The Adoption Home Study

The home study can vary by country you adopt from and state you live in but the basics are the same.  Our agency assigned us a Social Worker and she was responsible not only for verifying a ton of information including our identities, but also determining if we were suitable prospective parents.  She was also responsible for helping us determine the age and health of our soon-to-be child, as well as making sure our home was safe and kid-friendly.  Being this was our first home study and we didn't really know what to expect (and we had heard stories!), we were a little nervous about it.  In the end, we were fortunate to have been assigned a wonderful social worker who not only did the paperwork she was responsible for, but really helped to educate us on international adoption and the issues we may face while raising an institutionalized child and becoming an trans-racial /trans-cultural family.

Our homestudy consisted of four meetings -- one with the both of us, one with each of us individually, a visit to our home and a second meeting with the both of us.  Prior to meeting with our social worker we were given a long list of documents she would need to finalize our homestudy.  This list was probably the most work for us and included:

• 14 page autobiography


• Child abuse clearances from each state we have lived in since the age of 18


• Letter from local police department stating we have no criminal record


• Tax returns


• Pay stubs or income letter


• Birth certificates


• Marriage documents - license and divorce records for previous marriage


• Financial statement


• Documents to back up financial statement - copies of mortgage, credit card, auto, bank accounts, retirement accounts and life insurance statements


• Monthly budget and copies of statements to back up budget amounts


• Copy of medical insurance policy - proof child can be added with no exclusions


• Proof of current vaccinations for all pets


• All addresses lived at for the past ten years


• Personal references

Needless to say, it took time to get all of this info together and the entire adoption process started to feel a bit like being put through the wringer.  But we did our meetings with the social worker in the meantime and they were not stressful at all.  We did clean like crazy the day before she came to our home but it wasn't really necessary.  While we are not total clean freaks, we certainly aren't slobs and she wasn't expecting our house to be so clean you could eat off the floors!  We know we will be great parents and provide a loving home to our child and knew if we remembered to just be ourselves, it would all work out fine.  In the end, our social worker gave us glowing reviews and gave us the official rubber stamp of adoption approval.

Next stop: sending the homestudy and I800A application (along with other docs) to USCIS for approval to bring an orphan in to the country.