Paperchasing/Dossiers

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. [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]