Paper Pregnant

In the world of adoption, they call this phase "paper pregnant". And we sure are up to our eyeballs in paperwork! We're getting ready to send a boatload of it to the adoption agency on Monday. Because it's finally here, it's time to start the adoption process!

What we're submitting on Monday is our formal application for the agency along with the beginning of our homestudy documents. What's a home study?

"Home Study: A home study is sometimes called an "adoption study," and is a written report containing the findings of the social worker who has met on several occasions with the prospective adoptive parents, has visited their home, and who has investigated the health, medical, criminal, family and home background of the adoptive parents. If there are other individuals that are also living in the home of the adoptive parents, they will be interviewed and investigated, if necessary, by the social worker and included as part of the home study. The purpose of the home study is to help the court determine whether the adoptive parents are qualified to adopt a child, based on the criteria that have been established by state law."

Just to give you an idea of how much paperwork that is, we're up to 1 1/2 pounds of paperwork to be shipped on Monday and we still have another set to do in a few weeks! I said to Tom last night, "Isn't it great that I love organizing paper work?" He agreed since that means he doesn't have to worry about it. And, I really do enjoy it. I love to put the papers in order, staple, paperclip, check things off the list, double check the lists, etc. I love that line in You've Got Mail, "Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address." Bins of crayons and number 2 pencils, stacks of wide and college ruled paper, protractors, blunt tip scissors, the smell of a fresh trapper keeper....... "Ahhhhhh.....nice". Almost as nice as the smell of a bookstore. Ahem, where was I??
There are four total interviews we will have face to face with our social worker. We've already done one, we'll do two next week (one is Tom's individual interview and one is us together), and then our last one (our home visit) will be in about a month. We hope to be done with our homestudy by mid October at the latest. After that, it's our China dossier. A dossier is:

"Dossier: When used in the context of adoption, this term refers to a set of appropriately authenticated and translated legal documents which are used in international adoption cases to process the adoption of a child in its own country by the adoptive parents, or for the adoptive parents to obtain the legal custody or guardianship of the child in the foreign court, so the child can be brought by the adoptive parents to the United States for adoption."

I'll spare you the details of what all that involves (I don't even totally know it all myself) but suffice it to say that, it's going to weigh at least 3 pounds! : ) The social worker told us she wasn't going to give us any paperwork for the dossier yet because she didn't want to overwhelm us. Thank you a million times. One step at a time is the name of the game in adoption.

So, please continue to pray for us. There are a lot of rules and requirements and it will take a lot of persistence and trust for us as we walk through this journey. We are not sure of the outcome but we are sure of Who lights the pathway. Thanks for walking beside us.