The Second Thing--domestic homestudy

Here is an email I sent to friends that explains what happened when we checked into having our homestudy switched to domestic...

So I call our SW to ask her to domesticate (wink) our homestudy--no problem she says. But in the conversation she tells me that if we're thinking domestic we should really check out Crisis Pregnancy Outreach here in Tulsa/Jenks. She has done all of their homestudies for 16 years and if we go through them we may not need to update the homestudy or anything. Tells me to call the office, etc. for more info.
So off I go to call yet another adoption agency--goodness gracious! And our SW is right--if we went through them we wouldn't have to do anything to our homestudy. They place around 30 kids a year and it takes "2 hrs to 2 years" to be matched. Fees are a total of less than $7000 including finalization. Here's the catch--they only take applications twice yearly and guess what's going on now? Right--applications are being accepted until the end of July.

This is a neat agency. It's been running for 21 years and nobody has EVER received a paycheck! It is completely volunteer and all families adopting through them have to donate 100 hours of volunteer time as well. In addition, you have to sign a statement saying that you will never place your child in daycare until they are at least in 1st grade, and can only work outside the home if the other parent (or grandma, etc.) is watching the kids--even then, less than 25 hours a week.

One thing that would be a little weird is the level of openess in their adoptions. The lady said that many of their b-moms want Tulsa Families because they want regular visits (even once monthly!). If you adopt through them you MUST be willing to have the level of openess the birthmother wants--you don't designate.

Guess that's it for now. Lots to think about.
Anita