process of adoption after finishing homestudy

April 25, 2015

Hello Everyone,

It's been a while since I last posted here.

My husband & I have been going through the adoption process actually for a couple of years now. We decided to go through adoption with the county of san bernardino, California. We Began with our homestudy worker a couple years ago.

Currently, we are finishing up with counseling. We have our last session on May 7th.

I emailed my homestudy worker regarding after (what happens), & she emailed me & said after our counseling is done, we will meet with her 1-2 more times; to finish up our homestudy interviews (either meet 1 day to finish up both interviews & together OR- 2 days to finish up).

I am wondering if anybody knows the process regarding what happens after you finish your homestudy? My husband & I are skeptical regarding the remaining process.

1) I was told by my homestudy worker that our file would have to be approved by her surpervisor ???

2) Since we went through counseling does our file go with everybody else's files OR does our file go in a separate pile?

3) Matching--- how does the matching process work? I know the child is matched with the best family that meets their needs. Does this involve the birth mother, does the birth mother have any say? Or do other people go through everyone's files to get the best match?

4) Do we get matched with children in our specified age range?

Any advice/information would be great.

Thanks.

Second Mom

June 8, 2015

I can't speak specifically to your county, but in our county It's my understanding that it basically works like this: all family's homestudies are entered into a computer. When they are looking to match kids they run a program that narrows the pool of families based on the criteria set in the homestudy. Once that is done, the social workers start going through the options to narrow down the families further to like the top 3 or so best matches. Then they start talking to those families licensing workers to determine the top 1 or 2 and THEN they contact the family.... at least that is how the process has been explained to me.

HOWEVER, we have gotten calls for kids outside our already wide age range, kids of the opposite gender, and for sibling sets of more than we are currently licensed to even take. Sooo basically, when they are desperate they will call anyone they think will take the kids... but that is more the fostering side of it. I think the adoption side sticks more closely to the process I described. We are open to both fostering & adoption. In either process we've always heard, the more open you are (the wider your ranges and tolerances) the faster you will get a call. In other words, if you will only accept a single healthy white infant girl, be prepared to wait a long time. If you are willing to take a sibling set of an 11yr old boy and a 14yr old girl of any ethnicity, expect a call pretty much the next day. Hope that helps! :)

Oh, and it's my understanding that everyone's homestudy has to be approved by the licensing worker's supervisor.

Last update on June 8, 2:09 pm by Second Mom.