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After having a painful but good experience with our foster baby and the journey of reuniting with his mom we felt strongly it was time to put in our papers with LDSFS. I mailed the initial application along with references on Saturday. Does anyone know how long it is (or was for you) after LDSFS receives the initial application until they schedule a homestudy or ask for more information? I feel our references will be prompt on getting letters back, they were when used for our foster care references and are very excited about the prospect of us adopting.In becoming foster parents we had mountains of paperwork to fill out. Everything I could imagine about our family life and our feelings regarding adoption was asked. It was grueling and took a solid week of free time to finish. After that was approved we then had a homestudy scheduled. The SW who performed our homestudy was already a "friend" and that was a very good experience. She really didn't ask many questions just looked at the house and small talk. After that it took a few weeks to type up our official "Homestudybased on her visit and the paperwork we had filled out. Then we were approved. Is this much the same with LDSFS after our initial application and references check out? Anyone out there who has been through it and can give me an idea of how it works? I want to call and ask but I was on the phone with them 2 times last week regarding questions I had. I don't want to be a pest.We may/may not be moving-so I'm stressing/well more then anything excited and want to plan ahead if I can. We have a contingency offer on our home based on the buyer selling their home. I'm hoping that we are in our new home BEFORE the homestudy is scheduled. But because the market is flat where our buyer is selling and currently they haven't had an offere on their home we have at least 2-4 month minumum period of time before we will be moving-if ever! If our home is sold and finalized and we know a moved date I will schedule our homestudy after moving if things are not finalized and up in the air we will have our homestudy done in our present home and updated when/if we move. Wow! If you've weeded through this I just have to say thank you. Please PM me if the agency information cannot be shared publicly. L
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I didn't have the same experience as you because I have not previously adopted but I know that others who have adopted from LDSFS and are looking to adopt again had to take some classes before they had their home study. It took us about 6 months for everything to be complete and on the waiting list. We had a couple of hang ups along the way though but I am guessing if you have to go to a couple of classes then you will be done in a couple of months. Just my experience anyway.Cami
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If you have had a homestudy, check and see if it can be used again thru LDSFS..it may be that it just needs to be updated...it is a state law, not an agency one, so all utah homestudies no matter who did them, are all valid in utah with maybe a few changes....most couples don't already have them done...so LDSFS does them....please call and check, this may save you some time!
Thanks for the info. We are in NY, we got about 2 pages of information and nothing was sent to us about attending classes. I'm all for classes but the only agency in NY is 4 hours from us. We have 10 hours in MAPPS training already along with my 4 hours I will take to update our foster care license. We have not adopted previously, we have been foster parents though. I talked to the worker about the possibility of a move and she mentioned something about the social worker coming to our area once a month. It made me think it would be done fairly quickly...but that was after I got off of the phone and was thinking about our conversation which had nothing to do with the timeline. So I'm guessing it may be different depending on where you live? If its 6 months, which seems sooooo long, then we should have plenty of time to finalize homestudy/moving. I'm about ready to breakdown and call, I'm the type (when excited about something) wants to plan as much as possible. Thanks again for the replies. L
The foster homestudy has much of the same stuff as an adoption one...just call and let the worker know that you already have a homestudy and ask if it can be used. I kept my calling to once every few weeks...and the 6 month thing is mostly due to all the paperwork you gotta fill out, and FBI clearance and such...I have seen homestudies be done in weeks instead of months when the situation is right.Just call and tell the CW that you forgot to tell her you already had a homestudy done and can it be updated and used to help speed things up? She may still need a homevisit, but she can redo that part later if you move....it is very much like the homevisit your friend already did...identify potential hazards/problems, make sure your home is in compliance with state safety laws..etc... It really was the easiest part...And my home was being torn apart at the time for a remodel!
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Well, the homestudy is a state requirement. Their may be some aspects to it that are purely LDSFS related, but the bulk of it is to be compliant with state regulations....it is a state homestudy, done by LDSFS who is licensed by the state to do them. So if you already have one done, it could still be valid in your state, with some minor additions/updates. Also if it was recent enough, there may need to be zero updates/additions. LDS Standard requirements are approved before a homestudy is started I think...that was what the application process was I believe....I don't recall any LDS specific parts to our homestudy...
When the application is approved, they call you to schedule the home visit and tell you that you were approved. The secretary usually knows the basics like how long a homestudy is good for, and you wouldn't be bugging the CW.....also if you have a copy of your prev homestudy, you could just fax it with a note....stating that it may help simplify the process.
good idea!Well I did call and I spoke with the seceratary-she was the only one in the office. It was a good thing I called because I WAS to send in the fee with the application and I didn't. Those applications get expidited much faster. The wording states that you pay it when your application is approved, so thought I was supposed to wait. Anyway she was unsure if we could use our homestudy or not because she had never been asked that question before. I hope our county DSS will be okay with sending our homestudy on. We are officially on hold as far as accepting any placements but I have not told anyone at DSS that we plan on private adoption. I'm actually in the process of writing the 3 women who helped us most (one of whom is the person I need to update) "thank you" letters that also let them know our plans to pursue private adoption. I don't think SW get thanked enough and certainly they are not compensated for what they do. So I was planning on bringing them some flowers tomorrow with their thank you letters. I know it will be a blow to them when I tell them we will no longer be fostering. One of our workers is struggling and things like loosing good foster homes don't help. I also have some things I needed to wrap up in regards to papers being signed with our foster baby leaving just a little over a week ago. I'm also going to see him tomorrow! I have been so grateful to remain part of his life. His mom plans on attending church with us and we get to babysit during the week periodically. Well duty calls. I've been at this far to long. Time to get dinner on. L
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