[Mak368]

Hello all!!

So, I am please to say that my application for adoption was accepted last Tuesday. My question is......my husband and I are still not sure on what agency to go with for our home study. While we are trying to decide, should we set up and appointment for our physicals, before we have the medical form?? What do we all need to have done?? I know there was a link to the form somewhere on this site, but I can't find it?? I just feel like I should be doing something more right now to keep the balling rolling, but don't want to have to repeat any medical test if I can help it. I would appreciate any insight on this......thank you!

Michelle

[Momof2boysinOH]

I was concerned about this, too. Our placement agency and our homestudy agency had different medical forms. Our placement agency had much more involved tests while our homestudy agency just asked our doctor to write that we were healthy enough to parent a child. In addition, our homestudy agency needed forms for our 2 children but our placement agency did not.

Perhaps if you're using the same agency, I can help you by emailing you the medical form. Please PM me with the name of your agency and I'll see if I can help.

Good luck!

[drmalcolm]

Hi Michelle,
Congratulations on having your application accepted! How exciting that the ball is rolling for you.

Okay, this may come out a bit disjointed, so please bear with me.

I am in a similar situation, only the other way around. We are doing our homestudy first, as we are on the fence between countries and just wanted to get started (I was, in fact, *so* efficient in getting an appointment for a physical and yelling at my poor husband to do the same that my physical came and went before we were even ready to apply to our homestudy ).

For the agency I am using for a homestudy, the medical form is kind of casual--not much more than a one page list of check-off questions for the physician. When I asked my SW if I would have to do this twice (I know China and Guatemala require that your medical report be notarized), she said that every agency is different, but she would be happy to accept my agency's form so that I didn't have to do it twice. Granted, I don't have an agency yet... so I think I am going to do it twice. Again, though, the homestudy's medical form is a quickie and does not need to be notorized, so I know it's something I can just drop off and pick up a couple of days later.

In your case, I would see what your adoption agency has for you and go with that--if you get the notarized one for your agency first, I am guessing that your homestudy agency would then accept a copy of that. You know what it's like to try and set up doctors' appointments... so I think you are right to do that as soon as possible. My husband mentioned in his that we were adopting, so they automatically set up a battery of tests, too. My physician did the physical back in November and told me to just set up a lab appointment once I got the ball rolling so the tests would be recent.

I hope this helps. Best of luck to you, Michelle!

Christina

P.S. I just read Mary's post and she seems much more knowledgable than I do! Go with her advice!

[Mailbox13]

HS agencies will accept the forms from the Placement Agency. They do this so you don't have to do things twice. I would recommend using the medical form in your Adoption packet from your agency. It will be much more detailed than the one from your HS.
Good Luck.

[Momof2boysinOH]

I PM'd you!

[foxl]

China has different medical requirements but I think the form may be kicking around online. So get your paws on it and get your appt. made!

Medicals can be, er, challenging, because for SOME REASON, Medical offices are resentful of extra paperwork and do not complete it correctly ... so you might need to strong arm them! (I have a dear friend who is an MD and says that they have a horrible amount of paperwork, expected to complete between seeing patients, etc.)


And yes, go about getting the other dossier documents, as well. You never know who might drag their feet on References or whatnot.

Some might argue that the documents expire, but for China I think they expire after one year (correct me, anyone?), before your Dossier is logged in?

[NeshRoo]

Michelle - This is some good advice folks are giving you! The best way to go is to get your palcement agency's form, and it's very likely the HS agency will accept this (Ours did). If you know what agency you'll be using, you can find someone here to share that form with you. I'd also be happy to give you a copy if we were with the same agency. If we are, you can PM me to the info!!