Adoption Checklist: Welcome to 26Adoptions!

by Marge Snider

This month we will identify what home study requirements you can achieve and what will have to wait until Central Florida fully reopens for business. We will also look at the overall impact of Coronavirus on the world of adoptions. Enjoy this Adoption Checklist to help you prepare:

The following is a list of items you can complete on your own:

1)   An autobiography of your life story

2)   Your 5 reference choices  from your friends, family, work colleagues

3)   Copies of your last reported 1040

4)   Letters of employment

5)   Your 2-page financial report

6)   Your Affidavit of Good Moral Character

 The documents that will have to wait until more businesses open:

1)      FBI and State of Florida background clearances

2)      Your medical report from your physician.

This is good news! You will be able to complete about 80% of your home study adoption checklist requirements on your own!

Impact of Coronavirus on American Adoptions

For domestic adoptions, travel and hospital restrictions mean that in many cases, adoptive families and adoptive children have to wait longer to be united as a family.  Infants are being discharged to area foster homes until their adoptive parents can travel and pick them up.  Attorneys are delayed by submitting important documents because most courts are or have been closed.  Adoptive agencies are prevented from completing post-placement home visits due to stay-at-home and social distancing rules currently in place in most areas. These are the issues professionals in the adoption field are experiencing.

Prospective adoptive families’ financial situations have changed so dramatically that pursuing their dreams of adopting at this time may be out of reach for many.  In family households, one or both prospective adoption candidates may have lost their job or been furloughed, minimizing their main source of income.  This probably means agencies will need to readjust their fee schedules or delay payment deadlines to accommodate the adoptive families and to maintain the security of the children being placed for adoption.

Other areas of concern may be the inability of birth and adoptive families to communicate face to face due to hospital and social distancing rules.  Those of us in the adoption field understand how important it is for these two family units to connect in a personal way with one another.  Our agency feels this lack of meaningful connection may hamper, delay, or neutralize many prospective adoptive placements.

These are the most significant impacts the coronavirus is currently having on American adoptions in general. There will be a follow-up with updated information in next month’s newsletter.

26Health appreciates your interest in this very important topic.

See you next month!