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 only place in town to get passport photos is a Hallmark store owned by our neighbor. He knows we already have passports, so it's a dead give-away each time we go in for passport photos for our dossier. Even though we'd hoped to keep our first adoption a secret, it spread throughout the hospital like wildfire soon after our adoption physicals were completed. (Note that this was in pre-HIPPA days, but confidentiality still should have been maintained.) Everything adoption-related, from our buying a bigger vehicle to seeking required psychological assessments to enlarging our living space to simply gathering dossier documents has a way of leaking out and making the rounds through the grape vine.

I don't have any great advice on how to maintain your privacy while you're paperchasing because if you live in a small town like we do, I think it's "pertnear" impossible, as they say around here. I confess that the lack of privacy is the only thing I don't like about where we currently live, but I also admit that it's easier to tolerate when it is evidence of our community's love and support for our family. :)