The Look Back

To amuse and possibly torment myself, here is a short summary of our adoption pursuit.

Dec 2004 (wow, 3.5 years ago) we sent our Application to our agency.

Some of the time that came next doesn’t really count towards adoption waiting time because it was filled with the arrival of Natalie. It didn’t feel a whole lot like waiting.

April 2006 – our Application was re-activated.

What we’ve done since then:
· Two Homestudies (17 different items to submit for review for China, 23 for Russia)
· Two Country Dossiers (18 different documents, all notarized, county certified, state sealed, and Chinese Embassy authenticated for China. 23 document, all notarized and State Apostilled…in duplicate with two copies, for Russia)
· Two complete physicals for both of us
· Many, many rounds of trying to obtain the right kind of Canadian birth certificate for Jim.
· Two rounds of Customs & Immigration service fingerprinting (including one episode with children in tow, documented in an earlier post)
· Two background and criminal history checks
· Uncounted hours spent at FedEx Kinkos photocopying everything…again and again…and shipping things here, there, and everywhere
· Hep A, Hep B, DTP, and Typhoid vaccinations (for me anyway…Jim keeps “forgetting” his appointments)
· Trips to courthouses, tax offices, police departments, and did I mention FedEx/Kinkos?
· Formal and informal education, reading books on adoption

Not that I am complaining. I’m not. I’m sure it has been far easier than things a lot of families have gone through for pregnancies and adoptions alike. Just trying to summarize the journey thus far, as we look ahead at the uncertainty before us. Surely this is leading somewhere? I have to think so, but sometimes it does seem a bit surreal. I can see it in Jim’s eyes that he doesn’t think it will happen. It’s almost like adoption paperwork and the process itself has become a hobby that fills our spare time and gives us something to talk about, with no end result forthcoming. What a long, strange trip it has been since the first night I went to that first Int’l Adoption orientation meeting in 2004.