The Homestudy

Up next. The Homestudy. If you or someone you know has ever fostered or adopted a child, they had to go through the process called a homestudy. This process is to make sure that the adults interested in raising a child are capable, functioning adults that can provide a safe and nurturing space for children to grow up. While this sounds simple enough, it is an evasive journey that was both frustrating and rewarding. We found the journey to be frustrating because we had to spend a lengthy amount of time gathering documents, attending doctor appointments, and answering an endless amount of questions… thirty five pages of questions and two essays to be exact - that took a deep dive into our lives. Despite feeling frustrated with the daunting task of answering each question with enough detail but in the attempt to avoid oversharing, it is safe to say that these questions prompted many great conversations that are important for couples to have at some point in their relationship.

After we filed our paperwork, a social worker from our adoption agency came to our home for the inspection. In reality, she was simply looking to make sure that our home was safe for children… and to make sure that we had fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, and evacuation plans in the event of an emergency. We are thankful for our family that helped us to quickly install a railing by the steps to our basement just a few days before her arrival.

Finally the paperwork was submitted for approval and we were approved on paper in late August.

While we were in the whirlwind of documents for our homestudy, we partnered with an adoption advertising company to create an online profile and a profile book that prospective families would see when they are considering choosing adoption for their baby. This process was more fun because we were able to slow down, look at many pictures from the duration of our relationship, and write mini chapters about our lives. We had an editor for both our photos and our writing which was super fun to feel like an author for a short time! To our surprise, they sent us multiple copies of our final profile book and we were floored by the professional book that so sweetly summed up our relationship. These profile books will be delivered to families to review as they start to consider options for their family.

Looking back, we appreciate the thoroughness of the process because it hopefully means that children are being placed with humans that have their best interest at heart and will be able to raise them in a safe and nurturing home environment. And please… share our story, website, and profile with others in the hopes that it will lead us to the next chapter for our family.

#HoutzFamilyJourney