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!

You gotta start somewhere

I can't believe I'm doing this. I have entered the world of blogging!!! I hope I can keep up with this the way so many other adoptive families have done. It's not really my nature to do this type of thing. I have made attempts at journaling and scrapbooking in the past, but I never seem to stick with it. Maybe this will be easier for me. I want to be able to look back on this journey and remember all that went into it. I want our daughter to know how much we thought of her before we were able to bring her home. So, this will hopefully be one way I can do that.

We started our adoption journey in July of 2005. I made a phone call to a woman who works in international adoption up in Washington. Doug's sister Jacque referred me to her. She was so kind and answered so many of our questions. She encouraged me to call a local "homestudy" company because she knew we would need a local social worker to do the "homestudy" portion of our paperwork. I didn't know of any and had no idea where to look. I was speaking with my very good friend, Vicki Aadland, on the phone and explained to her what I was trying to do. She told me she knew a family who had adopted from China (it turned out to be Vietnam) and said she would ask them about it if I wanted. So I told Vicki to get the name of the company they used for their "homestudy". Vicki memorized the question and called me back with the information. She said I needed to call Oasis Adoption Services and ask to speak with Kathryn. Thus began the journey of a lifetime.

Oasis Adoption Services is not our adoption agency, nor is Kathryn our adoption agent. Kathryn informed me that the state of Arizona has certain requirements that other states do not have and that it would be in our best interest to work with an agency that has a local agent. She referred me to Marianne Adams of Children's Hope International. Kathryn wished us the best and said she would happy to work with us on the "homestudy" portion of the paperwork when we were ready. So, I made the phone call to Marianne....it was long and full of information. My head was spinning. There were different programs we could chose from, most of which I had never even considered. No matter what options there were, my mind and heart would always go back to China.

So, we submitted the preliminary application and continued to discuss whether or not this was something we were truly ready to do. We were still trying to absorb all the information Marianne had given us...it was exciting, but scary. Then, I got a phone call from Marianne telling me that someone had just backed out of the adoption class (which is required for your paperwork). She said that most people didn't take the class until further into the "paperchase", but that the information would probably be enough to either make or break our decision. So, we signed up for the class. Doug was thrilled (not) we got to spend two days in a classroom listening to a woman talk about adoption, child development, parenting...you name it. It was very interesting and at times emotional. At the end of day two, a woman was coming in with her two adopted daughters from China. She was going to relay her story and answer any questions that anyone had. I told Doug that if there was any doubt in his mind as to whether or not we were doing this, I wanted to leave before she got there. We stayed, and I'm so glad we did. We were sold...hook, line and sinker.
On the way home I looked at Doug and said, "So, are we doing this? Are we adopting a daughter from China?" He said, "I think we are!" Woo hoo!!!!! Decision made! Now for the paperwork!!!

Well, that was the begining. I'll try not to make the rest of my posts so long. It's just a lot to catch everyone up on. Please let me know if I'm rambling. Don't want to bore any of you.