Help with an adoption profile?
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at
4:16 pm
My husband and I are starting the adoption process. My attorney told me that I need to get a home study done by a social worker and to start on my adoption profile. He online pharmacy prescription drugs gave me names and numbers of social workers but I do have two questions. What does the home study consist of and also, what do I put in the profile? How long is it? And is it done on a computer or is it a scrapbook?
A home study comes in many different forms but it is a document, that will be presented along with all other material, to a prospective birth mother and to the court at the finalization of the adoption. In the USA you must have an approved home study in order to adopt.
A home study consists of several parts. One part is the physical home inspection — checking for health or safety hazards, poisons/medications/chemicals must be locked up; gates on stairways; guns locked separate from ammo; pools or spas fenced. Other parts of the home study include interviews with you and your spouse, both individually and as a couple, also with anyone else who resides in your home; income/employment verification; a test for tuberculosis; a physical exam; references. You’ll have to fill out a number of questionaires. Do a search on S.A.F.E. or SAFE (Structured Applicant Family Evaluation), this is one of the most common formats for a home study.
Your family profile, can be done however you want– scrapbook, computer, report — you might consider doing both a scrapbook and a website. You should include photos, stories about your family, extended family, pets, etc…. basically everything you think a birth parent would want to know about you to feel they were making a good decision about where to place their child.
Good luck!!!
A homestudy is done physically at your home, in person. But, making a scrapbook of you, your family, your life, your past-future with tons of pictures, would be a GREAT asset to having a birth mother choose you as parents to raise their child. It would make to process much more personal & warm.
Where are you located? I could help you with your scrapbook & ideas….I’ve been doing my own for quite some time now.
(I’m in Florida.)
a homestudy is where a social worker comes and asses your home. they check out how safe it is, if its baby proofed, where you keep things like alcohol and guns, the check out where the child will be sleeping, beaically how your home would be for the child, its living consitions. i dont know if they talk to you too. and i dont know abou the profile.
Hi, The homestudy is easy. I was worried about it until I had the first visit. Its like sitting down with a friend. We have 3 visits at the agency to tell our life stories and why we want to adopt. You talk about what kind of child you are looking for and how they will fit into your family. Then there was 1 home visit to look at the house and neighborhood. They didn’t check for dust
The profile is a bit hard to do. Its hard to talk about yourself. Its best to do it on the computer so you can make lots of copies! We handed out over 50 of our 9 page profile. We talked about our marrige, why we cannot have kids, our home, our neighborhood, how we educate our children, our friends and extended family, our 3 kids we have already and what we like to do for fun. If you want to Email me privately I can Email you a copy so you can see what I’m talking about. It would be no problem. Good luck to you!
Your adoption agency should give you guidelines for the profile. Some agencies require a standard format, some are free form.
As for what it should contain, It should allow a birth mother to get a glimpse of your family, and your life.
Birth mothers project their child (and sometimes themselves) into your life. and want to see that their child will be raised the way they want them to (or that they wanted to be raised themselves).
Pictures, description of you and your partners (if applicable) childhood, a discussion about your extended families, a discussion about religion if it plays a role in your life, etc.
-HtJ
hi Jen and Hubby, best wishes on your endevour! I personally have not adopted before, i do think your questions will be answeresd by the social worker when you ring them.
i have a feeling tha’ts how it goes and the procedure…..if others know the answer i hope you get some more information.
The home study includes a walkthrough of your home for safety. The list is long (takes time to accomplish) and includes the obvious – safety plugs for outlets, safety locks for drawers and cabinets that contain harmful stuff and some things that are less obvious – evacuation map, evacuation plan, rope ladders if you have a 2nd story to your home…
Our profile was a hardcopy scrapbook – about 12 pages both sides (total 24) and each page had 3-4 photos. Any more than that and the birthmother can’t really see the faces in the pics (I was told). The photos had captions and some cutesy stickers but not too many (don’t take away from the pics). The profile started with early pics of when we were dating; then our wedding, family pics, outings, special occasions, travel. Each category had its own page.
Hope this helps and good luck!!!
Hi, we have adopted two boys domestically, our most recent was just a year ago. The home study is done by a social worker who comes to your home and asks many questions about your past, your marriage, other children/people in the home. They verify that your home is safe and you are mentally prepared ot raise a child. You will most likely have to have a background check and possibly more than one visit. It depends on your state and if you go with an agency they may have specific requirements (we went through a domestic agency.)
As far as your profile they really differ based on your agency requirements and your personal style. You can do them on the computer with different software, or scrapbook them and have copies made. Either way many times you will have to make multiple copies. There are many examples out their online. You can check out my blog http://www.foreverfamilydesigns.com. I have a few that I have designed for people it may give you some layout ideas. Good luck with your adoption journey!
What is an adoption profile?
Is that like pimping for a "birthmother"?
puke.