How To Absolutely Feel Ready For Adoption Home Study

What is a Home Study

An adoption home study is a comprehensive assessment conducted by licensed professionals to evaluate the suitability of prospective adoptive parents. It involves interviews, background checks, home inspections, and evaluations of financial stability, parenting skills, and readiness for adoption. The goal is to ensure the well-being of the child and match them with a safe and nurturing environment.

The adoption home study is like inviting someone into your life story. It’s not just about checking boxes or inspecting your home; it’s about understanding your journey, hopes, and dreams. Social workers visit, chat, and get to know you, ensuring you’re ready for the joys and challenges of adoption. It’s a chance to open your heart and home, paving the way for a new chapter of love and family.

Take it from me who personally went through all the steps of adoption. The Home Study is a lot of hard and emotional work, but so worth all of it.

Home Study Details

In this next section, I will go over in detail all the different steps and home study checklists written from my own experience of going through the domestic newborn adoption process.

Reading this post will hopefully make you feel ready to start the home study process, by knowing what you will be doing and what to expect.

At the end of the post, I will also give a few tips on how to get through the adoption home study process well.

If you are reading this blog post because you thinking about starting the adoption process and want to get a feel of what to expect while trying to adopt I also wrote a blog post on how to start the adoption process. You can find it here.

Paperwork

An adoption home study comes with lots and lots of paperwork. Some days I felt overwhelmed by how much paperwork there was to get through.

First, there is an autobio that you will have to fill out and if you are married your spouse will need to fill out his or her own. There are questions like “Describe your personality”. Questions about your childhood and parents. Questions to try to really get to know you.

Next, there is a joint autobio to fill out. This questionnaire asks questions like “How did you meet your spouse/significant other?”. Questions to try to get to know your relationship with one another.

There is a questionnaire you will fill out on adoption characteristics you are comfortable with. An example is what age child you are comfortable adopting. Even if you are planning on doing a domestic infant adoption you will need to fill it out. You never know what situation you might come across, so be honest with yourself and truly think over what you are open to.

Background checks are another big part of your adoption home study; which includes both FBI and BCI. Be prepared to go get your fingerprints checked.

In addition to everything mentioned above you will need to do a health check. This one is pretty easy you just need to make an appointment with your primary care doctor and hand them a form to fill out to prove you are fit to become a parent.

Finally, you will need to have references. People who are close to you and agree that you are ready and should become parents through adoption. Hopefully, this is an easy one as well. The hardest part will be making sure all your people fill out their questionnaires and mail them in.

Financial

During the home study, the social worker you are working with will also need to make sure you are financially stable enough to become a parent. This does not mean you need to make tons of money it just means you need to be stable.

You will need to turn in your tax statements, give proof of income, and fill out a general monthly expenses form.

This one may feel daunting, but I found this one to be one of the easiest to do. It was just a simple filling out a sheet of numbers and giving forms we already had to do. Nothing too crazy.

Trainings

During the adoption home study process you will need to do a few different trainings. Each home study professional has a different process of what you will part of your training, so I can not go into specifics. But I would expect to do a good amount of reading and watch a few videos.

In my blog post on how to start the adoption process, I named a few books that no matter if they are required or not I recommend reading. I recommend you check it out here.

Home Safety

Once you are done with all the paperwork and financials you can start working on your home.

You will need to go ahead and start baby-proofing your home and act like a child could be welcomed in at any moment. Cover all your outlets, baby-proof your kitchen cabinets, move your medications and cleaning supplies where a child can not get them, anchor large pieces of future to the wall, and other things that might need baby proofed in your particular home.

Fire safety is another thing you will need to take seriously. You will need to have your home fire inspected by your local fire station, if you have a fireplace it will need to be inspected, you will need a fire extinguisher in your kitchen, and make a home fire escape plan.

Finally, if you have animals you will need to provide the vet records of each animal to make sure they are safe to be around a child.

Home Interview

The home interview will probably be the part of the home study you are most nervous about. And I am here to tell you it will be okay.

You will welcome your social worker into your home and give them a little tour. He or she will want to see where the child will sleep and where the child will spend their time in the home.

You will also sit down and have a little interview. At this point they will have already looked over the autobio questionnaire you filled out, so there will not be too many questions. Maybe a few follow-up questions about what you wrote.

Your social worker is just trying to get to know you and your personality. We can learn a lot about someone just by seeing how they live and sitting one on one with someone.

Lastly, he or she will ask why you want to adopt. Give an honest answer and you will do just fine!

Home Study Tips

As someone who has gone through the home study process and made it through the other side, I want to make sure I give you some home study tips I learned while going through the process.

Tip 1: Make an Adoption Binder

At the beginning of our adoption process, I took a trip to Target and bought a 3-inch binder, dividers, and clear page protectors to go in the binder.

I created a divider for the home study, our adoption consultants, and the adoption agency we needed up working with.

Within the home study section (by far the biggest section in our binder) I use sticky tabs to create 6 more sections: application forms, clearances, training, financial, general forms, and safety.

At the very front of our binder, I made sure to put our Home Study Checklist our home study provider gave us, so I knew what I needed to be working on and what I already finished easily and fast.

At the very back of the binder I put a pin, a notepad, and extra tabs. You never know when you are going to need to take notes on something.

Tip 2: Open up to people you love

The adoption process can be very hard and isolating with the amount of work involved (especially during the home study process).

I want you to make sure you open up to your close family and friends. They are here for you and you are not alone!

If you do not feel like you have someone to lend on, please email me and I will listen to what you are going through.

Tip 3: Stay Calm, (they want you to succeed!)

While going through the adoption home study process keep this phase in the back of your head “They want me to succeed!”. The social worker you are working with does not want you to fail! They want you to pass! The whole point of the home study is to help you, not to harm you.

You will make it through!

Resources

Conclusion

The adoption process is long and hard (I’m not going to lie to you), but the adoption process is also so so so worth it.

The home study process is one of the first steps you take in the adoption process and also feels like it is the longest part of the adoption process (and it very well might be, you never know).

The days will be long and expect to do a lot of work during this part of the adoption process. Honestly, it might feel like the paperwork will never end, but it will!

You will make it through your home study and you will be better prepared for being a parent through adoption because of it!