Catching up, part 2

The next steps:
1. The homestudy and INS: This included gathering a lot of information/documents to provide to the social worker so she can begin learning about us. We also had to write up info on our family health histories, do personal biographies and a biography on us together as a couple. State fingerprints had to be done, tax and employment info provided, doctor's letters of good health, 4 reference letters... all kinds of things. There was also a lot of paperwork for us to do to narrow down what type of child we were interested in adopting, considering factors like age, sex, medical conditions, etc. Next came the interviews! For the first one we went to the office in Grafton to meet with DeeDee, our social worker. She then came to the house the next week for another interview and to check out the house. We were a little nervous about her coming to the house. We went a little nutty for a couple of days trying to get everything as clean and in order as possible. In reality, she was just checking to make sure we had a safe, healthy environment for a baby to move into. It was very relaxed and everything went just fine. DeeDee is very nice and has been a great help to us. The interviews included a lot of discussion on attachment issues, how to talk to your child about adoption, what it means to be a bi-racial family and other concerns that may come up. I think it's great that they really try to prepare you for what may come, things we had not necessarily thought about, yet.
Once DeeDee had all of our information and interviews completed it took a couple of weeks for her to write it up and finalize.
While the homestudy was being done we also submitted to the US gov't our "Application for Advance Processing Of An Orphan." This is basically getting permission from our gov't to go abroad to adopt a baby. We then had to go to Pittsburgh to get another set of fingerprints done for the FBI.
All of this took place through March and April. We got our final copy of the homestudy May 10th. Our letter from the Dept of Homeland Security came May 23rd, stating that we were approved to travel for the adoption!
2. The dossier: While working on the homestudy paperwork we were also filling out the paperwork for the adoption agency. First was the initial application, contract, info release forms, etc. Once that was completed we began working on compiling our dossier. The dossier is the set of documents required by the Guatemalan Government to complete the adoption. It included a lot of the same stuff as the homestudy, plus more. The frustrating thing about this step was that a lot of the info needed was the same but they wanted it in a different format. For example the doctor's letters of good health, our reference letters and even our birth certificates all had to be done a certain way which, of course, was different from what had been done for the homestudy. So, we did a lot of backtracking, filled out even more paperwork and got everything ready. Documents for the dossier must each be notarized. Then each document must be certified at the county level, then authenticated at the Sec of State's office. Once all of that it done the papers all had to be sent to the Guatemalan Embassy here in the US to be legalized. Only then could the completed dossier be sent to the adoption agency, who forwards it to Guatemala. We sent our completed dossier on May 30th, they received it June 1st. We are now what they call 'paper ready,' meaning that all of our paperwork is done and we are now just waiting for the referral of our baby! It's been 16 days.... but who's counting?