[wishfulgal]

First of all, I was wondering if you can start the adoption process (sign on with an agency), before you get your homestudy done. I am wondering this b/c there is a decent chance we will be relocating to another home (and possibly across the state) in the next couple of years, but we would like to start the process because it takes so long.

Secondly, If we don't relocate, I am actually super worried that our current home would not pass inspection b/c it is over 100 years old. A lot of work has been done on it and it is a nice home, but the window are as old as the house. They are not combination windows and alot of them are painted shut, which we could fix...but I'm still worried. The ones upstairs in the bedrooms are all able to be opened for fire escapes, at least.
Also, We have only 2 bedrooms but we use the landing on the top of our stairs as our sons nursery, so basically it's like we have 3. If we adopt we would move our son into the 2nd bedroom and use the landing/nursery for the new baby. I am worried that this will not fly with the inspectors.

I need some honest advice/opinions, please.

[Kari_B]

You can certainly get started with the adoption process and get things going with an agency. However, you won't be eligible for any match considerations until after you have an approved home study. There is still a lot of paperwork and back ground checks that need to get done prior to the home study even starting, and whatever agency might require some classes as well. Every agency is different, so I'd start looking and researching which agency you'd like to go through and see what their protocol is.

As far as your current house, I know with my home study it sounds like your house wouldn't pass. I don't think that the landing will qualify as a bedroom, but it all depends on your home study case worker. Maybe you can have the kids share a room, or at least tell them they will share a room? I know that in my state if your house is over X amount of years old you actually have to have a fire inspector come out and evaluate things. I would call a local agency and see if you can just as some questions about it all and see what the requirements are like in your area.

Good luck with your journey! I hope that you can get things sorted out so that your path to adoption is a smooth one!

[wishfulgal]

Thanks! The landing is a pretty large area...if we put up a wall it definitely would be the size of a small bedroom....but I figured it would not work.

The home we might relocate to (I still own a home across the state from when I was single) has 3 bedrooms but the way it is set up you have to walk through one to get to the other. Would that be a problem?

[Kari_B]

I know that Christin (Camm) didn't get approved for her foster to adopt program because of a walk-through bedroom. Not sure what a private agency would think.