3 Months - Update

3 months ago yesterday Chris and I mailed our application to begin the adoption process. It has been 3 months filled with paperwork. This part of the adoption process is referred to the paper chase and for good reason! I feel like I’m constantly following up on paperwork and planning on how to get it through the next stage of the process. To date this is what we have accomplished on the paperwork front:

1/3/11: Opened adoption bank account

1/7/11: Filed our application with our agency

1/15/11: Ordered birth certificates

1/18/11: Sent request for certified marriage certificate

1/20/11: Hired Social Worker

1/25/11: Requested our personal references submit their Reference Forms

1/26/11: Police Clearances for Chris and Amy

1/27/11: Physicals for the kids

1/29/11: Submitted 22 documents and forms to our Social Worker

1/29/11: First home visit with Social Worker

1/30/11: Second home visit Social Worker

2/1/11: Completed Hague required adoption education

2/2/11: Cinnamon’s (the cat) Physical

2/5/11: Texas Background Clearances received

2/7/11: Took Passport pictures for our Dossier

2/8/11: Got Chris’ Employment Verification Letter

2/16/11: Compiled family pictures for Dossier

2/17/11: Got Amy’s Income Verification Letter

2/18/11: Made copies of Passports for Dossier

2/25/11: South Carolina Background Clearances received

3/2/11: Chris and Amy’s Physicals

3/2/11: Home Study draft sent to agency (all Home Study docs are turned in)

3/11/11: Agency approves Home Study

3/26/11: Finally receive hard copy of Home Study

3/26/11: Mail off I800-A (Request of US Govt to adopt from China)

3/27/11: Write Letter to China requesting to adopt from their country

3/28/11: I800-A receipt date(should take about 45-55 days to be approved)

3/29/11: Got all of our Dossier documents notarized

3/30/11: Took Dossier docs to Austin to be state certified by the SOS office

3/31/11: Mailed Dossier docs to courier in Houston to be authenticated by the
Chinese Consulate

4/8/11: Authenticated Dossier docs to be picked up and mailed back to us.


Impressive, huh! Well we aren’t done yet. Next week my Dossier documents should be back from Houston. These very official documents (they have been notarized, certified by the Secretary of State in Austin, and authenticated by the Chinese Consulate in Houston) will be complete. Then 18 of the 19 documents that make up my Dossier will be mailed to my agency in California. They will review them and wait for the final document.

The last document is our approval from the US government to adopt an orphan from China. This approval takes about 45-55 days to get. We are currently at day 12 in the wait for it. Hopefully we will have that approval by mid to late May. If the government shuts down, the office that processes this request will also shut down. So, that wait time could grow if the government budget issues do not get resolved. Once we get the approval we will get it notarized, take it to Austin for the Secretary of State to certify it and then send it to Houston to be authenticated. Then that last piece of paper will be sent to my agency and my Dossier will be complete and on its way to China!!!! We anticipate that that will be in early to mid June (barring a government shutdown or other unforeseen delays).

We will have other paperwork to do at other stages of the process, but nothing like what we have been doing. It is nice to finally have the bulk of it done and be waiting on just ONE piece of paper. It won’t be too long now!!!!


Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Colossians 3:23-24