One Step Closer to Parenthood: Tackling the Home Study

As we look ahead to summer, we've checked off a major to-do on our adoption journey - the home study. Wooooooooo!

The Homestudy Process

The adoption homestudy confirms for all legal and governing entities that we are reliable humans who would provide a safe, healthy home. Our lawyer will get a copy of this lengthy document, the state we adopt from and Massachusetts will get a copy, judges who formalize our adoption, etc. All that jazz.

Every piece of paperwork, every fingerprint scan, every background check and stressful moment has led to the home study.

During the month of May and June, we connected with our amazing caseworker, and social worker, Ava who conducted a series of interviews. We were nervous at the start. We cleaned the house WAY TOO MUCH.

We met with Ava together twice and had one-on-one interviews with her. She toured our home, met Nessie, Mao, and Khan and got to see our neighborhood.

We talked about our relationships, life experiences, thoughts on parenthood, the nuances of adoption, interracial adoption needs, and our goals as first-time parents. We figured out we all like making lists, love The Office and Ted Lasso. The home study is a lengthy, detailed account of who we are, our family history, our background, relationship style, and our reasons for adoption.

To say it's detailed is an understatement. This was overwhelming at certain points in time. The silver lining - third-party validation of our commitment was actually really affirming.

As of this June, we are officially complete with the homestudy. The homestudy is valid for one year. Hopefully, we won't reach the renewal phase but it's possible.

What's Next?

We are now officially qualified by the state of Massachusetts to adopt and are available to be matched with a birth family. Now, we wait. Yes, waiting is not our strong suit. but we'll focus on life pre-adoption. We could be parents in a few months or a year+ from now. The timing depends on the birth parents, the circumstances, and if we match quickly.

We completed our 10 hours of required adoption education but are also seeking to broaden our education, focusing on infant CPR, newborn classes, and other practical information while we wait.

We are exploring other agencies and adoption partners to connect with to further add our family to the pool of available birth families. This could mean more work for us but we are trying to be patient and thoughtful.

We are making a list of the things we want to do pre-baby. Katy plans to sign up for a half marathon in October. We plan to enjoy each other's company and continue to fundraise. We are on track to meet our full fundraising goal by December! :) We had an amazing Yoga in the Park fundraiser the weekend we wrapped the homestudy.

The Vibe - Gratitude

We thought we'd feel a ton of relief after the homestudy (and we do) but we are also so incredibly grateful for our friends, family, and community who have gotten us this far! From our adoption team at Adoption Resources, our friends who've adopted, our family, friends from every corner, and colleagues who understood our distraction and stress, you've each helped us get to this point in our adoption journey.

• Thank you to my friends who texted, checked-in, and connected every interview.

• Thank you to my mom who helped us clean our house for the third weekend in a row.

• Thank you to Ava and Neile at Adoption Resources who answered a ton of our questions.

• Thank you to our friends who support our most recent fundraiser and our good friend, Barbara who led our yoga workshop.

• And of course, I am eternally grateful to Trevor who has been an tremendous human.