Home Study/Profile

emca

Hello! This question is for for those of you pursuing DIA and are working with an agency. Did you complete your profile before or after your home study was completed? Just asking because we have been home study approved since the beginning of July but are yet to be "in profile" with our agency. We are waiting for our book to be approved by the 2nd person in their office(it's been approved by one person already). I just feel like we are wasting a month of our home study time. We can't be chosen if any expectant moms come in since our profile is not there yet. I guess I'm just frustrated (we are waiting to wait). Just wondering what it's like elsewhere....

aligross

I cannot exactly tell you what will happen but from the process that we got from our SW is that we have to produce our profile book/website while we are IN the process of the Home Study - Our home study isn't approved until 3 copies of our completed profile is in their hands. We go "live" the day the home study is signed. 

I'd be on the phone/email with everyone wanting my month back... (Average home study = $3000 divide that by 12 and they have wasted $250 precious dollars of your's!)

summergirl79

For adoption our local agency did not want us to start our profile book under after home study was approved.... we then had to redo it when we added a national agency to our process to be in line with their guidelines...Now we are starting adoption number 2, working with both agencies again and finished our profile but are just starting our home study (just getting home study services from local agency though). The waiting can be frustrating!  GL!

Ginger71

We were encouraged to work on our profile during the hs process so we could "go live" as soon as we were approved. our book was actually approved, ordered and sent to the agency before our final hs meeting. Good luck and hope it gets approved soon

sgb721

Please know I totally understand how frustrating it is. Since we're using the same agency, I 100% understand. It gets better. The book will be approved, you can have it shipped right too them. If the first person already approved it, I believe its a formality. Stay on top of e-mailing them for information as they tend to be lax on communication. Hang in there- your almost fully active!!!!!!

We were HS approved Feb 10th (our HS was actually done on 12/29) and our profile book didn't arrive approved to be shown until 3/20.

maryoosa

We had our book approved and ready before our homestudy was completed. Then again, that wasn't hard since it took them 14 weeks to write up our homestudy.

sarahtoledo

We were working on our profile for a while so that when the home study was approved we could go live right away. GL!

Dr.Loretta

We completed our profile after our HS was completed. First we finished our HS, then we attended a profile class with our SW. She showed us examples of profiles from families already placed so we could get an idea of what people included. We also got a list of guidelines of what to include (and what not to include).

Once we put our profile together, we had an in-person meeting with our SW to go over any questions or concerns associated with our profile.

In hindsight, it was no big deal. We went into the waiting pool when it was "meant to happen", and were matched within 4 months. During that time our office was a one-woman show, so some things took time, but it was worth it in the end.

GL!

emca

Thanks everyone! It's good to hear everyone's personal accounts. I'll give it a few more days before I call.

jackieo1309

I don't really have any advice, but I definitely know the frustration. Our HS was approved 6/28 and we weren't actively waiting until early October. It took them forever to get "edits" back to us for our profile book and most of them were useless. Once we got to August and still weren't "in the books" I started really complaining to our SW and she was able to move it along a little (but obviously not much). I totally understand the frustration. Hang in there.

jackieo1309

I wrote this on our blog when we were stuck in the middle of all that too. I know it probably won't help much, but know you aren't alone!

https://thelifethatiswaitingforus.wordpress.com/2012/08/18/delayed/

kva11isho

Ugh!  How frustrating!  Our home study and profile books did not seem to be related at the agency we're working with.  I started our books before our homestudy process and ordered a "rough draft" copy from shutterfly the day after our last meeting.  I dropped off our duplicate copies before we had our home study approval letter, and I don't think our books had to be approved by anyone. 

I do remember being frustrated at one point because I paid the invoice that came with our homestudy approval letter and I was told that our virtual profile would be live on the agency's website right away.  It took about 2 weeks for that to happen and that was only after my husband called to ask about the delay.  We were told that our home study was not all the way complete, so I was confused why we got the appoval letter.  All of this ended up being a miscommunication, and equaled time wasted. 

If I were you, I'd be calling every day asking them for an update.  Good luck!

kva11isho

 

bumpuser794640

We were told what our profile should be like at our seminar, so we can work on it while we are waiting to do our homestudy interviews and visit/for approval.  Ours is only a page front and back, though, so we don't need a ton of time to work on it, either.

adoptmommy

We used an attorney who works with several advertisers and we were blessed to be matched the exact same day as our home study appt- only 24 days from turning in our book. Our BM isn't due for 6 months so our home study is getting wrapped up this month but we've started all of the process. We have paid attorney retainers, starting her living expenses escrow account & get to start planning the nursery soon. Now we are just trying to find out the balance of contact with our BM- it's semi open so will meet once before for dr appt, then at hospital but after that is just pictures & letters. We were told to "follow the BM's lead" so we guess we'll just wait for her to text us.