The Process Part 1

"Despite the reams of paperwork, obstacles worthy of a horse show, and a wait that can rival an elephant's gestation, adoption feels no different on the inside."- Scott Simon,

 Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption

What steps have we gone through, so far, to bring Lia Grace home? Well, it started with our application and references. Two references were from close family friends, one from a friend, one from my parents, and two from my previous employers, since I am in direct contact with children on a daily basis. Thank you to all our references! You are also part of Lia's story. The only way that I know how to truly capture the process is through the photos we have taken up to this point. Here it goes!

The very, very beginning. The application was mailed off!

We were approved! I received the call during field day but later got this email:

Next, we met with our case manager, reviewed the whole adoption process, reviewed the dossier guide, discussed the trip to pick up Lia Grace, and submitted our first set of docs in order to begin the home study. All smiles, and I will admit, more tears of joy! A GREAT way to begin summer!! :)

 

Then, we began compiling the documents needed for our dossier.     

*Once all of these documents are notarized, county clerk certified, state sealed, and authenticated by the Ch!nese consulate in Houston (or in Chicago for one of my documents since I was born in MI), they can be mailed to Ch*na, along with family, couple, and passport photos. This is the most time consuming of the whole process. Once all of these super important documents have been through the "authentication process", our agency will critically review them before mailing them to Chin@. That is referred to as "Dossier to Ch*na" or in the adoption community, DTC. More to come on that later :) *

The "Paper Chase" Began. The very first document the kids and I chased was our marriage certificate. We drove to the courthouse and the judge, thank God she was there that day!, was gracious enough to sign it right away for me. The kids and I were thrilled that it went so smoothly and there was virtually NO wait!

 

The rest of the documents are kind of a blur because they were chased simultaneously. Here are a few of the photos from the various places we went:

Once we had all the dossier documents that were in OUR control, we began the sealing process. We are very thankful for our neighbor who is a notary and who is more than willing to help us notarize our documents. Thank you Becky! Words cannot express our gratitude to you!

Once they were notarized, they had to be county clerk certified. So, off to the courthouse they went...

Done! :)  Michael's employment verification statement was notarized by a notary from Coweta County (Newnan, GA) so we had to travel to that courthouse for that county certification.

The next stop in the sealing process was the Secretary of State's office.

Now that all the documents were notarized, county certified, and state sealed, they had to be authenticated by the consulate. Off to Chicago went my BC and the rest, once we get them, will go to Houston. Here are the documents that are ready to go to Ch!na as of today:

So you see. It is a process. A long, slow one. Keep praying friends~ we covet them and our sweet daughter needs them too.





 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing.