Home Study

The home study is something dreaded by nearly all adoptive parents as they invite a social worker into their home and try their hardest to come across as being ready to start a family. Home studies are stressful for two reasons: they cost a few thousand dollars and they affect your chances of becoming an adoptive parent. Some people wonder how a case worker could possibly understand them enough to judge their ability to parents in a few short hours. Experts will tell you that the pressure of a home study is hyped and over-analyzed. Being a good parent doesn't mean being perfect and this is something few people wrap their heads around.

For the most part, case workers will leave their biases at the door. Social work is a line of work that people get into for the ability to improve the lives of the hundreds of thousands of foster children and unborn adoptees who deserve to have the best possible life. Case workers are on the side of children but also want to be able to approve you for that same reason.

Case workers will ask intimate questions in an attempt to understand why you want to adopt. If you and your spouse have had unsuccessful fertility treatments in the past, a case worker may try to gauge if you've had enough time to grieve for the loss of a biological child. It's possible to contest a home study decision, but more often than not the case worker's choice will be supported.