Preparing for a Home Study (Part 2)

Preparing for a Home Study (Part 1) was all about the paperwork and physical environment of your home that you can prepare for the first home visit.

Often times, the second (and some times can run into a third) home visit is what they call couple and individual interviews. To prepare for couple interview, here are some questions you and your spouse can discuss ahead of time:

1. How do you want to parent your child who you will adopt?
2. What kind of relationship would you like to have with your child’s birth parents?
3. Do you have a gender preference? 
4. Are you willing to adopt a child with special needs? What kinds of special needs to feel like you can handle? 
5. Are you open to multiracial adoption?
6. Up to what age would you be willing to adopt a child?
7. Are you open to twins or siblings?
8. What problems do you foresee as a parent and how do you hope to handle them?
9. Why do you want to adopt?
10. How did you and your spouse meet?
11. How are conflicts handled within your marriage?

The individual interviews will get into greater detail about who each of you are. A social worker will likely discuss you and your spouse’s family backgrounds, how you want to parent and discipline your child, if there are any divorces in your past, if you have chronic health issues that require you to be on medication, if you’ve dealt with legal issues recently, and what you do as a profession.

Many of us may have some difficult things to discuss because none of us are perfect. Although it may be intimidating to be vulnerable, it's important to be completely honest and forthright with the social worker.  It is the job of the social worker to ask about nearly every aspect of your life, but they do this with all couples. Being completely honest will alleviate any distrust on the part of the social worker performing your home study.


Need help choosing a home study agency? I'd love to help! Feel free to email me.