[marista99]

Hi all,
So I have decided basically for sure that I want to adopt a girl from Ethiopia under the age of three years.

Here is my question: if I were to call an agency today and start my home study (which I can't TODAY, but want to do soon!), approximately when would you expect I would have my little girl home with me? I know there's a range, and I've heard young girls take longest, but I am wondering if I'm looking at six months or five years. I simply have no idea of the time frame of these things. I'm adopting as a single woman if that makes a difference here.

Thoughts?

Thanks (and sorry if this has been asked a million times--feel free to refer me to previous threads!),
Marianne

[ocracoke]

Marianne,

I am a single woman who recently adopted a little girl from Ethiopia. I requested a girl under 2 years and was referred a girl who was 18 months. Here was my time frame.

9/05 signed with home study agency
10/06 signed with placing agency
12/05 filed I600A
1/06 homestudy complete
2/06 fingerprinted for I600a
3/06 received I171h
3/06 submitted dossier to agency
4/06 dossier arrived in Ethiopia
6/06 received referral
7/06 court in Ethiopia
8/06 traveled to get daughter

Keep in mind that wait times between dossiers arriving in Ethiopia and referrals being issued are lengthening as the country becomes more popular. Young girls also seem to have a longer wait time for referral. My wait was 11 weeks and some people using my agency are waiting over 20 weeks now. Some agencies don't allow you to specify a gender so ask the agency when you are researching them.

If you have any questions just ask.
Samantha

[marista99]

Can I ask--does it normally take so long, four months from signing with agency to completing the homestudy?

Thanks so much for the info. I have been hearing that people are waiting longer now for referrals from Ethiopia. But even so, you did it all in under a year. That's really impressive!

[teranga]

Homestudy times vary a lot by homestudy agencies, so if time is of concern to you, be sure to ask them when it will be totally complete. Have them even put it in writing. That's what we did and it took ours 2 months, by which time the application, dossier, and I-171H were all done, and off everything went! The timing worked out perfectly. Our agency did allow it all to be done at the same time, so we didn't have to wait to complete the homestudy to start the dossier, or to have the I-171H done before starting the dossier...some agencies do require that...so ask those questions too of agencies!

Our process was very short (under 6 months from starting to having our son) but 1.5 years ago, so not as relevant as those who have done it more recently.

[ocracoke]

My homestudy took a little longer then expected. North Carolina requires 3 visits and I had home work in bewtween each visit. Plus I ran into holiday season (thanksgiving, xmas and new years). It wasn't much of a hold up for me though because I was still waiting for my I600a fingerprinting appointment.

Samantha

[annethcz]

I'd suggest calling the agency you're interested in, and get their opinion.

When we adopted DS last year, we took our sweet time, and it took about 11 months. This is starting from the time we started researching homestudy agencies until the day we brought DS home. DS was a waiting child, so we didn't wait for a referral. But we did get stuck waiting during the annual court closure (each year Ethiopian courts close during Sept & Oct).

We are just starting the process to adopt an infant, and our agency now estimates that the process will take 12-18 months. It is expected that parents waiting for the referral of baby girls or twins will have the longest wait.

[leastcmplicated]

I finished the HS in about 3 weeks and the dossier in a week. the HS would have taken shorter but we had to wait on DFCS to get the clearance back, and my paperwork apparently had just been sitting on someones desk for weeks.

[teranga]

Oh, the other thing which can really make a difference in home study time is the state you are in. We were in AZ when we did ours, and unlike other states, where the agency just completes the homestudy and you are done...in AZ the homestudy has to go through juvenile court system and be approved by a judge once it's been approved by the agency. It's really ridiculous, as apparently they ALWAYS sign off on homestudies, since the agencies have done their work, but it takes time...we had to wait while our completed homestudy just sat in juvenile court...waiting til the judge got around to signing off on it.