Ah, the dreaded home study. You will probably lose some sleep over this one, I know I did.
Prior to the actual home study though, you will need to fill out an autobiography, a parenting guide, and a marriage guide.
Autobiography: Think of this as a resume for your whole life, including some of the poor decisions you’ve made. Describe what kind of childhood you had, parents, siblings, friends, schooling. Describe your adolescence. And finally describe your adulthood, including college experience, military experience, work history, personal goals, traumatic experiences, etc.
Parenting Guide: The parenting guide was fun for me to fill out. It made me take a step back and look at my life, how I was currently living, what kind of parent I wanted to be, and how I thought I could get there. It made me identify qualities in people in my life that I wanted to mimic and others that I wanted avoid. Lastly, it made me look at how I wanted to discipline our children.
Marriage Guide: The marriage guide had me looking back at my relationship, how we met, why we decided to get married, strengths, weaknesses, how we resolve conflict, budgeting, etc.
The Home Study: Expect your privacy and personal life to be invaded. At least that’s what we heard and read over and over while researching the home study. The home study used to be conducted by CPS but is now outsourced. We had a psychologist conduct our home study and it honestly wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. I had read that they will go through every drawer, every closet, every nook, and every cranny. What really happened? It was more of a walk-through, not digging through drawers but looking through the entire house at a higher level. I had read that they will ask you some deeply personal questions that really have no business in knowing. What really happened? They did ask some personal questions like what’s your worst memory from childhood and how did you handle it? But they laid off some of the other questions I had read that they may ask.
We assumed once the home study was complete that we were licensed and could potentially get a child that day.
Our assumptions were a little off. Instead, the doctor had to type up their report on the home study and that could take up to 2 weeks. Once that is submitted, CPS will need to review it and that could take another couple of days. And lastly, you will probably have some final paperwork that you need to sign with your foster agency to officially be licensed.
We also assumed that once licensed, we would get a kid almost immediately. Not the case but that may vary depending on the criteria you have in place for the type of child you are willing to accept.
And so now we wait.
The Full Series:
- Quick Recap of How I Got to Where I Am Now
- Why Foster to Adopt?
- The Full Pre-License Process
- Foster Process – Phase I
- Foster Process – Phase II
- Foster Process – Phase III (this one)
- Scratching the Surface: Religion (future)
- Overwhelmed (future)