Adoption Home Study/2A: Anybody Have Experiences?

[juan_galto]

We've been talking about adoption for some time, and I'd love to talk with anyone/everyone from the 2A community with experience, especially as it comes to this liberal state and home studies and interviews.

 

[Mr H]

No experience, specifically......

I wish you well, though.

 

[j_h_smith]

Not me personally, but a friend at work. They took a lot of crap from the organization because he had guns. They were finally able to adopt the boy, but it would have gone a lot smoother if he had sent his guns somewhere else when the home inspections took place. I never did ask for the details, but he said it was rough.

Good Luck!
Jim Smith

 

[Mark75H]

Been 16 years, but no one asked back then. No askie, no tellie

There are all kinds of lawsuits brought by people who try to adopt but are denied even though they are not breaking any law. I would think most organizations would be shy of thinking of denying someone who is not breaking a law ... but you never know these days. Unless the organization specifically says they are aligned with MDA or Bradys I doubt you would have any trouble.

Think about it, police and military adopt all the time ... its just another job (highly regarded by anyone with a lick of sense).

If you have a pistol on every step to the second floor, a shotgun on the kitchen table and a trip wire in the dining room ... forget it

 

[ma_deuce]

Not me personally, but a friend at work. They took a lot of crap from the organization because he had guns. They were finally able to adopt the boy, but it would have gone a lot smoother if he had sent his guns somewhere else when the home inspections took place. I never did ask for the details, but he said it was rough.

Good Luck!
Jim Smith

This, not from personal experience, but from clients. Expect to be questioned/inspected as to firearms, and to receive a heaping helping of crap, with varying degrees of open hostility. Even if following best practices re storage, and even if they don't tell you so outright, agency personnel will be negatively influenced at the thought of your owning firearms.

 

[tc617]

We've been talking about adoption for some time, and I'd love to talk with anyone/everyone from the 2A community with experience, especially as it comes to this liberal state and home studies and interviews.

My wife an I have been foster parents in Maryland for almost 8 years. We mainly foster teenagers because it is easier to communicate with them, we both work full-time and could not care for young children, plus no one wants to foster teenagers and a lot of them end up in group homes. We have had some great success stories and some total failures... It depends on how much "damage" these kids have been put through before you get them.

Our most rewarding is a young lady who was abandoned by her birth parents and she had major anger, abandonment, and resentment issues. As result of these anger issues she had a history of fights, assaults, and other mischief but with a lot of attention, confidence building and work through the court system we were able to get her criminal record expunged and get her enlisted into the Army. She has done great n the Army, has one deployment to Afghanistan, and is up for Sargent this year.

Our hardest was a young lady who had a history of substance abuse and suicide attempts but by no fault of her own. If I told you her childhood history and what she went through you would better understand. She was doing great and graduated high school with a 3.2 GPA and we got her into college but then she relapsed and tried to kill herself again. We have put her through 7 rehabs in the past 2-1/2 years and she is now living up in Baltimore in a recovery home. She has been clean for 8 months now.

If you want to talk about home studies, firearms, etc, I will PM you my cell number an you can give me a call. I have never had any issues concerning DSS and the fact that I own firearms. We just finalized an adoption last month so I can give you an idea of what to expect.

 

[Topher]

Yes. My wife and I went thru the process.
PM me and I will send my phone number.

 

[sgt23preston]

Sgt Preston here...

I can speak from the other side...

I was adopted at 5 days old in 1944...

I was always told that I was adopted...

My adopted parents died many years ago...

They loved me, treated me very well & I had a great life...

Nothing but good things to say...

 

[thai]

This is an extremely commendable and selfless act. Good for you and your wife.

Regarding the firearms issue, do you have a safe? If you do can you just keep the shotguns in there and tell them that it was for pheasant 10-20 years ago when you live in the midwest? Take all the black guns and handguns over to a family's home until the inspection is over.

 

[Huckleberry]

Adopted our daughter from China in 2006.

The attitude of the social worker depends on who is paying for the home study, in any private adoption means you're the one paying the fee.

Worse thing to do is attempt to lie or cover up with anything. All ways take the high road.

You can PM with your questions.

 

[outrider58]

My dad didn't find out until his psych. evaluation for his Army security clearance. Psych. asks- and how do you feel about being adopted? Dad says- huh, whaaa? Three day pass. Go home. Talk to your folks.

 

[teratos]

Sgt Preston here...



I can speak from the other side...



I was adopted at 5 days old in 1944...



I was always told that I was adopted...



My adopted parents died many years ago...



They loved me, treated me very well & I had a great life...



Nothing but good things to say...

Same story here. Adopted at 3 days old in 1971.

 

[TapRackBang]

My wife an I have been foster parents in Maryland for almost 8 years.

My hat is off to all foster and adoptive parents. You folks really rock.

 

[Topher]

If you are adopting from foster care or an overseas orphanage there are things you NEED to know. There are many healthy beautiful kids out there.
There are some very damaged and hurt kids out there, where if you are not ready for them, they will ROCK your world. You will put your relationships at risk and the child will go untreated for serious issues.

Research Reactive Attachment Disorder. This is caused by early childhood trauma. These kids grow up to have borderline personality disorder, conduct disorder, and antisocial disorder.

If your are thinking about an older child in fostercare. (Basically NOT a few days old newborn) Do your home work.
Contact this group.
http://www.attachmenttraumanetwork.com/index.html

 

[montoya32]

Same story here. Adopted at 3 days old in 1971.

I just found a pic of when you were adopted.

 

[teratos]

I just found a pic of when you were adopted.

Lol.

 

[Mark75H]

If you are adopting from foster care or an overseas orphanage there are things you NEED to know. There are many healthy beautiful kids out there.
There are some very damaged and hurt kids out there, where if you are not ready for them, they will ROCK your world. You will put your relationships at risk and the child will go untreated for serious issues.

Research Reactive Attachment Disorder. This is caused by early childhood trauma. These kids grow up to have borderline personality disorder, conduct disorder, and antisocial disorder.

My daughter has some of those symptoms, but its hard to differentiate between RAD and autism, that may have other causes.

When we picked her up in Pervouralsk (first town in Europe west of the Urals coming from Yekaterinburg on the Asian side) she was way down in the bottom 5th percent for size and weight for her age; stayed in the bottom 10% until puberty when she grew to a fairly normal 5'3" and 105lbs. About 5 days after we got her she started showing excellent spacial orientation for her age. She is still an excellent navigator and has evolved into a proficient marksman.

Account for a little RAD, a little autism and she is an excellent kid growing into a mature adult. We got really lucky, but I'd be just as happy if she needed a little more help to make her way in the world.

 

[Topher]

RAD is destructive to families. Many a divorce has occurred from RAD.

 

[sgt23preston]

Same story here. Adopted at 3 days old in 1971.

We were both very lucky that our mothers did NOT choose abortion...

Abortion in 1944 was almost unheard of...

But not in 1971...

Thanks Mom..!

 

[tc617]

I have three safes in my home, one within an arms reach of my bed that contains my home defense firearms. The second one is I another part of the house and contains the remainder of my firearms. A third in my garage that I keep my AK builds that I am currently working on.

I have never had an issue during a home inspection and my case worker's husband is a county police officer. I can't remember one time where I have been asked about firearms in the home, nor have I ever mentioned anything about them to my case worker.

If you search the forum, you will see that I have hosted three AK build parties at my home in the past year - It has never been an issue.