[kathyny]

Hello,

My husband and I have made the decision to adopt from Guatemala. I've got a few questions...of course!

I've been researching Agencies and so far I really like Building Blocks Adoption Agency. Can anyone tell me their experiences with them and if you don't mind I'd love to hear of other agencies also.

I was doing some research and for the homestudy I've learned that everyone in the home needs a Drs. report that they're in good health. Well...my question here is...does that mean that children already in the home need to have any sort of blood test? We have five children living at home and I know two would object strongly to this. Yes...you guessed it they're boys! They are 15 years and 21 years old. Also I have 3 and 4 year old girls and I have to say I'd hate to put them though that.

One more question...I promise! We aren't looking at starting the process for another two months yet. My dh wants to finish our house....(personally I think it's fine)...we built and it just needs some finishing touches and he wants to refinance(I don't think that would cause a rejection from a homestudy but I can't disagree with him that it would make things easier). Anyway...are there things we could be doing now to make things go quicker once we do contact an agency to do our homestudy?

Thanks so much in advance...this seems like a great place to come and learn and support each other through adoption!

Kathyny

[tammy2]

With My Agency I Only Had To Have A Statement Written From My Childrens Pediatrician That Immunizations Were Up To Date And That They Were In Good Health. The Agency Actually Had This All Typed Out And The Physician Just Had To Sign It.

[Sandy Harboe]

I don't know anything about that agency, but I would to say welcome aboard.

[lockharts]

Congratulations. Talk to your agency about getting your dossiere in order. Maybe they can get you sample letters that you can start getting done. Good luck.

[WVUMom418]

Welcome. Both my kids (age 18 years and 2 years) only had to have a letter from the doctor stating they were in good health.

The one thing you need to be prepared for though is that your 21 year old will have to go through the fingerprint process for INS. It was a real pain for us becomes my son is away at college, he had to be fingerprinted twice, once for our homestudy and once for INS. We had to try and do these around his vacation schedules. Don't know if this is true for all states but we live in MD and he was also required to have a copy of this driving record and report from child welfare stating that he wasn't wanted for child abuse.

My son was very good about just doing what I asked and not baulking too much. He also had an indivdual meeting with our social worker.

[JanCA]

Welcome Kathyny!

Hope you get as much out of this forum as I have been getting.

PS:Our son only needed a medical letter - no blood test!

[jbpollock]

Hi Kathy!
Welcome aboard!!
I am going to PM you, BBAS is our agency and we think they are fantastic!

[khaki17]

I do not have personal experience with this agency, but I would recommend googling the agency's name and see what you get. I did this with every agency I considered using (as well as LOTS of other research).