
• Authorization forms
• Completed fingerprints
• Pastor's contact info
• Verification of Income (taxes for past 3 years with w-2s)
• Verification of Investment assets (all account statements, value of real estate, retirement accounts)
• Verification of Liabilities (Mortgages, car payments, credit card balances)
• Verification of Insurance (medical, life, auto, homeowners)
• Verification that adopted children will be covered by medical insurance)
• Current vaccination records for all animals
• Completed Training form
• And a whole bunch of forms that the agency needed me to fill out
• All fees to be paid by completion of Home study.

This part of the home study (this checklist) took a long time, as I had to make millions (well maybe not) of phone calls to all parties in question to get hard copy statement of all of these items, along with taking my cats to the vet to get all vaccinations up to date!

After all of this was completed then my social worker wrote what turned out to be about a ten page biography of me.  That was submitted for review and my October 11, 2011 I had the official Home Study in my hands and could nearly complete my dossier as well.  (there's another post on the dossier.)