The Process

Let me lay out for you the New Jersey state adoption process. This way you'll know what I'm talking about in future posts!

Here's what we've done so far:

Wed, 10/17097- We were invited and attended the initial information session where we learned about the process and about children available for adoption.

Fri, 10/19/07- We received a phone call from our social worker, Ms. Bowers, letting us know she needed to meet with us at our home by that Wednesday. Because we were out of town that weekend and Michael works until 7pm, we moved it to the following Friday, 10/26.

Fri, 10/26/07- Ms. Bowers came to our home, gave us a more detailed look at the process, gave us the paperwork we needed to start, and toured our home-making a list of things we need to fix prior to the state's home inpection. Items include: the deadbolts on front and back doors need to be replaced with ones that don't require a key to open from the inside, have to get rid of all extension cords and replace with power strips, put screens in all the windows (hoping the landlords have them somewhere)...things like that. Nothing too major. We also have to have all of the furniture for the baby set up before we can get inspected by the state.

Fri, 10/26/07- We went out and celebrated the beginning with our friends at the Victor!

Mon, 10/29/07- I dropped off our application and background check forms to Ms. Bowers' office after work.

Here's the Process to become a licensed home:
To Get Licensed to Adopt:
1. Get fingerprinted
2. Have physicals done
3. Install safety gates, furniture etc in the house
4. Have our house inspected by the state
5. Complete 27 hours of parenting classes (either 4 Saturdays or T, Th 6-9pm)
6. Complete 4-5 homestudy meetings with Ms. Bowers where she'll come to our house weekly to meet with us and ask all the deep, personal questions. She'll meet with us together and individually. From these meetings, she'll develop our homestudy packet which is what she'll present to the other social workers, who will then decide if we're worthy of parenting.

All of these steps are to be completed within that 120 day time frame. Our social worker prefers to get them done in 90. That means we could be a fully licensed home and ready to accept a child by the end of February!

That's it for the legal steps! There is all of the other fun stuff of having baby showers and preparing our home for the little one, in addition to preparing ourselves spiritually, physically and mentally.