When we adopted Elijah, the agency we used had an office about an hour away from us. So, the agency did our home study. There was no confusion about what was needed.
Steve Taylor sang Svengali and adopted a child
In fact, the social worker they used lived in our city. She had adopted a boy from Viet Nam, and was very helpful for us in understanding international adoption. One tip she gave us was that the transition will take about as long as the child was in an orphanage. One man I knew from Presbytery who had previously adopted from China told me, “I wish someone told us that.”
By the way, Florida Presbytery of the ARP (Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church for those who don’t know) was filled with pastors who adopted. 5 other guys came immediately to mind (it is not a huge Presbytery). Some were domestic adoptions, and some were international adoptions. The basic consensus was “we didn’t know how we’d afford it, but God provided.” More on that later.
Another things this social worker tipped us on was acupuncture. After traveling to Viet Nam, and being very careful all the time, her husband was sick. For over a year he was lethargic and not himself. No western doctors knew what was wrong. Desperate they went to the local acupuncturist they used (whom we then used and found quite helpful). A specialist happened to be in town. While in Viet Nam they had been so careful. But they spent a night in Tokyo. While in the pool, he picked up a parasite. Soon he was back to normal.
This time around, the we are using a different agency. We enjoyed working with the first one, but they didn’t have a program in our country of choice. The new agency doesn’t have an office way out here. But the local adoption agency (Christian Family Care Agency) we considered while briefly considering domestic adoption was able to do the home study. We had met the lady once before, and she was very nice.
Cavs Adopt Blog 