If you’ve checked out our About Us page, you know that we are in the process of adopting. We are working with Baltimore City Department of Social Services (BCDSS), though we may go through a private agency if we get a sense that things are not happening as we hoped. Stay tuned for some posts about our experiences with BCDSS so far.

Here’s the steps as laid out by BCDSS:

1) Attend an information meeting – The 3-hour information meeting is where we fill out some forms and get a basic understanding of the purpose of the foster/adoption program.

2) Attend Training – The training is called “Foster/Adoption Pre-Service Training. It is broken into eight 3-hour sessions and covers a variety of topics – roles/responsibilities, healthcare, attachment, discipline, abuse/neglect allegations, etc.

3) Have a Home Study – The Home Study is essentially the agency’s way of getting to know prospective parents. The study includes a couple of home visits by a social worker, interviews of all household members and a review of financial resources, employment history. An autobiography is also required. The final output is a document that seeks to describe the foster/adoptive home and resources.

4) Have a Home Safety Inspection – Inspectors from the fire department and the health department will come out and conduct a safety inspection of our home. Here’s some of the inspection criteria.

5) Get a Medical examination, including a Tuberculosis test.

6) Submit three personal references

7) Have Criminal Background Check, including getting fingerprinted.

When all the steps are done, we get out our binoculars and hope for a stork sighting!