In South Carolina with questions

Don't sweat the DHEC inspection. Our family went through it about 2 years ago(Upstate area). If I remember correctly, the man only stayed 15-20 minutes. The biggest deal for us was that he found lead in our mini blinds. He handed me a piece of paper that told me how to dispose of them properly. He said he did not need to come back to verify that they were taken down. He asked us about the pool and the locks on our doors. Maybe it was the fire inspector who asked about the door locks???? Put it this way, this part of the inspection was a breeze. I was way more stressed out over the home study than I was DHEC. Have it clean and you won't have any issues. Best wishes to you.

What exactly did he all look at or check on during the inspection? I just replaced my mini blinds in the entire house about 2 months ago and they are plastic so we are good on that. Our house was built in 1989 so there is no lead paint here. What all does he check/inspect? What all did the fire marshall check in your home? Do we have to do fire drills and log them too? Do we have to have a layout of the house displayed that shows evacuation route from the house? Can you give me more information in detail? Thank you so much!!!!

Hey,I remember more about the Fire Marshall visit than I do DHEC. A representative from DSS should accompany the Fire Marshall. I took this opportunity to "remind" them what we were looking for and try to get to know this woman. I'm not sure it did any good. Anyway, the Fire Marshall checked all of our smoke detectors. One must be in every room and one must be outside of the child's door in the hall. Yes, you need a drawing of your home and an exit plan. We drew arrows out of the home and set up a meeting place in the front yard. He liked this idea. The DHEC guy did test our wall paint, but our home was built in the 70's. We did not have any lead. I'm sorry, but I can't remember much else about it. It was about 1 3/4 years ago. Whew, how our memory fades. I remember a time when it was all I could think about too. You'll get your baby and all this anxiety over the inspections will fade far, far away. One thing I wanted to mention that I was not prepared for was the wait. There seems to be this hurry up and get all your paperwork done and in and then there is this big long wait! My family began the process in January, got our approval letter that June and by late August we got a call......from a private agency! This was not our plan, as we thought we would go through DSS. God had other plans for us. I pray that it moves quickly for you! It certainly is an awesome journey.

I am thankful for all of the information that you have shared with me. It is very helpful. I am so glad to hear that your adoption went so well. I hope that ours does too. Did you do all of your paperwork for a DSS adoption or what? So are you saying that just because we fill out the adoption paper work through DSS for them to find you a baby, do they pass your paper work to another agency or what? I am not understanding what you mean by you thought that you would go through DSS but God had other plans. I thought that DSS would handle everything for us and no other agnecies would be involved. So after we pass all the inspections and all of the paper work and everything is completed, then it takes 6 months to know if you are really approved or not? I would have no problem or complaint about only waiting 2 months after being put on a waiting list. I was thinking that it would be at least 6 months before they would be able to get to us and maybe longer. Did you always have a car seat and a packed diaper bag in you vehicle just in case you got the call while you were running errands or out of town?? Or what did you do to be "on-call"?

Hey,I'm sorry that my e-mail was confusing. Here's what happened for us...the short story. We did everything to be approved by DSS and then we began the wait. A co-worker of my husband's passed a prayer request to us about a baby that was coming up for adoption through a private agency. We contacted that private agency about that child (this was totally separate from DSS). It did not materialize for us with that child, but 1 week later that same agency called us and asked if we were intersted in an AA newborn? When we signed up w/ DSS we had only specified a CC child birth - 18 months. We were also open to foster to adopt as well. From what we understood this could shorten our wait to get a child in our home. So, you could say that we did change our minds mid way through the process. I believe that our wait would have been shorter for a newborn through DSS if we had been open to an AA child to begin with. Simply put, there are more AA children available for adoption. I will say this, our child is a true delight. People are curious about our family, but it is curiosity in a good way. We are complimented on her constantly and have received a very warm welcome from the AA community. Let me know if you have any more questions. As far as being on call....I felt the way you did about wanting to be totally ready. We did have furniture, but in hindsight I can see that we probably would have had a little time to get a carseat, etc. Odds are, you will have some time to get all that in order once you get the call. My best advice to you is become very, very patient! The people that we worked with were very nice. You should remember that DSS is a government agency. There is a lot of paperwork for them to go through. Be prepared to wait if you are only open to a CC newborn. Best wishes:cheer:

Thanks for clearing that information up. That helped out a lot. Do you know on average how long it can take (in your opinion or by fact. You don't have to be exact or certain but I just wanted to know for my own mind set) to get a CC newborn through DSS Adoption? Or whats the longest you have heard of someone waiting on CC newborn? We are willing to do whatever it takes. Does DSS only look in the state that you live in for a child or do they also look in other states? I have to be totally honest about buying baby stuff. We have it all! LOL We have a crib, crib set, play pen, portable playpen, swing, travel swing, 2 bassinetts, diaper bags, bottles, toys, tons of clothes for a boy, girl, and neutral, bath tub, walker, high chair, 2 changing tables, strollers, car seats, blankets, bottle warmers, diapers, bouncer seat, activity saucer, and tons of more stuff. We went ahead and got all of this stuff when we started the adoption process in 2004 because we were moving along through the process so quickly. We didn't want to wait until the last minute to have to buy everything and spend all that money at one time. Is there any other advice that you can offer me since I am new to all of this? I have already prepared myself to have to wait on DSS to find a CC newborn. I am willing to be patient. I was just wondering if there are any other pieces of advice that you could offer since you have been through it already. I am willing to take all of the advice that I can get at this point. Thanks again!!!