[MomInAL]

It's been a long time since I've posted, but things have been SO busy around our house! We are moving forward with the adoption and we have had our adoption homestudy done. We will be having a meeting at DHR to sign paperwork later this month.

The adoption social worker at our agency is new to this and we are her FIRST adoption to handle... so I am a bit nervous. I know that I have read that we need to be sure to have all kinds of things dealt with in our paperwork, etc. so that these issues don't fall through the cracks. Is there any sort of "checklist" or something to go by? I'd hate to miss having some sort of benefit for my kids that they needed simply because I didn't know it was available or the worker (being new) didn't know it was available!! For those of you who have been down this road before, any advice you have would be appreciated. We are in Alabama... by the way.

Also, does anyone know how the adoption subsidy payments work? DH is concerned that board payments will stop before subsidy payments start and that we will be stuck with NO payments for a while and that we will be in "limbo".... Anything I can tell him to assure him?

Thanks for your replys,

MomInAL

DD18, DD16, FD15, FS11, FS10 (siblings)

[oliviasmom2be]

Have you considered hiring a private adoption attorney? We did and it helped immensely. He guided us through the last bit of paperwork and was in direct contact with our SW. If you are concerned about the cost of a private attorney, most staes will reimburse you for adoption related expenses. Also, the payments do not stop - you are assigned a worker who handles adoption subsidies so if there is a problem, she can handle it. Hope this helps. Good luck.