"If you live in the U.S. and are going to adopt, you will need an adoption home study. Many states require homestudies before a child can be placed in your custody as adoptive parents. It is recommended that you complete a homestudy as one of the first steps in your adoption process." (Referenced from Adoption.com)

One of the most un-nerving ordeals regarding adoption seems to be the adoption homestudy.

It does vary from state to state, agency to agency, and from each different type of adoption.

In layman's terms, a homestudy is exactly that. A study of your home.

However, a homestudy worker (usually a contractor working for an agency, or through the Social Services system, whichever method you've chosen), comes to your home and does an initial assessment of your home.

Do you have a smoke detector? Do you have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen? Are the chemicals out of the reach of children? Do you have a first aid kit? How about a fire escape plan?

Even though when I went through my homestudy, I was prepared for all of those things...I was NOT prepared for what felt like a private investigation of my family and surroundings!

My homestudy consisted of my homestudy worker (hereinafter referred to as HS worker) asking VERY personal questions about myself, my husband, and my family, as well as asking Tony those very same things.

I was asked why my 2 sisters were divorced, why my husband doesn't contact his siblings very often, if any of my family had substance abuse problems, and all sorts of things.

These questions are asked in an effort to "trend" the family...basically discover things you may not have realized about your family until they're on print.

Then, she collected from us the name of 6 references to call and ask about us, and then let us know that while the children are wards of the state, they will have to have a background check performed for the person I designated as their caregiver, which was my mom.

Now, being we're doing Foster to Adopt, that wouldn't apply to an international adoption, of course, where you take home your baby from the country and they're "yours" from the day you receive them. But for us, it applied, and that was a headache.

Then, if there were any problems to correct in the home, we *SHOULD* have been advised of them. However, we were NOT advised of them (read the "home issues" subheading of the home inspection), so feel free to read up on things that can go wrong. LOL

But, all an all, it all boils down to this: if you're not a felon, have a history of abuse or abusing children, and your house isn't a major dump (i.e.: holes in the walls), you'll be JUST fine!

Harrowing? Yes. Nerve-wracking? YES! Ultimately worth it? YOU BET!!!
Until Tonight,
Kristi