Home Study and Family Assessments

Nightlight is committed to providing you with excellent educational programs and guidance to prepare you to be knowledgeable and loving parents. Our intent is to give you the tools to parent an adopted child who may have unique and special needs. The home study will be tailored for the type of adoption you are entering: embryo, infant or older child domestic, adoption from foster care, foster-to-adopt, and international. Also, we want to be sensitive to your needs as each person has a unique history and experiences that they bring into the process. The adoption home study will take about 2-4 months to complete and will consist of education, interviews, a tour of your home, and paperwork. If you live in a state where we have an office, we will help you complete your home study. The process and requirements are different for each state.

Nightlight requires that any family adopting through one of our international programs have their home study completed by a Hague accredited agency, even if the adoption is from a non-Hague country. Many high-quality agencies have chosen not to seek Hague accreditation. However, we believe a home study is such an important part of the adoption process that every effort should be made to obtain home study services from agencies who have successfully met and maintain the higher standards of the Hague.

Nightlight Christian Adoptions is delighted to provide home study only services for adopting families working with a separate adoption agency program. Additionally, if you are adopting with our Snowflake program, Nightlight can travel to you for the family assessment. This is a great option if you do not live near an adoption agency that can provide an embryo adoption home study. This service is available to clients throughout the US and worldwide.

Nightlight Christian Adoptions is committed to your adoption education. Such education does not begin with your adoption process and end with the placement of your child. Education is an ongoing process. Please contact us if you have questions about Nightlight's required education. 

For embryo adoptive families, visit the Embryo Adoption Webinar page for other helpful educational resources.

Most home studies can be completed within two to three months. However, at times they take longer to complete (perhaps as long as six months) because the family may take more time to gather paperwork or complete their education. Additionally, sometimes certain child abuse clearances or criminal clearances take longer to receive.  This is especially true for those adopting from a Hague country. On the other hand, sometimes there are circumstances (especially in domestic adoptions) in which a home study must be completed in a shorter period of time. Please contact our experts to discuss time frames in more detail.