Out of all the steps of international adoption, I dread this one the most. When we first began adopting, we had to travel two hours away to the sheriff’s office in our nearest big city. It was an inconvenience, but doable, and we ended up making a fun day out of it. The second time we adopted, we found out the sheriff’s office would no longer do the fingerprinting because it was too much hassle for too little money. We ended up having to travel two hours in the opposite direction to a tiny little town to have it done. This time, it was a pain, but it still... more

Other perks include the fact that the sheriff's office keeps criminal record check forms on their hard drive with our names on them. Seriously. Our local McDonald's offered to do an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast to help us fundraise for our first adoption. Professionals (bank presidents, doctors and nurses, etc.) who have to write letters or complete forms for us know us personally and understand how important it is that we get those documents back quickly. Our needs aren't lost in a pile of papers, gathering dust, because a doctor doesn't know us from Adam.

On the flip side, the biggest drawback we've discovered is that it's impossible to keep adoption plans a secret. The... more

Last night my husband and I went out to for Chinese food and a movie with our friends J and D, who are adopting from Haiti. D is also our family doctor, and because he'd just completed our adoption physicals, he brought our notarized doctor letters for our Ethiopia dossier to the restaurant. I thanked him for being so prompt, tucked the envelope into my purse and didn't think about it much after that.

Last night when my husband and I pulled into the garage, I realized I no longer had the envelope. I looked all over the car and couldn't find it, so I figured I must have dropped it at the theater and would have to call them when they opened. I was pretty worried I'd never find... more

Yesterday I received our Ethiopia dossier packet in the mail at about 11:00, and from the moment I opened the envelope, I went full steam ahead with my work! The older kids were busy working on their schoolwork, and I told the younger ones that today would be our “off” day (they do school 4 days a week and we have a floating day off) and that they would get to play. There were no complaints there, so I camped out at the kitchen table with my computer, my adoption binder, the new packet, and a pen. I made copies, wrote letters, adeptly printed notarial blocks onto copies of birth and marriage certificates (OK, so I wasted about 20 sheets of paper before I got it right), and filled out our... more

I’ve become a pro at dossier assembly, and I think I could easily get everything done in two months (minus our I171H, which may or may not show up in that timeframe). But even though it goes against my nature, I think I need to take it slow so I don’t risk having documents expiring during our wait. We also don’t want a referral too soon, because we want to make sure we have at least a year between our Haitian kids’ arrival and the new child’s first appearance.

Once I get our dossier off, I’ll be researching our plans to (hopefully) make a side trip... more

I haven’t mentioned our current adoption much over the last couple of month because, well, there hasn’t been much to mention! Other than having our first of three homestudy visits, there’s been little movement. Our agency has one of the more popular and stable Ethiopia programs, and therefore has one of the longest waits. We were instructed when we applied that it would be a few months before we could really even get going on our dossier, and this was fine with us since it was only October when our three new Haitian kids came home.

The other day,... more