Adoption!

Well, the news is out.....we are in the process of adopting a little girl from China! We are so excited! I hope to document this process on here so that we can remember everything and so that others might also see how the process works and might get excited about adopting also. At some point I'll write about our decision to adopt and how we came to this point. But today I want to talk about the process that we have gone through so far. When we tell people our news we often get asked, "how far into the process are you?" So, that is what I am going to answer today! When we made the decision to adopt, we did not know much about how things worked. So, we began by making some inquires to people we knew who had adopted. And we also started searching online for information. The first thing we had to do was pick an adoption agency to use. This was not an easy decision as there are many to choose from. And you hear both good and bad things about people's experience with different agencies. We almost used AWAA (American World Adoption Association) but ended up choosing FTIA (Families Thru International Adoption). Our main reason for choosing them was that we know 3 families locally who have used them and they were pleased with them. And their fees were a little lower than some other agencies. Once we chose the agency we filled out an initial application and waited for approval. After we got that approval, we needed to begin our home study process. This was another big decision as there are so many places to choose from. Because we chose to adopt from a Hague Convention country, there are additional considerations in choosing a Hague approved agency or not, etc. Well, after much searching and talking we finally chose AHSS (Adoption and Home Study Specialists) in Louisville. We filled out an initial application for them and then received a 50 page document to begin working on. Many people don't realize that a home study is much more than having a social worker come out and look around your house and ask you some questions. Here is a list of many of the items you have to send them:
Certified Birth Certificates for all family members
Certified Marriage Certificate
Medical exam reports for all family members
Individual photo IDs for mom and dad
Family photograph
Complete autobiographies for mom and dad with specific questions to address
References from 5 people
Letter from employers
Animal safety statement (if you have pets your vet has to fill out a form)
Child Placing license from your placing agency
IRS tax return
Account verification for checking, savings, loans, mortages, investments, retirement plans, etc.
Life insurance verification
Health insurance verification
National criminal background check
State criminal background check
Local criminal background check
CPS abuse and neglect investigation
Sex and violent offender registry check
Child abuse out of state check for all states you have lived in since 18

Many of these forms have to be notarized as well which can be difficult. For instance, we had to have our medical exam forms notarized by our doctor. They do not have a notary in the office so do you think it would be easier to try to get your doctor to go to see a notary with you or find a notary who will go to the doctor with you?? Well, it's not easy either way. But thankfully God worked all that out for us at the last minute and we were able to find a notary to go to the doctor's office.

Along with all the paperwork, you have to complete adoption education. We have purchased this online so we can view the classes at any time. Once all this is complete then you go into the office of your home study agency for interviews. Because we are adopting from China they require 4 face to face interviews. So, Todd will be interviewed individually and then I'll be interviewed and then we'll be interviewed together. Then they will come out to our house and Brandon will be interviewed as well since he is over the age of 10.

So, right now we are working on finishing gathering all the paperwork above. For instance, today I went to the bank to get a money order and then to the post office to mail in a form for one of our criminal background checks. I also started my education course today and completed my first test.
While we are working on all these things for the home study I am also working on items for our Dossier. If you don't know what that is, it is basically a big stack of paperwork that goes to China to tell them all about us. There is much information that is the same stuff needed for the home study, it just has to be a little more official. For instance, once you get the certified birth certificates you then have to send them to your secretary of state for some kind of seal/certification. Then you send them to the Chinese Embassy for another authentification seal.

I'd love to get all this paperwork completed for the home study within the next 2 weeks! I am staying very busy and am thankful that the kids have a week with their grandparents this week so I can focus more of my time on getting things done. We just want to hurry up and get to China to bring our daughter home!