I called Barker again. I swear, those people seem to not understand email or voicemail, but they are great if you can just get them on the phone. I had a chat with the program assistant about smoke detectors and fingerprints and fees and CPS clearance forms. You have to get clearance from Child Protective Services for every state you've lived in for the past five years for domestic adoption, so we still needed the South Carolina CPS forms. And those forms need to be notarized, naturally. So last night we sat down and went through all of our paperwork and got everything together. We filled out our financial forms, which was a long, tedious process, we dated everything that hadn't been dated yet, we made copies of birth and marriage certificates, social security cards and vet records, we finished our autobiographies and we addressed all the envelopes. We are 99% done with paperwork. Today we are getting the SC form notarized, and we still have medical forms to get filled out by our doctors, but otherwise we are done. It feels really good to check that off our to-do list.
Once all of our paperwork is in, Barker sends off for our FBI/police and CPS clearances. Once those come back, our med forms come in and our references come in, we are ready to schedule our home visits with the social worker. We have 1 meeting in our home with the social worker and both of us, one meeting each with her at the Barker main office (but they are scheduled back-to-back so we only have to make one trip), and she has one meeting with our "in person" reference. We have some pretty amazing friends who volunteered to have a face-to-face interview with the social worker to attest to our character. It's a big thing to ask of someone, and we're really lucky to know such kind-hearted people.
So... Fees. Barker charges a sliding scale for domestic adoption. Basically, we make more, so we should pay more. I see no problem with this arrangement. Allen and I current place in the highest bracket on their fee scale (DINKs... sigh.). The only problem, for us, is that I am quitting my job soon. This will literally halve our household income. We've taken steps to insure that we can survive and thrive on less, but coming up with the balance due at the end of our journey might be a bit more difficult with only one incoming salary. It's basically a $10,000 difference. Luckily, Barker is willing to discuss changing our fee if and when our income changes. (No guarantees, but at least they'll have the conversation with us.) If we get a placement before then, (fingers crossed!!) it won't be an issue. It only becomes an issue once I've quit.
So, in case you were wondering, these are the forms you need to fill out as part of your homestudy:
CPS record release forms for each state you've lived in for the last 5 years (VA and SC for each of us - 4 documents total)
FBI/police records release forms (for each)
medical clearance forms signed by your doctor (for each)
a self-check medical history form witnessed by your doctor (for each)
financial disclosure forms - assets/liabilities and monthly budget/expenses (for household)
Fee schedule document (fees to our agency)
service agreement document (legal liabilities and responsibilities for us and the agency)
corporal punishment document (we agree to not use corporal punishment on our child)
vaccination document (we agree to vaccinate our child)
firearm safety document (we agree to follow legal safety protocols for any firearms in the house)
home safety checklist (working phone, smoke detectors, fire exits, etc.)
fingerprints
autobiography for each (a 4 page essay on you, your life, your marriage, so the agency can "get to know you" better)
copies of: birth certificates, marriage certificate, vet records
Some of these forms, like the vaccination/corporal punishment/firearms forms, might be unique to our agency, rather than a standardized set. I'm not sure. But basically, if you decide to adopt, you can expect something along those lines. My best advice: keep detailed financial records. You'll need them. Thank goodness Allen keeps such awesome financial records.
It seems daunting, but it really went pretty fast. We are getting everything in the mail to them tomorrow, and then we wait. Our references and medical forms should be in sometime in the next two weeks or so, and I think we'll be scheduling our social worker visits by the first week of June. Everything is gaining momentum (whew!), so I really need to get working on our profile book!
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