Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The long, long, long homestudy process

I'm sure that there are large differences in the process between various homestudy agencies. BUT, I never thought it would take THIS long! Today I e-mailed to check the progress of the writing of the homestudy and I was told it was being reviewed . I mentioned that I would like to send it to be apstilled before the holidays. The response was: "Remember the home study draft will first go to St. Mary's, then we have to send it to the State of Illinois/DCFS intercountry for approval before the state will allow us to release it to you or immigration."

There are so many steps that they don't tell you about when you start. Is "state of Illinois/DCFS intercountry for approval" different than apstilling? I assume so. How long does that take????? We had our first interview on October 5th, our 2nd interview on Nov. 2nd...now it's December 15th and it is in review and then state of Illinois/DCFS intercountry for approval ... Are homestudys usually 3 to 4 months?

Something to keep in mind if you are starting this process....ask about the average time for each stage and compare agencies. We didn't really have a choice though, since we had an infant in the house, several homestudy agencies would not do one with us until the baby is over 1 year and we didn't want to wait that long.


9 comments:

  1. If I remember correctly, we had our initial homestudy Visit mid-December and received our Final Homestudy Report in April. 4 months. There were quite a few rough drafts that went back and forth between us, and the agency who wrote the homestudy and the agency we are using to faciltiate the International part. Everything needed to be "worded just perfectly" and I was surprise how long it took. Hang in there! However, I do agree with you about receiving straight forward communication about time lines and how long things should take. We were always guessing. I found the connections I made through these blogs the best way to figure it all out!

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  2. We had three Home Study visits (2/23/08, 2/29/08 and 3/1/08). Then we were rushed through hell to get the Home Study express mailed to our agency on 4/16/08. I wrote a long post about our ordeal with the Home Study phase:
    http://addingstars.blogspot.com/2008/04/most-stressful-week.html

    I agree, the stories on the blogs are the perfect indicator of what to expect with each agency.

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  3. Ours started in june of 2006 and took about 4 months also :-) Hang in there!!

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  4. I did not have to send the home study to NYS DCFS, which a a big surprise. If it makes you feel any better, I sent my documents to be apostilled last week Monday and got them back this Monday. I keep telling myself that there is a reason for the setbacks, it's the only way I keep my sanity. I'm having the same stressful week as you. I thought I was ready to send in my I800A form, but NO! We needed more documents. I could have had them if I had KNOWN!!! I completely empathize with you right now.

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  5. Our home study agency finished writing our home study the first week in November, with all the changes from St Mary's she just finished it last week. We are now waiting for St. Mary's to finalize it and send it to us. I talked to Lina and they have to make sure everything is perfect or it could get rejected. It seems like FOREVER when you are excited to finally become a Mommy. Just when it seems like things are going well something else always comes up. I would suggest searching for an apostille agency. In Michigan we have a walk in office, that way you don't have to send all the personal information through the mail. It's nice that we can read about other couples and see that we are not the only ones that are waiting. Good Luck!!

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  6. Good luck. My guess is that a different agency wouldn't have different time frames for the home study. Most of the home sutdy requirements are set not just by the country you are adopting from but also the state in which you are applying from. Maryland had a huge number of hoops to jump through before you even got the agency to draft the homestudy. So hang in there.

    I've come to realize that the reason for the delays were to ensure that our child was matched with us. If we were earlier she wouldn't have been available for international adoption yet.

    Good luck.

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  7. Ah, the setbacks. We were lucky in that our homestudy was not one of the setbacks. After our sessions (Pre-Hague)our adoption counselor wrote it up quickly and correctly and it was sent off. It still took 2-3 months for everthing. I do agree with C Speh...when you are finally matched with that little nugget, all the setbacks and frustrations will make perfect sense. If they didn't exist, you may not be matched with the child you are fated to be matched with.

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  8. I agree with C Seph! We had many delays and I questioned them all like crazy. But now looking at my son, I know exactly why we had them. I can't imagine any one else taking his place! Hang in there! Things will get done! Just expect the unexpected and be blessed. God has it all under control! Merry Christmas!

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  9. Rose, I don't know how I missed this post, but if you saw on my blog, only Illinois and Colorado have to go through that extra step of DCFS approval. I hope you are awating/have received your approval by now, we are still waiting on ours. DARN DCFS!!

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