PAPERWORK

Today I made a trip to Crossroads Adoption Agency in Minneapolis. There was more paperwork that needed to be done. We recently received word from the Philippine Inter-Country Adoption Board that they have accepted us as prospective adoptive parents. OUR job is to send another stack of paperwork back to the Philippines indicating our desire to accept the proposed placement and/or referral. I spent about an hour at the agency, drove back to Cambridge, sat down with Allen to sign the papers, got them notarized, then headed straight to the post office to send the paperwork right back to Crossroads. They will hopefully get it in the mail a.s.a.p. to the Adoption Board in the Philippines. It was all important stuff to do today, but it wasn't how I was planning to spend my day. Oh well, I'm glad I could do it. Just another step in the adoption process.

The paperwork began from Day 1. The adoption study report for the home study was the first step in this process. It included an application, reference letters, birth certificates, our marriage certificate, medical records, financial information, a background check (which I failed more than once!), and a series of questions that were to be answered by Allen and me. The questions included information about our personal history, relationships, parenting skills, religious affiliations, coping skills, etc... I wrote 7 pages of information. Allen wrote (maybe) 3! What does that tell you?

Our home study was expedited and approved in short order. The next job was to compile our dossier (collection of documents) to be sent to the adoption board in the Philippines. More paperwork. This collection of documents was similar to that of our adoption study report (applications, more reference letters, physicians report, tax returns, and more essay questions). One additional document needed was a written consent from each of our children. I thought that this was interesting, but obviously a good idea.

I believe that at this point, we have completed the bulk of our paperwork. However, the truth is, we just do whatever they tell us to do! If Crossroads tells us to come sign something, we get it done as quickly as possible. Our goal is to get our children here as soon as we can. The paperwork process has been only one of hoops we have had to jump through. All in all, it has gone very well.