The Paper Chase Begins

Progress! On Wednesday evening we received an email from AWAA confirming receipt of our agreement and payment (that was fast!), and yesterday our family coordinator called to introduce herself. I was eager to "meet" her, and relieved to find that she is personable and more than willing to answer our questions. One of our reasons for choosing AWAA (and deciding against another agency) involved our comfort level with the staff members. So far we've been impressed with the professionalism and personal attention of those we've dealt with at AWAA.

We also received extensive guidelines for working through the dossier-building process. This is what most people call the "paper pregnancy," and from what we've heard it will be a long and arduous process. There is a long list of documents to be acquired, most of which must be notarized. Over the next few months we'll be gathering these, and possibly repeating some of our work if any of them expire before we receive a child referral from Rwanda.

If you're curious, here is a rundown of the documents (all but 3 of these must be notarized and certified by the PA Secretary of State):

• Power of attorney
• Copies of passports (first we need to get the originals!)
• Application letter
• Birth certificates (I ordered these online last night)
• Marriage certificate (simple trip to the Lancaster courthouse, I hope)
• Physical exams (must be notarized at the doctor's office...have you ever had a physical with a notary public standing by your side?)
• Proof of medical insurance for adopted child (could be tricky, since I was recently told by the insurance company that we need to provide a birthdate for the child before they'll offer coverage)
• W2s
• Financial statement
• Declaration of Intent letters
• Family composition letter
• Home study (involves 4 visits with a social worker to determine our suitability as adoptive parents)
• Police reports & FBI fingerprinting
• USCIS (Citizenship & Immigration Services) approval
• Agency post-placement agreement

With so many organizations and agencies involved, it's not surprising that the dossier-building process usually takes 4-6 months! Especially considering most documents require several steps to acquire them. We're going to be very, very busy.

I sat down with our adoption notebook last night and added some detail to our organizational system. I'll need to maintain a to-do list and checklist for every part of this process, or else I'll be too overwhelmed and confused to make any headway.

We appreciate your prayers for our time management and diligence in this phase of the adoption, and also for our ability to gather the finances we'll need when the dossier is complete.

Thanks for keeping in step!