Social Worker
We have a social worker!
The agency that is completing our home study is not the same agency that is completing our adoption. The home study process is state-dependent, so the agency must be licensed in the state we live in. Our adoption agency, All God's Children International (AGCI) is based in Washington and is not licensed in Virginia. As we looked at agencies to use for the Home Study portion, we chose America World Adoption Association (AWAA) because
1) they have a great reputation and
2) they are licensed in Virginia as well as other states we are likely to move to with Caleb's job.
We have to update the home study annually AND every time we move, so we need an agency that can travel with us, in essence. If we were to move to a state where they are not licensed, we would need to get a new agency and pay all the fees and likely re-do all of the paperwork again. No fun. By choosing an agency that we can stay with in other states, we only have to re-do some of the paperwork and pay an update fee. Still no fun, but not as bad as starting from scratch.
We had to complete quite a bit of paperwork before being assigned a social worker for the home visit and interview portion of the home study. If you know me, you know that completing the paperwork was neither a problem nor a hassle. We got everything done in about a month and we were assigned a social worker...who was taking a 3 month vacation! AHHH!
For a variety of reasons, waiting 3 months was not going to work for us.
1) I don't want to wait!
2) That is a huge waste of time when we are dealing with time-sensitive information (ex: background checks expire every year, so this delay would really impact the timeline in the future as we need to update our information)
3) The home study must be done in order to complete our dossier (all of the paperwork that will be sent to Bulgaria.) The dossier needs to be completed in 6 months (from our contract date in May) or we have to pay late fees. This is a crazy expensive process. We do not want to pay unnecessary fees.
...To his credit, this social worker wanted to complete all of our interviews in the next week before he left, but Caleb is gone for two more weeks so that is impossible...
When we realized the issue, the agency immediately said they would handle it...because they are great. And, today, we were assigned a social worker who will be able to meet with us in July.
The adoption process is l-o-n-g and those who know much more than we do say that any progress is good progress. We made good progress today, friends. Praise God.
The agency that is completing our home study is not the same agency that is completing our adoption. The home study process is state-dependent, so the agency must be licensed in the state we live in. Our adoption agency, All God's Children International (AGCI) is based in Washington and is not licensed in Virginia. As we looked at agencies to use for the Home Study portion, we chose America World Adoption Association (AWAA) because
1) they have a great reputation and
2) they are licensed in Virginia as well as other states we are likely to move to with Caleb's job.
We have to update the home study annually AND every time we move, so we need an agency that can travel with us, in essence. If we were to move to a state where they are not licensed, we would need to get a new agency and pay all the fees and likely re-do all of the paperwork again. No fun. By choosing an agency that we can stay with in other states, we only have to re-do some of the paperwork and pay an update fee. Still no fun, but not as bad as starting from scratch.
We had to complete quite a bit of paperwork before being assigned a social worker for the home visit and interview portion of the home study. If you know me, you know that completing the paperwork was neither a problem nor a hassle. We got everything done in about a month and we were assigned a social worker...who was taking a 3 month vacation! AHHH!
For a variety of reasons, waiting 3 months was not going to work for us.
1) I don't want to wait!
2) That is a huge waste of time when we are dealing with time-sensitive information (ex: background checks expire every year, so this delay would really impact the timeline in the future as we need to update our information)
3) The home study must be done in order to complete our dossier (all of the paperwork that will be sent to Bulgaria.) The dossier needs to be completed in 6 months (from our contract date in May) or we have to pay late fees. This is a crazy expensive process. We do not want to pay unnecessary fees.
...To his credit, this social worker wanted to complete all of our interviews in the next week before he left, but Caleb is gone for two more weeks so that is impossible...
When we realized the issue, the agency immediately said they would handle it...because they are great. And, today, we were assigned a social worker who will be able to meet with us in July.
The adoption process is l-o-n-g and those who know much more than we do say that any progress is good progress. We made good progress today, friends. Praise God.
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