Advertisements
Hello,
I just joined because my husband and I are looking for support and feedback from others who are going or have gone through the adoption process. We are planning to start the process within a few months, but the home study is making us so nervous. My husband is in the navy. He works with a man who tried to adopt about ten years ago. His wife and him were turned down because they are a military family. The agency they went through believed that because of his frequent absences their family would be an unstable one. Do a lot of adoption agencies still have this negative opinion of military families? Also, is the home study process any different for military because of BAH or any other issues?? Please help!! I would really welcome any advice or feedback. Thanks so much!
Like
Share
Hi and welcome to the rollercoaster ride called adoption.
I too am a military family in the process of adopting. The home study is really not bad. It's the waiting that's killing me, lol It takes time to gather all the information for the home study and then the report to be issued. The home visit was a breeze our SW spent 4 hours with us at our home. We gave her a tour of the house. It doesn't matter if you live in military housing they just want to be sure the home is safe for children.
Are you signed up with an agency? How long is your current tour where you our stationed. We just PCS'd and now have to get our home study updated so we can be active with our agency again.
The military has a reimbursement of up to 2000. for adoption expenses.
Good luck with your journey,
DKBW :)
Advertisements
Don't worry. The homestudy is actually the easy part of the adoption process...the waiting, the ups and downs are the hard parts.
We are also a military family. I have worked as a Social Worker doing homestudy's for two different state agencies and also had a homestudy completed on our home last July. My husband being in the military and us moving every three years has not been an issue.
We are currently matched with a pbmom who is due March 9th so we are anxiously waiting to see if this is really going to happen for us. :)
I wish you the best of luck and honestly...the homestudy is not a big deal. The Social Worker is looking to see what kind of family you are, to ensure you have a safe, clean home for a child, and to determine what your level of parenting skills are.
Relax! :)
T
What a difference 10 years can make! DH was AD/USN when we adopted too, now is RET/USN (May 2003). We had *no* issues with his status at all, in fact they liked that our son would be covered under CHAMPUS/Tricare immediately with no pre-existing clauses.
The homestudy is part of the process, though like everyone says it's really not as bad as you think it will be. Their goal here is to ensure that you'll be good parents and that you're financially & emotionally prepared to be parents and that you live somewhere that is safe and has room for a child. They never asked about BAH/VHA or anything like that.
Best of luck, I bet you'll find the experience very different from DH's shipmate.
Regina, AMom to Ryan Joshua Thomas
Thank you all so much for responding!! It is such a relief to hear from people who have 'been there'! We have a year and a half left at Pax River. We checked out all of the agencies in our area and have decided on the one we are going to use for our homestudy. They had very impressive references and were also the most helpful in answering our questions. I just want to thank you all again. I really appreciate it!!!!!!