Answered By: Pam Parish
I can only answer this question based on my personal experience and must say, up front, that it is completely different for every person going through the process. The length of your process depends entirely upon what your ultimate goals are; for instance, an infant adoption (international or foster-to-adopt) can take much longer than an older child adoption, and an older child adoption can differ depending on your goals for your child.
When Steve & I began the process, in December of 2006, we knew we wanted a girl between the ages of 8 and 11. Race didn’t matter, but health and mental status did because we had another daughter to consider. Our time from initiation of the process to moving our child into our home was 9 months with an additional 6 months until the adoption was finalized. Our second adoption was much quicker, and completely unplanned.
Here’s how our timeline went:
November 2006: Made the decision to pursue state adoption. Contacted DFCS which directed us to a list of private agencies approved in the state program. We chose Bethany Christian Services (excellent, excellent choice)
December 2006: Recieved dates to begin IMPACT classes (these are also known as MAPP classes in some states)
May 2007: Completed IMPACT, CPR Training and received state approval of our paperwork.
June 2007: Assigned a caseworker through Bethany; Suzanne Clark.
July 2007: Found Heather’s picture on the www.myturnnow.com website. Had formal staffing with Heather’s caseworker and ours, in this we learned her history, saw new pictures and were able to ask all of our questions. A calendar for visitations was created.
August 2007: Had first visit with Heather and several weekend trips to spend a day with her.
September 2007: Heather moved in with us.
May 2008: We finalized Heather’s adoption. We also made the decision to adopt a 15 year old girl whom we knew through an adoption support group; we knew that her current placement was about to disrupt. Kelsey moved in with us at the end of May.
At the time of this answer, we are awaiting finalization of Kelsey’s adoption, which we expect to be around December.
