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Just wondering if anyone else here was either themselves in the military or if their husband is. If so, wanted to hear experiences and thoughts on adoption and the military, whether it made it harder or easier, or was just a pain in the butt. My husband is navy, undecided about whether or not to make it career yet. Anyone else?
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My husband is active duty Air Force. We are waiting for a child so I have no input as to whether the militay complicates the process, but I would assume that they don't. In fact I think they make it a bit easier becasue they reimburse $2000 of the fees after the child is placed and then they increase our family pay and benefits :)
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DH was AD/USN when we adopted our son domestically - retired 1 year after he came.
Honestly, his squadron (he was Naval Aviation) was great - very flexible since we did not know when our son was going to be born, and we had to travel to be there for birth and such. Ran an 'open chit' for him so he could just go without having to wait. Only condition was that we had to bring DS to see them (no problem!).
The reimbursement is nice, and the fact that your child gets coverage immediately as a pre-adoptive ward for medical benefits.
Also, we found it a great networking source - everyone was aware when we were searching, heck a Chief from way across the base got in touch with him b/c his daughter was pregnant and he heard DH knew 'something about adoption'.
Besides, being military, we were used to having things change in a moment - made the whole waiting/searching process a bit easier to handle I think.
Best,
Regina
I know this thread is a bit old, but here goes anyway. The military is wonderful about adoption! Not only with the reimbursement and pre-adoptive Tricare coverage, but also the 21 days of nonchargable adoption leave. This IS new, it IS in effect now. If you are told it isn't being given yet, you are being misinformed. Huby reseached this to the hilt. Yes, we do get it! In addition to that, when my hubby's supervisor emailed the command chief's wife about our adopting triplets, she sent out several emails to key people, and we had military memebrs from all over the base who we had never met calling us, emailng, and droppin off clothes, toys, diaper, wipes, even cribs, changing tabnles, highchairs, etc. The commissary decided to "Adopt" our family and gave us hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise, in addition to watching our babies when we go shopping there and letting us shop half an hour before they open, to avoid the frek show that only someone with higher order multiples can imagine! Yes, the military is wonderful about adoption!
My husband is active duty air force as well. We've adopted through fostercare so we didn't qualify for the $2000 reimbursment. Nor did we recieve any adoption leave time..(again becuase the time we actually adopt them they've already been in our home for quite some time).
However they have been wonderful about giving us a larger home on base 4bed2bath so we would have more room for the kids and when we adopted each of our kids the squadron gave us the option of getting $60 or them using that money to buy us flowers. Of course we preferred the $60.
The family support center was very friendly and gave us a little baby package for one of our babies(newborn) that was a little diaper bag with some baby supplies inside and homemade booties and hat.
Tricare has been wonderful to us and as soon as we get the adoption decree (which is usually the day of court or within 2 weeks) we are able to put them on our insurace right away(medicaid still covers them for about a month after the adoption anyways so they are definately covered one way or another durign that transition.)
So our experience has been very good with the military and adopting.
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Mom2-- they should give you leave anyway. Our adoption will not be final until our hearing, at least another two months from now. The babies have been with us since their birth in April. We have been informed by the person at the top of the food chain that we are eligible for it. I'd say fight to get it! Unfortunately, most people in charge don't know much about it, so I'm sure you were misinformed. It took hubby months to get the correct info. (I'm assuming, of course, that the policy was in effect at the time your adoption was finalized. It only became effective the beginning of this year.) See the thread on adoption leave in the Military Adoption forum, and PM me if you need any of the info we have.