We are entering into the part of the adoption process that I’ve begun calling the “twiddling my thumbs” phase. Otherwise known as waiting. *sigh* So I thought I’d update those inquiring minds as to where we are at with all of this. I’ve had SO many people ask us when we get our baby. And we really do not know. Most likely it’ll be a year or more from now. It’s a long, complex process! Here’s what we’ve been up to…
The Homestudy phase of the adoption requires a LOT of busy-work. We gathered up a couple pounds of documents to give to our social worker so she could verify that we would be suitable parents. We gave her things like our birth certificates, marriage licenses, a medical profile and a really, really in-depth look at our net-worth. (More on that at another date.) And we also had to complete several hours of online courses for her. Meanwhile, we were getting our home ready for her to visit and make sure we have adequate space for a child and that our home appears clean and safe. We had to get a local background check, police clearances and CPS clearances in any states we’ve lived in or own(ed) property.
Alongside all that document gathering for the Homestudy was also a similar set of documents we were procuring for what is called our dossier. That is a packet of information about us that will actually go to China. So basically we’ve been working off of two checklists. Luckily, a lot of the documentation is the same. However, some of it is SLIGHTLY different and so you’ve got to keep it straight what goes where. For example, we needed a medical profile and bloodwork for both the Homestudy and the dossier. But both were on different forms and required somewhat different bloodwork. We also needed police clearances for both dossier and Homestudy, but one required a local clearance (dossier) and one wanted a state-wide clearance (Homestudy). It’s really a LOT of stuff to keep straight and get completed.
That is sort of great though because it keeps us busy. Makes us feel like we’re making progress every day and getting closer to getting our child! However, our Homestudy is done and has been submitted to our adoption agency for proofreading and approval. (Approx two week process, we are told to estimate for this.) Then our social worker will make any requested changes, print out a few official copies of this report, get them notarized and send them to us by FedEx. As soon as we have an approval of that report from our adoption agency, we can move on to the next thing. This approval is actually an official document/email they send us and the date is important to us in the future.
I’m currently filling out what is called an i800A form that will be sent to the USA Government. As soon as the Homestudy is approved, we send in this form with a copy of the Homestudy and then wait 1.5-4 months for them to approve us to bring an immigrant into the USA and raise her. That approval will be a HUGE day for us because it means then we get to send our dossier to China and actually “get in line” for our baby girl.
Well, anyway. If you need me, I can be found in front of my email, hitting refresh about 100 times a day… come on Homestudy approval!
Cheers!
Stacey