What is a homestudy?

What is a homestudy? This is a question that I have been getting frequently as of late. I have talked about wanting to get our homestudy done so that we can move forward with the adoption process, but I have never taken the time to explain what this is. A homestudy is performed by a social worker or adoption agency and is an evaluation of your family. Finances, health, relationships and possible criminal history are reviewed. You may have to answer questions about your community/neighborhood, school systems and resources  for children with special needs. Families are also asked personal questions to get an idea of who they are, how they will parent, why they are adopting, etc. All of this information is compiled into a 8-10 page report to ensure that you are suitable to adopt and to give agencies or social workers a better idea of what kind of child is best suited for your family.

This entire process takes about 3-6 months to complete. At a meeting that we attended, they stated that home studies could be completed in as little as a month, but this depends on how busy the social worker is and how flexible our schedule is to meet with the social worker. Once the homestudy is complete then you can begin the adoption process and begin applying for grants and other financial aid programs. In New York the average cost of a homestudy is around $2,000. We have raised/saved $760 at this point, meaning that we still have a ways to go before we can complete our homestudy and begin applying for grants and other financial aid. Once again, we ask for your help so that we can move forward. We are currently at a standstill and this is a really difficult place to be. Please continue to support us through prayer, and if you are looking to contribute financially we still have our coffee fundraiser open to the right of this page, and as I stated in our last post, we will be purchasing a puzzle where you can "sponsor" a piece for $10 and your name will be written on the back for our child to see everyone who helped bring him/her home. And as always you can donate directly to us online by clicking on the link at the right or by mailing a donation directly to us at:
Elias or Jessica Zehr
710 Old State Rd.
Poland, NY 13431

Thank you again to all who have donated and for all of your prayers and support.