Paper Pregnant: The Adoption Process

It’s amazing how much we’ve learned about adoption, and being only part way through the process we know that there is still a lot left for us to learn. Any adoptive person’s process is going to look different based on whether the adoption is domestic infant, foster, or international. Other factors include the agency and the country the child is from. Add to that the fact that laws and requirements change often, and we give you this description of what it is like for us, with our agency, through India, right now.

✔ Pre-Application
We started by filling out a short application just to get ourselves in the system. This was not too painful and just asked basic information. We met with a representative from the agency about what program might be the best fit for us.

✔ Training
We completed training—two full-day seminars and 11 hours of online webinars. We will continue to log hours of reading to satisfy remaining required preparation hours.

✔ Application
Concurrently with our training, we completed the application. This application is a mountain of paperwork in which I applied all my organization skills in checklists, color-coding and Post-It Notes to keep it all straight. It included financials, legal documents, background checks, fingerprints, medical evaluations, state forms and many other things. As we compare with other adoptive parents, it seems that our agency receives all our information up front and calls it the application, whereas others complete this paperwork as part of their home study.

✔ Home Study (almost done)
In international adoption the home study is more about the written description of the home and family environment than it is about the physical home. We did have a meeting in our home, but it was very easy. We anticipate our written home study being complete and approved in the next few weeks.

What’s left:

• I-800A application (immigration forms)
• Complete Dossier (all of our information as prepared for the Indian government)
• Wait for a referral (child’s file)
• More paperwork…
• Travel to India.
• Bring home our child!

This could all still take more than a year still, although our prayers are directed at less than that. Each one of these steps has fees involved, so we are SO thankful for the generosity we’ve been shown through individuals and through our fundraising events. Our garage sale raised over $2,000.00. We are 39% raised! Praise God.

We are trusting God and praying that he will provide. You can help us reach our goal by sharing our donation page to your social networks, and by signing up for one of the upcoming fundraising events:

Soap Making Class - May 29

“One More” Workout - June 16

Pasta Making - July 21

Thank you, dear friends, for your love and interest in our little family.