those not using an agency....

itsmyangel

did you have someone do a homestudy before you started telling people/advertising yourselves as looking to do an adoption?  Or did you start putting that information out their and wait to do your homestudy? 

IRR

We did our homestudy first.  I guess you can tell people and start networking, but if a quick opportunity comes up you will have to pass until the HS is completed.  Also, you should make sure there are no issues with getting your HS completed.  Our SW had some stories for us that weren't pretty.  GL.

bhead81

We were matched before we were homestudy approved but we also match very early in the pregnancy. We did tell the BM that we were not approved yet but were in progress. The lawyer we used for everything was also aware of our homestudy progress the whole time.

BostonLove11

We planned on using parentprofiles.com and you need an approved homestudy to have a profile up on that site.  Also, I just thought it looked better in the eyes of BMs if you were already approved (peace of mind, etc).  But that's just my two cents.

irismorning

My situation was a little different in that I had my children in my home through court-appointed custody for a few years before I was able to TPR and pursue adoption. I will have to admit, I found it very odd that I had to complete a home study to ensure that I was able to have children in my home when those same children had been living in my home by a court order for years...

When I adopt again, I will definitely have the home study in place first. It took much longer than I anticipated. (Just to get everything written and typed up.) When we were in court for the TPR, the judge was actually going to do the adoption proceeding as well (we found out when we got there), but the private agency that I was using for the home study had not finished typing everything up. (This was over a month after corrections have been sent to them.) Therefore, I had to wait another few months to get back on the court docket for the actual adoption.

You can always update the home study (check and make sure this is an option with the group that does the home study), but you do not want to miss out on an opportunity by not having it.