Home Study Services for Families in Georgia and Florida

The Adoption Authority will help you face the home study experience with confidence and the excitement that should accompany the prospect of welcoming a child into the family. The best advice is to relax, keep a sense of humor and be yourself.

Your home study provides an accurate portrayal of your family life, past and present. Next to bringing home your baby, we believe the home study should be the most exciting part of the adoption process. This process involves you, the adoptive parents, both individually and together. The assessor will be evaluating you and your home for safety and suitability for a child.

The Adoption Authority is able to start and complete your home study in a timely manner. We are willing to work around your schedule and we will begin processing your application immediately upon receipt.

At The Adoption Authority, Inc, you receive personal service from social workers who are highly experienced in the International and Domestic adoption processes. We can provide you with a report that is tailored to your specific adoption needs. We are constantly educating ourselves on the changes in International and Domestic adoption laws so that we are better able to provide you with information that is accurate. We also work directly with other placing agencies, to ensure that all requirements are fulfiled in your home study report and in your follow-up post placement visits.

Post Placement Visits

Post placement visits are a great way to ensure that parents and children are adjusting well and for placing agencies to monitor the overall success of your adoption. 

Post placement supervision visits are follow-ups to the home study. They consist of visits from a social worker to assess the status of the child and how the adoptive parents are adjusting.  These visits evaluate your child's adjustment, development, and social skills.  Because we are experts in the field of adoption, it is an excellent opportunity to ask questions or receive referrals to local resources for any concerns you may have. 

The number and frequency of the visits will depend on many factors: international or domestic adoption, your placing agency's requirements and the state from which you adopted.  The Adoption Authority will communicate directly with your placing agency regarding the post placements reports.

We love post placement visits--we are thrilled to finally meet your children!!

Adoption Ceremonies

What is it and Why have one?

Rituals are an important part of any life cycle event.  They validate our feelings and allow the rite of passage into a new part of our lives.  Some of the occasions in which we have rituals are at birthdays, funerals, weddings, births, and for religious celebrations.  Having an adoption ceremony is no different than having a ritual for any other occasion.  The ceremony helps to validate our feelings and provide a sense of connectedness. 

An adoption ceremony is a simple ceremony to bring together the parents and child to symbolize the joining of the new family.  It is essentially a covenant and all parties stand in front of their witnesses and acknowledge the new bond between parent and child and the lifelong commitment the parents are making.  Each parent takes vows to the child and the child accepts their commitments.

Adoption ceremonies are not the finalization of the adoption.  (That happens in court.)  The adoption ceremony is an agreement initiated by the adoptive parents and responded to by the child.  The ceremony should take place early on in the placement, to symbolize family unity while the adoption is in the process of being finalized.  It serves as an insurance policy to the child that Mom and Dad aren't going to change their minds and return the child.  This is especially important if you are adopting an older child. 

We will provide you with an outline of the ceremony, a script for parent and/or grandparent vows, helpful hints for the ceremony, and a elegant certificate to be presented to each member of the family to acknowledge their commitment.