[leenie71]

Hello! My husband and I are just getting started and we're hoping to sign with an agency or faciliatator in about 6 months after I graduate from nursing school. Since we can't actively pursue adoption right now and we're waiting to do the homestudy, can someone tell me what some of the general documentation is needed for homestudy in PA (i.e. birth certificates, etc.). I know that it may take some time to gather everything, so I want to be ready when we do apply for homestudy.

Thank you and best of luck to everyone in the waiting process!!

Leenie

[DianeScraps]

I am going through the state but the requirements should be similar

We needed:

Marriage Cert (and divorce decrees if applicable)
drivers licenses
homeowners insurance
car insurance
car registration
Child Abuse Clearance
Criminal Clearance
Water Bacteria test (if not on public water)
Physical
Pet Medical records & current rabies shots
4 references

HTH!

Diane

[leenie71]

Diane,
Thanks so much! That really does help....one more question. How about birth certificates?

Leenie

[DianeScraps]

We weren't required to have them. I was surprised -cause I has gotten them ready.

Diane

[Alison_inPA]

leenie, you might end up increasing the amount of work you have to do if you get some of those documents too far in advance. Things like the child abuse and criminal clearances probably have to be less than a year old, so it's better to get them later so they don't expire while you're waiting for your child. The process is pretty quick anyway. I think it took something like two weeks for ours to come back from Harrisburg.

We are doing an international adoption of older children, so the rules are different in our case. But our agency uses the same general safety rules for the home that they use for domestic adoptions and foster care. This includes smoke detectors on every floor, a fire extinguisher, a fire safety plan, a locked fence around any open water (pool or pond), etc. We thought we were going to have to redo one of our stairway railings because it is too open, but since we're adopting older children the issue didn't come up.

Anyway, if you have any such issues at home you could start to address them now so that you don't have a last minute flurry of activity before your home study can be approved.

[leenie71]

Alison,
Thanks for the good advice. It's good to know that getting some of the documents doesn't take very long. I will wait until we get closer to the actual process. I just wanted to get an idea of what documents would be needed in PA. Best of luck to you with your adoption process!

Leenie