What Is A Homestudy?
A homestudy is a series of four meetings between you (all potential parents) and a social worker to explore family and adoption issues. This provides more in-depth information about the international adoption process and helps prepare you for parenting a child from another country or with special needs. It is a way for the social worker to assess your readiness to adopt and a means for you to learn more about what will be required. It is also a process to help you clarify your own thinking. Therefore, the homestudy can be viewed as a mutual assessment of all aspects of the adoption process and preparation for adoptive parenthood. The social worker will write a report that becomes the central document of your dossier.

This report focuses on you and your family, and the reasons you want to adopt. The report is required by overseas programs so that the administrators can be assured that the child will be placed in a stable environment. The homestudy is also required by CIS prior to granting a visa to the child so he or she can enter the United States.

It is natural to be nervous during the homestudy! Keep in mind that you are not expected to reveal every intimate detail of your life, neither are you expected to be perfect! There are no ten commandments of "right answers." It is important to be honest, be yourself and present a true picture of what your family history and your family's everyday life is like.

There is no set format that adoption agencies use to conduct their homestudies. They must follow the general regulations of their state, but also have the freedom to develop their own application packet, policies and procedures within those regulations. Some agencies conduct individual and joint interviews with a husband and wife or individual interview with a single prospective adoptive parent. Others hold educational group seminars with several families at once.

In general, the group sessions cover topics such as parenting skills, the pros and cons of adoption, ways to introduce relatives to adoption and practical hints to help a child adjust to the new family.

Most agencies ask applicants for written information about themselves and their life experiences. Agencies also require certain documents: a marriage license, birth certificate, health exam, criminal history check and child abuse clearance. Personal character references are often requested, as well.

There will be at least one interview in your home. An important point here: the worker is not visiting your home in order to conduct a "white glove" inspection! He or she simply needs to see if the child will be entering into a safe and healthy environment, and whether you have thought ahead as to how you are going to accommodate the new family member.

As a final note about the homestudy, remember that even though an adoption homestudy may seem invasive or lengthy, it is conducted in order to prepare you and help you decide whether adoption is really for you. The regulations serve to protect the best interest of the child, and to make sure he or she is placed in a loving, caring, healthy and safe environment. Once you accept this premise, it will become a lot easier to follow through with what is required of you.

After it is all over, you will be on your way to building and expanding your family. There are thousands of children around the world that await a stable loving family like yours.