adopting during deployment

DH and I are going forward with our adoption plan. The only thing keeeping us from starting this week - he is currently in Iraq. I've called a local agency to do a home study, and they have said they would be willing to do the home study while dh is home on R&R - so I need to get everything dh needs to do in person done during that couple of weeks. Once the home study is done, I am going to submit our homestudy and stuff to a couple of agencies who are willing to work with us while dh completes his deployment. I could take a placement without dh being there by using a POA, which we will have written up while he is on R&R. Has anyone else here been through this during deployment?