Paperchasing...you gotta love it!

So the paperwork was under way. People often ask about whether the paperwork was hard or overwhelming. To be honest, for me, it was neither. It was, however, detailed and specific. There were actually two parts to it. One part involved documents required by China specifically and the other part consisted of things required by the social worker to complete our homestudy. We had two visits in our home with the social worker. One visit was with the whole family (the boys were pulled out of school early for this...they were happy). The other visit was with just Doug and myself. At one point during this visit they interviewed us separately. I went into the office while Doug was being interviewed and, yes, I eavesdropped.

For the homestudy we had to collect or produce the following documents:
a. Birth Certificates for each family member
b. Marriage Certificate
c. Letter from the local police stating "no criminal record" (had a little problem with this one, believe it or not. We both had to appear in person at the police station and have our criminal record pulled. Doug was fine. I, on the other hand, was informed that I had a "liquor violation" when I was 19. I had no recollection of this ever happening, so they pulled the actual report off the computer. I'll spare you the details, but I was sweating it big time. I immediately called my agent and she told me I had to type a letter of explanation regarding the event. In the letter I had to assure the People's Republic of China that I was not drunk, this was not a DUI...bla bla bla. Then I had to sign the letter and get it notorized. First real fire put out (we hoped)).
d. Financial statement (they provided a form,we filled it in)
e. Medical letter/report from doctor (this was basically a physical, Doug and I went together)
f. 5 letters of reference (only 2 could be from family)
g. Sign a homestudy post placement agreement (this is agreeing to the post placement visits done once the adoption if finalized)
f. Each parent had to write an autobiography (5 pages typed). Doug loved this one!!

Does your head hurt yet? I'm having a hard time believing anyone has read this far. After we had these things together, we arranged for our home visits.

In the meantime, I was hard at work on the documents needed for China.
I won't list them all, but the first thing we did once our homestudy was complete (which by the way had to be read and approved by a local family court judge) was to send in the very important I600-A. It's official title is the "Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition". It is sent to CIS/Immigration in the state in which you reside. You send it in with all kinds of documents, including your approved homestudy report and a bunch of money and wait for them to send you a letter with an appointment to go get fingerprinted electronically.

This was where I ran into my biggest delay with the paperwork. We actually received our letter from CIS in record time only I didn't know it. The reason being, Benjamin had recently made it his mission in life to retrieve all the mail from the mailbox each day. After a few weeks had passed and we had not received our fingerprint appointment I called my agent. She gave me the number to the local CIS agent who informed me that she had mailed our letter the same day she had received our approval and our appointment date had now passed us by. She had to reschedule the appointment for 1/5. It had originally been the first week in December. I was devastated. I had already learned that one month of delay now could very well mean many months of waiting later. China was already starting to announce that had been receiving "record numbers of dossiers" and that things were going to slow down. Needless to say, we made the 1/5 appointment and then waited for the much needed I 171-H. Our fingerprints were sent by CIS to every possible legal entity you can imagine...CPS, FBI..you name it. Once we were cleared, we received our I 171-H which informs the country from which you are adopting from that you are cleared by the United States to bring this child (or children...twins) into the country as a citizen. It is good for 15 months. We will be having to renew ours in a month or so. It had to be valid when you travel.

Are you still reading? If so, I'm floored. This will be the last thing I will mention with regards to the paperwork. Each document has to go through a process of notorization, certification and authentication. What this means is documents such as birth certificate have to be issued with the appropriate state seal on them. Then the document is mailed to the Department of State which it originated(they attach a letter stating that the document is not a forgery). Then you mail it to the Chinese Consulate for the State in for the document originated. For example, in the case of Doug's birth certificate we mailed it to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago, since his birth was in the State of Minnesota. Mine however, went to the Consulate located in New York since I was born in New Jersey. The Consulates then attach a letter (I don't know what it says because it's written in Chinese). Once that process is complete, that particular document is ready for your dossier. I did this with each and every document...what fun!

Anyway...the paperwork was over and it was time to let go of our precious dossier...full of originals...full of papers I had worked on for months..full of every ounce of personal information you could possibly imagine. Was I nervous as I headed to FED EX? Only slightly!! I did what I always do when I'm feeling desperate....I called my sisters!