Are you in compliance with your Adoption For Life requirements? Not sure what they are? Here is a quick reminder so you can do a self check to be sure you are on track with the requirements of the program:
Home Study
Your signed agreement requires that you begin your home study within 45 days of signing the agreement. Your coordinator may ask for evidence and for the name of your home study provider if this hasn’t been provided.
You are also required to arrange for copies of the home study and updates to be provided to your coordinator. This can be of vital importance; in fact we just had a family call us, stuck out of state waiting for ICPC, and their home study provider had gone on vacation to Hawaii. Thankfully we had a copy of the home study that we could fax to their attorney so they could get clearance and get home, days before their home study provider would even be back in town!
If you have a home study, you are going to need to ask about annual updates, especially if you are networking outside of your state. Most states require that your home study be less than one year old. This is vital to adoption success. The last thing you want is to have your adoption held up because your paperwork wasn’t in order.
If you still have not started your home study, contact your coordinator today to obtain referrals to qualified providers.
‘Dear Birth Parent(s)’ Letter
Your signed agreement requires that your coordinator read and review your adoption profile, either the hard copy or online version within six months of starting the program. This is for two reasons… The first is that we want to help you be successful and contribute our years of experience. The second is to help keep you accountable and moving in the right direction.
Remember, we are here to make suggestions, help select photos, and evaluate the finished product for you. We can offer advice on your adoption video and Facebook page too!
Networking
Your signed agreement requires that you actively be networking and marketing in order to connect with prospective birth parents. If you are unsure of where to begin, revisit the lesson on Networking to see what feels most comfortable for your family. The biggest results currently are coming from Facebook pages and paid Facebook advertising.
Checking In
As a reminder, your signed agreement requires that you contact your coordinator on a monthly basis to provide a status update including letting her know of any adoption developments, changes to contact information, or other items in regards to adoption. This is important to stay in touch, receive answers to your questions, and ensure you are on the right track.
Educational Opportunities
We provide monthly webinars that are presented live and later posted on the site in appropriate locations. Your signed agreement requires your participation in them, either live or listening later. You are responsible for the information shared. If you are not available to listen live, be sure that you are letting your coordinator know that you are catching up by listening to the recordings and letting her know your feedback as well!
Adoption For Life has been designed for your success, but like any adoption, it is not without effort. These requirements were built in to help build accountability into the program so you can adopt sooner rather than later. If you have fallen behind, make a commitment to start again today!
