Introduction

Mandypants30

Hello! 

My name is Amanda, and my husband and I just got the ball rolling on the adoption process. After 3 years of Not being able to conceive naturally, and 2 unsuccessful rounds of IVF, we are ready to make this postive move to adoption. We are very excited! We just turned in our application and are waiting to begin our homestudy. I am looking forward to any advice to this newbie, thanks! 

britters314

@Mandypants30  Welcome! Are you doing domestic adoption, international adoption, or adoption from foster care?

Mandypants30

Domestic for our first. In the future, we are considering fostering to adopt. 

AnnieR81

Hi @Mandypants30 My advice would be to get a list from your agency of exactly what you need to do in order to pass a homestudy with them. Because we are interested in adopting newborns only, our homestudy process was a lot less work than I thought it would be. We just needed to have a dedicated room and working smoke detectors and we needed to live in a safe home. I was so freaked out that I bought a million different plug covers and drawer locks and made my boyfriend completely rearrange our cleaning products... And they didn't even ask about those things. 

Foster care is a little different because they have to meet certain requirements. They are a lot stricter and want to see some of the things I mentioned below.

Also, ask for a list of questions they may ask you in advance so you have time to think about your response. Some questions they sent us ahead were great because we had  never really considered them before.

Good luck with everything and I'm sure it will go just fine.