International Adoption 101: the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval...

Five and a half years ago I jumped into the joys of motherhood. There were no requirements to take this position. Just show up with a baby in your tummy and you're in. We made plenty of preparations for his arrival (prenatal appointments, ultrasounds, classes, pediatrician interviews, etc.) but none of them were required of us. We went to the hospital, had a baby and came home two days later. The only requirement was we couldn't leave the hospital without baby in a car seat. End of story. Same thing with baby sister. No questions asked. Here's your baby. Hang out for two days. Let's take a spin in the wheelchair. Put baby in a car seat. Off we went. Have a nice life.

Well, friends, not this time. There is a massive amount of paperwork involved in international adoption. What exactly is required of us? I've been asked several times already so I'm going to enlighten you...

-Application packet to agency
-Application packet to homestudy agency
-Intent to Adopt Letter
-Two certified copies of birth certificates for the Womble 4 (tW4)
-Two certified copies of our marriage certificate
-Certificate of Profession and Income from our CPA
-"Homemaker" letter written by Mommy
-Financial Statement recording all debts and assets
-Letter of good standing from our bank
-Copies of last 3 yrs of federal tax returns
-Health Exams on tW4
-Full physical certificates from the MD who performed the exams
-City of ____ police clearance letter
-State Bureau of Investigation (-BI) criminal check
-State police clearance/background check for any state lived in last 10 yrs
-Child/Spouse abuse registry check
-Fingerprints of both Mommy and Daddy
-6 Letters of recommendation
-Copy of city water bill
-Residential History verification
-(10) hrs each of online adoption/parenting classes
-(4) Home study visits with Social Worker verifying our ability to parent an adopted child
-Passport applications and 2 sets of Passport photos
-Photos of our home, family, living area, home life, etc.
-Interagency agreements and confidentiality statements between agency and homestudy agency
-USCIS Clearance application

Once we reach this point, all of the documents are compiled to create our dossier (just a fancy word for adoption paperwork). All of the above listed information must be notarized by a notary public. Then the notary's signature must be certified by the County Clerks Office in the county of authority. Then the County Clerks Office must be certified by the Secretary of State. Finally the Secretary of States authority must be authenticated by the Chinese Consulate. When we have received the seals of approval from the four entities listed above, we send our dossier to our agency. Upon final approval from our agency, our dossier is sent to China for translation.

At this point the Good Housekeeping lady walks out on stage and stamps Mommy and Daddy with her big fat seal of approval. We brought two sweet babies home no questions asked. We could have been an ax murderers or crazies for all they knew. We're not...but we could have been. This one is going to take a little more effort but we're ready for the challenge. I'm checking them off as fast as I can. If anyone needs me, I'll be knee deep in paperwork until at least August. Well, hopefully July, but that might be wishful thinking. :-)