Need Advice Please!

AlbertaGrayGirl

Hey ladies,

So we have just had an interesting turn of events. Last February, DH and I had all our paperwork filed and were on the waiting list for a home study with the government agency. We knew that we were not high on their priority list, due to our restrictions on what "conditions" we would take in a baby. We recently decided to start filing the paperwork to go through a private agency. And, wouldn't you know it, I just got a phone call to set up a home study with the government! It is free to do a home study with the government, and costs about $3000 to do it through the private agency (high estimation). But, it costs $180 to transfer a home study to the private agency. So, should we go ahead with the home study with the government, and try to also use the same home study for the private agency? Are you allowed to have your name on the "list" for two agencies, or is that "cheating"? I don't want to break any rules, and I don't want to "use" one agency against another or anything. I just want to do the best I can to make sure that we are putting ourselves "out there". If we have to choose, I would choose the private agency, because we would be more likely to find a placement that matches what we want.

HELP!

Thanks

Dr.Loretta

I would ask about transferability of home studies. Some places want to do a completely new one, some want to do an addendum.

I would also ask if each agency is OK with using more than one at a time. There are plenty of people here who have gone through more than one agency, so it's not like this is taboo. It's typically seen as getting yourself out there even more.

AlbertaGrayGirl

Thank you!

kva11isho

I agree with what Dr. Loretta said.  Just make sure to check with each agency on their "networking" policies, and if there are any fees assocaited.  The agency we are currently working with has a fee to transfer your homestudy to another agency.  When we were looking to network with another agency, we had to consider how the two agencies structured their fees.  It turned out that it would be too financially risky for us to work with both, but there are plenty of people who do it!  Mainly we were concerned about if we paid a match fee to one agency but the match failed for some reason and then we were matched with an EMom with the second agency.  The agencies we were looking at would not refund the match fee in this circumstance.

Good luck!

AlbertaGrayGirl

I talked with the representatives from both agencies today. As it turns out, the home study from the private agency can transfer to the government, but not the other way around. I scheduled a home study with the government for January 23rd, and told her that we were also looking into a second agency to make sure that there was no conflict of interest. She put me on hold to look into it, and then she said that her agency might require us to get the home study through the private agency and then transfer it. She is going to confirm with her superior on Tuesday. Until then, we still have a tentative appointment scheduled. But, if we have to get the home study through the private agency, that puts everything on hold with BOTH agencies until we get that ball rolling. We have waited for nearly a year for the government agency to even book this home study for us.

jelly718

We had a local social service agency do our homestudy in our home state. We used a private attorney in another state and signed with an adoption agency in yet another state.  All three said it was perfectly acceptable to sign with multiple agencies, but if we were matched to make sure we let everyone know.