Northwest Region
1400 N. Broad Street
Griffith, IN 46319
(219) 838-0996
Fax: (219) 838-0999

The Adoption Assessment is a comprehensive report about you, your spouse and your current resources. It is considered valid for a 12 month period from the time of completion. Your assessment will need updating on a yearly basis in order to remain a viable, legal document.  Through a series of interviews and your responses to homework assignments, the adoption specialist will create a detailed written "snapshot" of you as an adoptive couple/person.

Following a placement, this document will represent you in a court of law.   A judge, relying on the contents and recommendation, who will consent to your adoption, knowing a thorough investigation was undertaken by a licensed adoption agency.

The Assessment Interviews

Depending upon the urgency of your situation, intensive interviews can be scheduled in day­long blocks of time or spaced out over several weeks. The interviews will cover the following material:

• Identifying information about each spouse
• Family background history of each spouse
• Identifying information about current children in the home.
• Psychological testing
• Marital history
• Type of child desired
• Parenting styles/views on discipline
• A current description of the home and neighborhood
• Income level and expenses
• Evaluation of references
• Adoption specialist's evaluation and recommendations
  

The adoption specialist will validate where you live and describe the overall interior and exterior appearance of your dwelling. This description will validate available space to comfortably increase your family's size through adoption. The report may also describe your neighborhood, its cultural and racial mixture and for foreign adoptions, give information about availability to cultural, educational and medical resources.

Medical Exams

You will be asked to verify your current health status and suitability for adoption by a physician of your choosing to insure there are no serious health impairments to negatively impact parenting of an infant or young child.

Credit Report

You will be asked to verify your income to be sufficient and stable through a credit service of your choice.

When we review your credit history we are not seeking a particular income level, other than to determine whether the sudden placement of a child in your home would pose a financial hardship due to instability of financial reserves.

Criminal Check

LSSI checks for the presence of a criminal history through the Indiana State Police. We screen for criminal convictions. Information disclosed will be felonies and class A misdemeanors. The absence of a record supports overall moral character and abuse history through the county Division of Family and Children.

Religious Affiliation

LSSI does not discriminate in placement by religious affiliation. We do seek evidence of a couple's intentions to actively raise a child in a faith. As a spiritually based agency, it is our belief that children benefit greatly from active exposure to the values and moral guidance of a spiritual community beyond that of their immediate family.

The adoption specialist will usually seek one reference from a religious leader of your choice. We evaluate your involvement with your spiritual community and your clergy person's evaluation of your character.

Family Leave for Adoption

LSSI recommends whenever possible that one adoptive parent plan to take family leave time from active employment or be otherwise available as a homemaker to bond with an infant. For infants, our agency suggests a 3 month period. An older child may require an even longer period to form an attachment. For the child of 2 years or older, we recommend 6 months. Older children bring with them emotional baggage. They must resolve issues of anger and distrust. They will repeatedly test the adoptive relationship to determine your trustworthiness. This behavior will often occur after a successful "honeymoon" period, when the unsuspecting parent assumes that all is going well. Brief counseling with an adoption specialist can be arranged to help resolve this challenging experience and preserve the new family.

Exchange of Information with Birth Parents

Frequently, birth parents request periodic progress reports on their child and give gifts of remembrance for the child to receive as an infant or young adult. Some seek even more openness with the adoptive parents. Young birth mothers find it comforting to have a communication channel to share experiences about their child growing up in the adoptive home. While few choose to exercise this option it seems important for birth parents to know that families acknowledge a birth parent's part and presence in the adoption experience. This provides reassurance about the couple they have chosen to raise their child and conveys openness and warmth about the adoptive parents. When adoptive couples make promises to share pictures or mementos, and then do not follow through, they contribute to a growing reluctance of birth parents to place children for adoption. If you think about being in their place, would you? LSSI strongly encourages adoptive couples to say what they mean and mean what they promise when exchange requests are initiated by birth parents. (See Pregnancy Counseling: Open Adoption)

Appropriate Motivation

Couples are perceived to have appropriate motivation when

• they are not currently attempting fertility through medically­assisted methods.
• they have grieved the loss of a child through miscarriage or sudden infant death and are not seeking a child to replace one which has been lost.
• they are not seeking to consolidate an unstable marriage.

• are not seeking a child to fill an emptiness in their lives.
• are not seeking to resolve issues from their own childhood upbringing through a child.

The cost of a domestic home assessment is $1, 300.00.  A home study for an international adoption is $1,500.00.