Reminder! We Need Your Tax Forms!

Don't Forget to Add Updates to Your 2009 Calendar

When going through and marking birthdays, anniversaries and other important dates on your new 2009 calendar, don't forget to add a reminder to update your home study and supporting documents, as well.

American Adoptions requires home studies to be current within one calendar year. Although our agency will remind you when your home study is approaching expiration, home study updates are the responsibility of the adoptive family.

Families are also required to update their home study whenever there is a major life change - such as a change in your employment, moving to a new home or a change in household members.

Home study updates are the responsibility of the adoptive family, so each family should carefully note when their home study is to expire. The importance of updates cannot be understated. If an expectant mother chooses you, but your home study or other supporting information is out-of-date, it can seriously compromise or even prevent you from completing the adoption.

In addition to your home study update, there are three supporting documents which require yearly renewal:

Background Clearances
Your background clearances, such as your child abuse, FBI and criminal clearance must be updated annually.

Physician Health Reports
Like background clearances, your physician health reports also must be updated annually.

Tax Return
A copy of your tax return must be updated each year.

If you do not know when your home study or supporting documents will expire, simply contact our agency and we will be happy to assist you.

Connect With Other Waiting Families!

The American Adoptions forum gives families the unique opportunity to connect with fellow waiting couples, as well as other adoptive families who all too well what it's like to wait for "the" phone call. Share your excitement, joys and even seek support from others who are also on their own adoption journey.

Registration is free and easy. Visit the forum today!

Questions & Answers With Laurie

Laurie
Walker

Hello everyone, my name is Laurie Walker and I am an Adoptive Family Specialist with American Adoptions. I have worked with many birth mothers and adoptive families in my time here at American Adoptions and love being able to watch families form through adoption.

Q. We recently had our home study updated and during the update, we decided to become open to additional races than was previously noted in our home study. Is there anything else we'd need to do to ensure our profile will be shown to potential birth mothers of the additional races we are now accepting of?

A. There certainly are steps to take before your profile will begin to be shown to potential birth mothers of the additional races you now included in your home study.

First, make sure you talk extensively as a couple about the reasons you were not initially open to putting these races as an acceptance on your APQ. You should speak very openly about this subject. You should also consider how this child would be accepted into your immediate and extended family as well as community. Would you be able to support the child's questions about their ethnicity? Would you be able to help support any discrimination they might experience in life? Can you imagine yourself not only raising a baby of this race, but a teenager and later an adult of this race? Would you be open to a child of any percentage of the race combination (i.e.: 75 percent Hispanic & 25 percent Caucasian)? Do you know all ethnicities included in the race you are selecting an openness too (i.e.: Asian = Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Pilipino, etc.)?

You will also need to take the step you already took by ensuring your home study approves you to adopt a child of the additional races you are now open to. If you are reading this article and do not have a home study update coming up soon, but would like to add an additional race acceptance to your home study, you would need to make contact with your home study worker and ask for an addendum to be completed. An addendum is far less involved than a home study process so the cost and time factor is usually much less. Most often, the home study worker does not even need to come back to your home to complete the addendum and might just choose to interview you about the subject over the phone. They will need to add a cultural diversity section to your addendum or home study update that speaks about ways you will support a child who is a separate race from your own.

Lastly, a very important step is you must call your Adoptive Family Specialist here at American Adoptions to identify what additional races you'd like on your Adoption Planning Questionnaire (APQ). Just adding it to your home study is not enough. It needs to be added to our database internally to receive the benefits of your profile being able to be shown to the additional potential birth mothers. Your Adoptive Family Specialist will never know you need this added if you only speak to your home study worker about the additions. You will definitely need to also contact your Adoptive Family Specialist to have it added to your APQ.

If you have further questions about this topic, speak to your Adoptive Family Specialist who can provide further guidance.

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