Homestudy frustrations.

My husband and I adopted internationally in 1998 and our homestudy was completed in 22 days. The international adoption had nothing to do with how quickly our homestudy was completed, though, and if you've been waiting 14 months just for a completed homestudy, something's not right. I would certainly ask what's up and if I couldn't get a straight answer, find another SW/agency to do it. Sorry you're going through this. It stinks. Good luck. Becky

What are the reasons for the delay? That is WAY too long! We just finished ours for domestic adoption. It took a little over a month. Can you change Social workers? I wish you the very best! Keep us updated!

Hi, and thank you both for your replies! We took the MAPP classes beginning Sept. 2001 and had a couple of home interviews and got paperwork in by about November. Then our SW took a new position and we waited for a new one till about March. (not positive of the month there) We had our last interview with her in May and she finished writing up the homestudy in about August. Since her supervisor was out on a leave of absence, she had to give our homestudy to an interim supervisor to review and sign. Well, that took about 5-6 weeks and she made corrections to every page. Then the homestudy had to be retyped and sent back to her again. (This was on about Sept. 26) She did nothing with it after that and when the original supervisor came back on Oct. 14, she received the homestudy and has still not signed it. I don't know who she is even. I only have contact with our social worker. She had said that the interim supervisor had a double caseload since the orig. one was out on leave and now that she's back, the original social worker has a backlog of work and that's the excuse. I'm sure it's true but jeez, just get the dang thing signed and to the child worker so we can get this thing going!! ARGH! I just want to SCREAM! (especially when it's PMS time) Take care and thanks for listening. K.

I am sorry you have gone through so many delays! I would definately express my dissatisfaction with the agency about the time it has taken. However, I would not let that stop you from looking.. Perhaps if you check on some of the photolistings, then call your worker with some information about children you are interested in.. Maybe that will light a fire under their butts. As a side note -- as long as you have your MAPP certificate, you can also choose to go with another agency to complete your homestudy. I would definately be concerned... You are going to be dealing with these inefficiancies during your search, match, visitation, placement, and finalization steps. Best of luck. Heather

Just writing in with an update on our frustrating quest to become licensed as foster/adopt parents! Our SW's supervisor is now leaving her job but supposedly will be back to meet with our SW on Wednesday (the 20th), but we'll see. The last 5 meetings with her have not materialized because she's been out of the office so often. We're not quite sure where our homestudy is at this point so we're hoping the supervisor actually signed it and sent it to be copied, etc. We'll see. I spoke with another social worker and she is looking into everything for us also and is almost as aggravated at the system as we are, so hopefully things will happen now. Thanks, K.

Well, our homestudy is now signed and approved and we're just waiting for the licensing board to come out. We know we need to put the knife block up in a cabinet, along with scissors and other sharp things, have a child lock on the med. cabinet already (magnetic one); have the outlet caps on; have the deck fenced and gated so the child can't go visit the ponds on her own, etc. Is there anything unusual that I may not have thought of that anyone has run across in becoming licensed? We are now a little closer to our little girl!!! We have been at this for 14 mos now and another couple we know who are adopting from the same county were licensed 5 mos. from the time they started their MAPP classes and were just referred to an infant!!! It's amazing how the different social workers work! :( God must have a special little girl in mind for us. (she'll have to be special to deal with her four big brothers!) I'll update more when anything comes up. Thanks for listening, K.

I know about the waiting on our homestudy, I took 7 months to complete. It has now been 7 months and we have applied for over 30 kids out of state and 5 in the state without any luck. We want an older girl around 10 - 14 yrs old. It seems their are all the kids on AdoptUSKids but very few social workers respond to even receiving our homestudy. We are giving up on the adoption process because we feel we will never succeed. I am a teacher and my husband is retired Army and teacher and we are childless. DHS service is really bad, I think they want to keep the kids in foster care for their job security.

Janet, Don't give up! I cannot believe that with you asking for an older child that they are not helping you more! There are TONS of older kids out there! Which state are you in? You need to go higher up in the ranks and make a complaint, I think. That is just ridiculous. But your child IS out there for you, I do believe that. We actually got our baby girl last May 31st! She's 8 mos. old today and is just a sweetheart. It's a miracle! We were asking for a girl birth to 4 and we found her pretty much on our own, not through our social worker. It was a little bit of a struggle to getting her but she's here and we could not imagine life without her. So don't give up! Go higher if you have to, be a little pushy if you haven't already been. It did take us 21 mos. but we have our daughter!! Kathy

Oh.........wow.......did I write this note or did you!! I was in the same spot as you up until August 1st, 2003 and at that time we were presented a little boy. We have been shown home studies for other children through the years..we started Nov. 2001, but none of them really matched. Well, then August 1st we finally say yes..this is a match and everyone was thrilled only then did we find out our agency had not registered us with the state. So we waited until just this October 2003 before we could get our little boy. He is a perfect match and now we now why it took so long. Please email me and I will help you get registered, or at least tell you how I pushed them to get finished as I do know how frustrating it is. But, do not give up!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My wife and I are completing an international adoption, and our homestudy was completed VERY quickly. As a matter of fact, we are both teachers, and most of ours was completed during our Sping Break a year and a half ago. However, its completion had nothing to do with the fact that we were adopting internationally. If you could enroll with a private agency, I think it would be worth your while. If you are already with an agency, change! 14 months is WAY WAY WAY too long! Best of luck!