Domestic Adoption -- California

• By suebe
• Reply 183437
• November 30, 2008 at 11:59 am
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Hey There! We live in the East bay. We used Adopt International for our (domestic) homestudy and for the whole adoption. I have good things to say about them as well as "needs improvments" however will say that the homestudy portion was flawless.. very quick, professional and convenient. But I think it all depends on your social worker, ours was Sharon.

As for Adoption Connection- I've only heard solid feedback about them. The only problem w/using them as your primary agency is that I've heard their waits can be a bit longer- they usually represent 60 or so families and I'm not sure how active their outreach is.. but lots of people use them for the homestudy and then go the independent route. Good Luck!!

• By KasiaF
• Reply 183559
• November 30, 2008 at 3:48 pm
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Sorry, no experience w/ that agency here. We used IAC for our home study and it was super easy.
K.

• By Ali--
• Reply 183617
• November 30, 2008 at 5:11 pm
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Welcome, Steph! I would have totally used Adoption Connection if I lived in NoCal - I heard great things about them, but couldn't use them in SoCal. I think they're a great option!

Ali

• By stephl
• Reply 183856
• November 30, 2008 at 10:58 pm
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Hey All --

We were going to try adoption connection for the home study but the autobiographical questionnaire seems very invasive. I am happy to be open about what is relevant but I am just not feeling comfortable providing the intimate details of our lives (which we have not shared with anyone by the way). For those of you who used other companies for the home study, I have two questions:

(1) How invasive were the questions for the home study (both paperwork and interview)? Our form asks for dates of fertility treatments and doctor names -- seems awefully invasive to me.

(2) How long did your home study take? Seems like it will take months at adoption connection, even with us being totally on top of things.

Thanks in advance. Can't tell you how much I value you as a resource!

Steph

• By KasiaF
• Reply 184186
• December 1, 2008 at 11:30 am
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1) How invasive were the questions for the home study (both paperwork and interview)? Our form asks for dates of fertility treatments and doctor names -- seems awefully invasive to me.

Not terribly invasive. As far as the medical stuff, they didn't care about the IF info, but they required a letter from the therapist if you indicate that you've been to therapy.

(2) How long did your home study take? Seems like it will take months at adoption connection, even with us being totally on top of things.

I want to say it took us about 3 months but we were not in a rush. We took our time with the questionnairs etc.

• By jerseygirl_chris
• Reply 184187
• December 1, 2008 at 11:32 am
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Hi Steph,
I don't know how much help I can give, since we're doing international, but I just wanted to say that I personally think that specific dates for IF treatments is a bit too much to ask. We were not asked that. We were asked to describe our efforts to have a child biologically and lots of questions about how we felt then and afterwards, and if we had grieved, stuff like that. They did not ask our RE's name. I think that every person doing a home-study anywhere has to pass a physical exam, but usually the information on that form is very standard stuff. No, they cannot get to your medical records. Those are protected by HIPPA. They just want your doctor's word that you are healthy. I know it's annoying. Everybody goes through this, feeling like their privacy is being invaded and how unfair that is. You're right, it's not fair, but after you get through this part, it really won't bother you as much, and the result is so worth it. Good luck!

--Christina

• By stephl
• Reply 184191
• December 1, 2008 at 11:35 am
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Thank you to everyone for your replies and support! UGH this process is such a bummer!

• By suebe
• Reply 184199
• December 1, 2008 at 11:42 am
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oh yeah, I remember that how about them (we had gone to one of their seminars..) I don't know if Adoption Connections homestudy questions were more invasive but there was a lot more of them then Adopt Internationals...

• By Kara-CA
• Reply 184252
• December 1, 2008 at 12:43 pm
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I didn't use them, we are going through CA-Social Services (independent, CA adoption).

Kara

• By suebe
• Reply 184312 · In reply to 184199 by suebe
• December 1, 2008 at 2:10 pm
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.. and then to answer your question as to how long it took.. I want to say ~ 6 weeks? I don't remember their asking about specific doctors and fertility treatments but they did want a general history of all of that..