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After graduating from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida; I began working as a weekend
houseparent for a home for pregnant girls that was right here in Winter Park. And some
of the girls did not place for adoption but some did and they used an agency that was
in Maitland at the time. And after several girls kept placing with that agency, they
came to me asked me to work with their birthmoms. And that was the beginning of adoption work
for me, way back in the '80s.
Love and Hope Adoptions was started mostly to try to help the children in foster care
that need to be adopted. That is often a neglected group of children. Many families want to start
with a newborn and we have been successful working with some families, to place children
that are maybe toddler age, or 6, 7, or 8 years old. And the families have found great
satisfaction parenting those children and becoming their parents. So we feel that our
main goal was to work with children in foster and we are now currently working with families
that also want to do foster adoptions.
A home study is the first step in the adoption process. It is need so that you are approved
for adoption. Your home study will include a bio of your life, and all kinds of information
about your life including financials, health information, your criminal background check
information. It is needed if you are applying for grants, if you are applying for a visa
because you are doing an international adoption, you will needed it to finalize in court, agencies,
attorneys, anyone helping you in your adoption process will need your final and approved
home study.
Once an adoptive family is ready to begin their home study, we e-mail them a packet
that includes all of the instructions (step by step what they need to do) of course if
they have any questions they can call us or email us and we�re always available for
them. But they can get started, that very first day, right away. We email them the questions
that their also going to be asked during the home visit so they don�t feel like; �oh
my gosh we don�t now what are we going to be asked?�
We try to minimize the stress throughout the entire process and make it very friendly.
We know that all the families are already coming with a lot of stress because of whatever
their history has been to get to this point. So we try to make it very simple. We try to
minimize the paperwork.
Most families are very worried about their home visit. When the social worker comes out
their worried that their house is clean enough, that their home is large enough, and the truth
is those things are not really what approves you for your home study. It is based on your
criminal background checks, your financial stability; not if you are rich, but just that
you are stable and that you can provide a safe environment for a child.
After an adoptive family has begun their home study their assigned social worker will go
out, usually about two weeks from that day. And we begin by looking at the documentation
that you have to provide for us; including birth certificates, marriage certificates,
and so forth. We need to look at originals. And from there we will eventually do a walk
through, through your house, of course see the child�s room, look at the backyard if
you have one depending if you are in an apartment, a town home, or a house.
The visit should be a relaxed one. So the family does not need to worry, again, that
their home is super clean. That seems to be a stressor for families for some reason and
you can tell when you walk through that the place is very very shiny. And even when they
have pets, there isn�t a single pet hair, anywhere, in the house. So you know they�ve
been scrubbing and we really always emphasize for them to relax and be themselves, when
we come and do the visit.