The Cost of Cassie’s Adoption

I just took the Adoptive Families magazine Cost & Timing of Adoption Survey. I already had all of our expenses in a spreadsheet, sorted by year, for our taxes. I just had to break them down into categories for the survey. I am sharing them here. Let me tell you why. I am not sharing … Continue reading →

Home Studies in Robyn’s Adoption Land

It’s been a long time since we’ve been to Robyn’s Adoption Land, so I thought I’d finish up this draft and take us there. In the present day world, home study requirements vary from state to state, and sometimes from agency to agency. Sometimes, agencies who do international and domestic adoptions will apply some of … Continue reading →

Can It Happen? Should It Happen?

A question was asked in an online forum today. A woman posted that, although she and her husband had “just started to pray about adoption” and didn’t even have a home study, agency, or lawyer, through her church, an expectant mom wanted to place her baby with them. The emom is in another state, and … Continue reading →

A Certain Period in 2011

In April 2011, we were matched with an expectant mom. In June 2011, we found out that she had decided not to place her baby for adoption. Totally understandable, yes, but of course, we were disappointed. We found ourselves not knowing what to do next. In California, home studies are good for only one year. … Continue reading →

Robyn’s Adoption Land: Agencies

Within the United States, there are two main categories of adoption: Foster Adoption and Private Adoption. Basically, any adoption that isn’t through foster care is private. There are subcategories within private adoption: Stepparent Adoption, Agency Adoption, and Independent Adoption. Stepparent adoption is pretty self-explanatory. Similarly, agency adoption is adoption that is done through an adoption … Continue reading →

Home Study Update

I alluded to our home study update in a few past posts. Home studies expire one year from when they are written. Ours was written at the end of September last year. You must have a current home study to take custody of a child. Therefore, we have to update our home study. Cost to … Continue reading →

Discouraged

Nothing promising to report. We registered with Adoption Consultants Inc. to be shown when their contracted families don’t meet the expectant mothers’ needs. I contacted Adopt America 411 about a biracial girl due soon. I never heard back. I contacted Angel Adoptions about an African American girl due on July 31. I emailed them twice. … Continue reading →

Home Study Visit

This post was originally published on AdoptionBlogs.com on August 17, 2010. Republished here with permission. Sorry I’ve been MIA for the past week. In addition to a software release at my day job, we were preparing for our first home study visit. A lot of new prospective adoptive parents freak out at the thought of … Continue reading →

1.62 Pounds

This post was originally published on AdoptionBlogs.com on July 28, 2010. Republished here with permission. Yesterday, we went to the package store to have our home study risk release notarized. We then stuffed a thick bunch of papers into a Priority Mail envelope. When weighed, it came to 1.62 pounds. We mailed it off. Almost … Continue reading →

Late Night Update

It’s been over one month since I updated this blog regarding our home study status. Although I had initially hoped to have all the paperwork done in May (hahahahaha), that didn’t happen. We came really close to having it done in June, but aren’t quite there. This is what we have completed: Home Study Update … Continue reading →