Preparing your home for an adoption

 Posted on October 06, 2020 in Divorce

If you’re going to adopt, you need to prepare your home. On one hand, this is simply a realistic goal; you’re going to be adding a new child and you need to make sure you’re ready. On the other hand, you have to consider the home study and the legal side of getting approved for the adoption. Getting your house in order helps you work through this process.

But what do you need to do to make sure that your home is ready? A few things to keep in mind include the following:

• Check to make sure the child has his or her own room that is large enough to satisfy the guidelines. Most standard bedrooms will work, but double-check to be sure.
• Go over all of the systems and amenities that the room needs to have. This could include things like a working window, an egressed window if the room is in a basement, access to heat and AC, proper electrical power, and the like.
• Check the safety regulations, especially relating to fire. Does the room have a fire alarm? Does it work? Do you want to add a carbon monoxide alarm as well?
• Add child-proofing to your home, if needed. This depends on the age of the child. If you’re adopting an older child, you don’t have to change much. For young children and infants, though, you want things like baby gates, outlet covers, locks on cabinets and more.
• Clean your home so that it is tidy inviting. Sure, you can technically pass the inspection if the home is cluttered and messy. However, you want to remember how important first impressions are. Try to create the best possible impression when the child services worker steps in the door. They want to place children in homes that are safe, comfortable, inviting and loved.

Getting the house ready for the inspection isn’t really about the inspection; it’s about the child. After you do this, your home will really be ready for that child to enter your life and things will go smoothly for all of you. Keep that big picture in mind.

Adoption is exciting. It’s a life-changing event. Take the time to consider all of your legal options to make sure that your family is ready to take on this next step.