Doss-ee-A

(Buzayan, 6, from Jinka, Ethiopia. Photo from the Bowers Museum. For more photos from the Bridges to Understanding Exhibit, go here: http://www.bowers.org/exhibits/exhibit_bridges3.asp)

Doss-ee-A. That's how you pronounce the word that means, "the big packet of papers that goes overseas when one is adopting a child." In addition to the dossier requirements, there are adoption agency requirements, and United States Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) requirements. Sometimes these papers overlap, or more often, three copies are needed and one goes to each place. Put together, the requirements for these three entitites are often lazily called "the dossier" (even though technically the dossier is only the legal part that goes overseas), and very often referred to as "the paperchase." Many of you have asked, "How is it coming with the Ethiopian adoption?" Well, this is where we are with baby #3's adoption: the paperchase.

One COULD complete the paperchase in 2-3 mon. Most families are very anxious and do get it done in about three months. We are taking our time with ours, however. Some parts of the dossier can't be completed until Tim gets home. And frankly, we aren't in THAT much of a hurry to bring home a new baby! We'd like to get Caleb out of diapers first, at least. So, we're looking at about five months of paperchasing.

What's involved in this paperchase, you ask? I'll list some of it below. But I can tell you that your best friend during this time is your notary! We are so blessed to have a sweet, wonderful, accomodating woman (yes, she will have to go with us to the doctor for notary signatures...) at church who is our notary. THANK YOU, KATRINA!!!! Not having a reliable, accessible notary was our biggest headache with J.'s adoption, and we are so blessed to have Katrina this time around!

In no particular order, here is some of what is involved in the paperchase for an international adoption:
1. Applications to an adoption agency. (Deposit/application fees)

2. Letters of recommendation including pastoral, family, friends, and work. THANK YOU, R. for driving down, with a toddler, a couple of states to have your letter of recommendation notarized in my state so that it passes through the state department check at the end of the paperchase process. I love our 3-4 day visits! You are a sister, a best friend, a Godsend in my life! And Jason, when I get yours at the end of August I'll have just as nice things to say about you! ;)

3. Bank statements from all accounts going back six months.

4. W-2's for the previous three years.

5. Letters from insurance companies stating that a "pre-adoptive child receives full medical benefits beginning the moment he/she is placed in your care."

6. Full physical exams, plus lab work. (fee for what insurance won't cover)

7. Autobiographies

8. Psychological examinations (possible fees)

9. The I-600A (the initial application to adopt an orphan, filed with USCIS) BIG fee attached.

10. Current passports (our were expiring next year, so more fees...)

11. Criminal background clearance from the State Bureau of Investigation (fee)

12. Fingerprints for the State Bureau of Investigation done at the local court house (fee)

13. Fingerprints for USCIS done at their office (big fee)

14. Pictorial essay with captions

15. At least ten logged hours of adoption classes/research/preparation to meet the new Hague Convention rules.

16. Copies of drivers' liscenses

17. Extra passport photos (fee)

18. Privacy Disclosure legal forms

19. Pre-placement/post placement Adoption Agreement legal forms

20. Financial statement (assets/debt/ savings, stocks and bonds, etc...)

21. Certified copies of marriage, death and birth certificates (fees)

22. The Home Study (at least 4 visits with a social worker, one of your home.) This is the big packet that evaluates you, your marriage, your children, your home, your medical, your financial habits, adoption preparedness, intimacies, fears, joys, annoyances and grievances. -BIG fee. A copy of this goes all the way up the chain from the home study agency to USCIS to Addis Ababa.

23. A bit more, and the bit varies by country, but I won't bore you with the details any longer. The Philippines required a dream anaylsis....weird...

23. Notarize everything. (Have I said, "Thank you, Katrina?")

Make copies of everything. Save everything. Things will get lost, and when tax time rolls around the next year, you'll want every receipt you can find to utilize as much of the nearly $11,000 federal adoption tax credit as possible.

I'm not complaining, mind you. Human traffiking is ugly and real. Did anyone see the Dateline special the other night on human traffiking from the Philippines to Malaysia? Many checks and balances are needed within the system to guarantee that legitimate orphans (NOT children who are coersed, bought, sold or borrowed from their birth families...) are placed in safe, capable homes. And honestly, when you take your adoption dossier checklist and go down it one point by one point, it isn't so bad. Compared to nine months of pregnancy, blurred vision, cavities, labor, delivery, stretch marks, the untamable baby tummy, and the realization that you passed your grotesquely large third toe on to another human being...what's a bit of paperwork? Especially when you leisurely give yourself five or six months to do it, and are content with the two blessings you already have. For today anyway.