This is a shot of one of the many pages of the file you get when you get a match and/or request info on one of the special focus kids on the shared website for our agency.
She first walked me through a checklist of the documents we would need to compile for our dossier. The good news is that many of them were already done during our paper chase, such as the china medical physical exam form, employment verification, The bummer is that some of those documents now need to go to the state capitol to get state certified/apostilled and then some of those, along with others, will need to go to the Chinese embassy in San Francisco to get authenticated.
Birth Certificates - Oh what fun. They have to get authenticated at the Chinese embassy which has jurisdiction over the states in which we were born. That means Parker's birth certificate has to go to the Chinese embassy in Chicago to get authenticated. What a pain in the ass. Thankfully the embassy here in SF has jurisdiction over the state of Washington so mine can just go with the other documents. Woo hoo, one tiny detail goes in our favor.
Application Letter - We also have to write up a an application letter. In this letter we basically outline our intentions of adopting a girl with minor to repairable special needs who is up to 2 years and 3 months old. We promise to love and take care of her and never abuse her. Kind of a stiff piece of writing but it's a requirement.
Certificate of Financial Status - just what it says... a document listing our assets, income, life insurance values, bank account balances, investments and liabilities, credit card debt, mortgage, etc.
Police Clearance Letter - We have to get a notarized letter from the local city or county police station stating we do not have a criminal record in their office. We haven't done this yet but it sounds pretty easy. We show up in person, with our driver's licenses and social security numbers, pay the 26 bucks and return in 2 days to pick up the letter.
Reference Letters - We include 3 of the 4 reference letters we originally obtained for the agency paper chase. We also have to include the reference letter from the kindergarten teacher .. but for the China requirements, that letter now has to get notarized. Too bad we didn't get a heads up about this before. Now we have to impose on the teacher yet again, to take time to do this. Thankfully we live in a small town and can just make an appointment at the UPS store based on what will be most convenient for her. I'll still feel like a heel asking her for another favor.
I-797C approval - Ha! Not even sure what this is. Maybe it's what we'll get back after we send in our I-800 application. I'll have to look into this.
There is also some additional info about travel. Most adoption fees are requested in U.S. cash. So it looks like we'll be rollin. That'll be fun. And nerve wracking. Nothing like traveling in a country you've never been to, with a ton of dough strapped on in your money belt. We can wire the orphange fee nd the fee to the travel agency before we go.
They also recommend we get vaccinations for Hep A and Hep B before we go. We hadn't previously thought about Hep A but will add that to our list. I had already discussed Hep B with my doctor during part 2 of my medical exam. The order is in and I just have to show up and start the series of 2-3 injections. We added this to our to do list because one of the little girls, whose file we looked at, has Hep B. Yes, I mentioned we looked at a file. We've actually reviewed 2 files. More on that later.
There is also a packing list included. Which is helpful and ridiculous at the same time. I wonder if it's as useless as the packing list you get for your trip to the hospital to birth your bio kid. I'm not even sure I opened the suitcase up again after getting out my toothbrush, contact solution and contact case. I learned after baby #1 that bringing all those brand new granny panties was worthless. The mesh panties they give you at the hospital are far superior, comfort-wise, do a much better job keeping everything in place and the best part - you can just throw them away! Then, after baby #2, I did actually strap on the bra I brought along with some of those terrible, awful boobyliner pads you stick in to absorb the breast milk. How much did those suck?! But I was a milk making machine so I had to use them, or risk an embarrassing amount of leakage during my laps around the post-partum unit. So packing list, shmacking list. At least this time if I forget something, it won't result in embarrassing bodily fluid issues. I'll read it after the tickets are bought and the suitcases are brought in from the garage.
The most useful document included is "Medical Resources with International Adoption Experience." These practices are willing to review referral information (the medical file you get on the child you get matched with). Most require a fee and some just take a donation. I have two of them starred and will contact them in the next couple of weeks to help determine who we will work with and set up an agreement so that when the file comes, we can zip it over to them for a quick, but of course, thorough, review before we make our decision. I think we get 72 hours. I'll also have our pediatrician review the file and give us her $.02 as well as she'll be an integral part of the ongoing care of baby sister. That and the fact that she's just a great person, warm sense of support and encouragement and speaks to us like fellow adults/parents.
At the end of the conversation I just asked her if there were other countries we should give consideration to or should reconsider before pulling the trigger and finalizing China. We talked through India and Ethiopia as I just needed to make sure they wouldn't be possibilities in the near future. We also talked through Uganda. They (our agency) are running a pilot program, so to speak, in Uganda. But the uncertainty of the process, the power that rests with the lone lawyer who will confirm or deny your adoption case, and the length of stay required ruled out Uganda for us. If we didn't have children already, I could see us traveling around to build a family from many countries. But the reality is we have children who have to go to school and a money maker who needs to go to work. Without the money he makes, none of this would be possible. So no changes to our country plans. We're sticking with China.
We've decided to go with "The Assistant Stork" for getting the state certifications/apostilling and embassy authentications. There's a fee to this, obviously, but it's well worth the cost to get this very time consuming task done for us. If I did it myself, I would have to get a sitter for at least a couple of days and then trek on up to the capitol one day and then sit around at the embassy another day. And let's face it, I don't even know what I'm doing so I'm sure 2 planned days would turn into 4 days total. That's a lot of time and babysitting money and gas and frustration. So this week I'm going to call the assistant stork to start getting this stuff where it needs to go.
Hope this post wasn't too boring for you. I got bored re-reading it to make sure it all made sense. But I can't help it. I'm putting all the steps of the process out there. The easy ones and the hard ones, the boring ones, those that require help from others, those that require a significant amount of research or writing or soul searching. And hopefully soon, once we're through all of those, onto the fun and exciting things we get to think about, talk about and plan for!
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