The Paperchase
 

For anyone unfamiliar with international adoption, just know that it can sometimes be a long process and not for the faint of heart! The initial paperwork, or the “paperchase”, can take several months to complete. We started in June of 2005 and were finally logged into the CCAA on November 21, 2005. Here are some of the documents we had to collect: ● Letter of Petition to Adopt ● Home Study ● Birth Certificates ● Marriage Certificate ● Medical Forms ● Financial Statement ● Employment Letters ● Police Reports ● 5 Letters of Reference ● Approval notice from CIS (I-171H) – It took over 2 months to get approval. We had to re-apply in 2007 because the first approval expired! The majority of these documents had to go through a 3-step verification process: notarization, state certification and a final authentication at the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. We really pushed hard to get our paperwork done as quickly as possible with the goal of completing the adoption before Avery began Kindergarten. Well, you know what they say about the best-laid plans… Even though we completed the paperwork in four months, adoptions from China began to slow down. What we thought would be a year-long process, stretched into two+ years. Being patient wasn’t always easy, but we knew that we are not in control and that God’s timing would be absolutely perfect.