ABOUT HOMESTUDIES AND CHOOSING AN AGENCY TO HELP YOU ADOPT

We are pleased to introduce ourselves to you, the prospective client.  We are Thursday’s Child, a non-profit, full service adoption agency licensed by the CT Department of Children and Families since 1981.  Over the years we have had programs in many countries, have established cooperative relationships with other agencies around the country, and have worked with numerous birth parents. All of our services have been provided in a manner that makes us extremely proud.  In many states, it is actually possible for people to set themselves up as “agents” and nowadays they can create a professional looking website.  If you are hoping to adopt, you need to be careful and to know as much as possible about the agency you choose to assist you. The agency must also feel like a good fit for you. There are ethical and competent agents out there, and some who are not.  There are attorneys who bill themselves as adoption attorneys and who have little expertise or training in this area, and there are others who have considerable expertise.  In CT it is necessary to use a licensed non-profit agency to undertake an adoption.

Here in CT there have always been many requirements for agencies to meet. In-state and out-of-state clients should be aware of this.  Additionally, in 2008, working with some countries will require Hague accreditation, or affiliation with a Hague accredited agency for certain countries.  Mostly larger agencies will become Hague accredited due to the high costs of accomplishing this and to the huge time commitment and necessity for personnel to allow time to work exclusively on this. Agencies that choose not to become Hague accredited will maintain networking contracts and will also have to meet Hague standards in working with cooperating agencies.

Achieving initial licensing and maintaining it in Ct means that we have satisfied many requirements for staffing, board governance, and polices and procedures.  The licensing team from DCF visits us and reviews files and manuals to ensure that all requirements continue to be met. We feel very strongly that it is always better to use a licensed, non-profit agency and that is why CT laws mandate this.

We feel that it is also important to have an agency that advocates for you as a family, as well as for the children the agency is hoping to help place. The agency should be both your advocate and your ambassador to the foreign program or to the other agency that has custody of the children. What does this mean? This means that the agency must care about families and must be invested in their ultimate success. The agency should be skilled at the job of educating you and getting you ready for a lifelong process. It should know how to market you effectively to the sources of children, whether a local birthmother, another agency, or a foreign program. The agency should also know as much as possible about the culture with which it is dealing and the politics of adoption.

“Marketing” may sound crass to you and may not be in keeping with your image of an adoption agency, but it is definitely part of our job. We must be thorough and ethical in our work, but must also be completely familiar with what is needed and expected at the other end of the process. At Thursday’s Child, we work hard to do a very good job in every respect. When clients are done with our process, we believe they are ready to begin the most important journey of their lives and to be parents through adoption.

Regarding education and preparation, most of our staff members have 10, 20 and some have well over30 years of experience in adoption, in addition to many having graduate and post-graduate training. Most of us have lived with adoption and some of us have had difficult experiences and want to make yours as happy as humanly possible. We feel we can honestly say that we are experts in the adoption field. We offer you a variety of services and levels of service and do so with confidence that our expertise will serve you well.

Prospective clients are always asking us, “What exactly is a homestudy?” They also want to know on what basis they should decide on an adoption agency.

As we often say, all homestudies and agencies are not alike. The homestudy is both the document produced to demonstrate your compliance with State and Federal requirements and those of the foreign country, if applicable, and also the process by which you are educated and prepared for the undertaking of adoption.

Some people choose an agency based on the time frame promised on the telephone for the homestudy, or for the placement, though this is often not met in actuality. Others choose an agency based exclusively on the cost. While we know that cost is an important factor nowadays, it should not be the only one, since again, all homestudies are not alike, nor are all adoption processes.  At times, comparing agency services is like comparing apples and oranges, though the agencies are basically doing the same thing, but perhaps in different ways and with different styles. Some agencies have more thorough preparation and education processes than others. You may not think this is important, but our vast experience has shown us that it is. There are sometimes hidden costs, too, of which agencies do not fully inform you. In choosing an agency, prospective adopters should be good consumers. If they live in CT, they must be aware that there are rules and restrictions which do not apply to all other states and which an agency at some distance from us probably would not know. This is one problem in choosing an agency via the Internet. It is one way to obtain information, but clients are responsible for learning if there are any restrictions in their own state of residence that would make it impossible or difficult to use the Internet agency as a placement resource. Of course, the homestudy must be done locally, by either a licensed agency or licensed independent social worker. In Connecticut you must use the services of a licensed agency, because independent social workers not operating under a licensed agency are not permitted.

You should choose an agency you feel cares about families, as well as about children, and that will advocate for you no matter what happens. You should feel you can build a trusting relationship with your agency and that they are not simply paper-shufflers or disembodied voices at the end of a phone line (or computer terminal). You should choose an agency that offers options that seem appropriate for you and one that does not misrepresent or encourage you to stretch your acceptance parameters beyond your level of comfort. This is especially true if there is anything unusual about your situation, since requirements for adoption in other countries change. You need an agency that will go to bat for you and will help you find an appropriate program and/or a child. It is true that agencies here have little or no control over the rules, regulations and procedures in other countries, but should always be informed about them and should maintain multiple contacts in case your first is not successful.

Finally, you should choose an agency that gives you straight answers and that does not make unreasonable guarantees or far-out promises. Always be wary of an agency that makes things sound too good or too easy. No agency can promise your process will go completely smoothly and you should run fast, if too many promises are made.

While Thursday’s Child may or may not be the agency on which you ultimately decide, we feel that these tips will assist you in making your choice. We also believe that when you understand how we operate, how we work with our clients and the principles on which we stand, you will want to choose our program.

We can help you adopt through one of the foreign programs with which we have an association (Working as a placement resource or agency facilitator).  If you reside in Connecticut, we will also gladly do a homestudy for a program you have chosen out of state, for a domestic or international adoption (Homestudy agency).  As noted in our preliminary information, we also work with birthparents and can assist them with their adoption plan by handling the legal termination of parental rights and taking custody of their baby. (Full service placement/adoption agency) If you want us to help you adopt a minority or special needs child domestically, we can provide services for applicants in Connecticut, including homestudy, registering the family and searching for an appropriate child and completing the adoption.

We wish you much luck and joy. We do hope that you will soon contact us for a formal application and will join our Adoption Family.

-Iris Arenson-Fuller, Executive Director, Founder

Thursday's Child is proud to be part of the 1-800 Homestudy Network of homestudy and post placement/post adoption service providers.  If you are in CT we will help you with your homestudy and services after adoption, or with full placement services. If you are outside of CT, you can find a recommended homestudy professional in your area through 1-800Homestudy.

Thursday's Child, Inc
227 Tunxis Avenue Bloomfield, CT 06002
(860) 242 -5941
Fax (860) 243-9898