Our Adoption Process

This all seemed so simple and logical. We wanted a baby and there are babies that need homes and families. But as you will see, it's not that simple. There is a lot of work and expense involved but of course it will be worth it in the end!

We started by calling lots of agencies and of course searching the web for all kinds of information on adoption. It was very overwhelming at first. We decided to visit a couple local agencies. We needed to find one we could trust and would help us to successfully adopt. Then came the point were we needed to decide what country or domestic. We again went through rejections of what countries would accept us based on age, ect. We also had to think about the type of children that were available in each country such as race, age and health to name a few. Finally we decided on Kazakhstan. This was in large part due to meeting two beautiful children, 2 and 4 yrs., from Kaz and their mom. They were so precious and attached to their mother.

We thought that was difficult and we hadn't even started yet. So, we had the country and agency at that point. We decided to go meet the people from our agency in person, they are in NJ. So we drove down to NJ for the weekend. Jason had some work to do in NJ also that weekend (different area) so Jason worked Sun. and we drove 2hrs to the agency Mon. morning. We met and took pictures of the people (felt silly doing this) we had been talking to and will be working with. they are so nice. Don, our country coordinator spent about 3 hrs with us! He answered lots of questions and we signed the contract and paid our (large) application fee. Then we drove 4hrs home. It was worth the trip, we felt much more comfortable with the agency and it's nice to have a face to put with the person on the other end of the phone/computer.

Homestudy
At this point we had already started our homestudy packet. The homestudy had to be done with a local (NY state approved) agency. After the application, we began by having our fingerprints taken, each filling out a 18 page questionnaire, employment history and references, financial info. sheet, criminal affidavit, medical reports, references from family and friends and a few more documents. This was submitted to the agency and approved! Then we were assigned a social worker. He called us and made an appointment to meet with us in our home. I was of course very nervous, scared and worried. He had the power to approve or disapprove us as parents. I spent days cleaning and worrying about everything from the chair that needs to be reupholstered to the garden not being weeded well enough. Anyway, he came in and didn't even glance at the garden or the chair, he sat at the table and talked with us for about an hour and asked to see the baby's room. That was all! He was so nice and put us at ease (mostly). That was the first visit, the second he talked to us separately, me for 1hr, Jason 1/2 hr. (unfair). And the third visit he went over the report he had written about us. We were approved! Then we waited for the final copy, signed and notarized. Well, we received the copy -with tons of mistakes throughout- like my birth date, income, ect! This was frustrating. We highlighted mistakes and sent it back. Then the agency director called and gave us a hard time over some details. Anyway, we were very happy to finally have it in our hands (all 6 notarized copies) and to be done with that agency!

Dossier
The next step is to complete the dossier. We first needed FBI fingerprints to make sure there was no criminal record. We then needed to fill out an application to adopt an orphan and another set of fingerprints for INS. Then we only needed about 30 other documents.

When things need to be done by us (paperwork) we get it done quickly. I have the time and of course motivation. But when we are waiting for things to be done by others it takes a lot longer and can be very frustrating! For example, I have had to bring the medical forms to the doctors office 3 times and then bring a notary (Thank you Pete) to get it done correctly. Then there are the bank letters, realtor letter, agency & social worker letters and licences, certified marriage licences, employment letter and passports that require other people to complete. Then we are to fill out a cover letter, letter of obligation, commitment letters, financial papers, power of attorney documents and many more.

We also need pictures of us dressed casual and formal, pictures of every room in the house, front and back of house and nearby parks and schools.

Then everything has to be notarized (not pictures), go to the county offices the notary's are registered in to get a stamp of certification (3 different offices), then go to the NY state records office to be authenticated/apostilled.

When this is complete (almost there!) we will submit 2 originals and 5 copies of everything to the agency. Then it will be translated. One original, 1 copy and the translation are then bound/sewn together and sent to Kazakhstan.

In Kaz they will go through 3 different government offices for approval(I believe). After we receive final approval we will get a LOI (Letter of Invitation) to travel. Then we get our visas and tickets and of course they make sure there are babies there for us! As long as there are babies at the orphanage we will travel very shortly after the LOI.

Then we get our baby!!!! We will visit them every day for 3 weeks in the orphanage, then we come home for 3-4 weeks. Then go back to bring the baby home! All of the time, effort and cost will be worth it when we have our child in our arms!

Time Line

The other purpose of this blog is to help other adoptive couples who are looking for answers to questions and information on adoption. I love reading other people's blogs. The things I look for most are pictures and time-lines because this helps me have a greater idea of how long our wait will be and I love to see the beautiful faces of the babies and parents knowing we will be in the same position shortly!

Anyway, here is our time-line. It will be updated as we make more progress.

8/10/06 Received Homestudy Package
9/9/06 Homestudy paperwork sent in to Family Tree Adoption Agency (local)
9/11/06 Signed with adoption agency, Reaching Out Thru International Adoption (New Jersey)
9/27/06 First Homestudy Visit
9/30/06 Second Homestudy Visit
10/23/06 Last Homestudy Visit
10/24/06 INS application and Fingerprints sent in
10/24/06 FBI Fingerprints sent in
11/17/06 FBI fingerprints came back to us (No Record!)
11/30/06 Homestudy Report Done -Picked Up!
12/06/06 Received INS approval to adopt an orphan
12/28/06 Last Dossier Document Notarized
1/3/07 Documents Appostiled
1/4/07 Dossier sent to Agency!!!
1/17/06 Dossier sent to be translated :)
2/?/07 Dossier sent to Embassy
3/1/07 Dossier at MFA in Kazakhstan!!
4/2/07 Dossier at MOE!!
6/1-9/24 Region closed, much sadness :(
9/24/07 Received approval from the MOE
9/28/07 Issued our LOI
10/08/07 Travel to Kaz!!
10/10/07 Arrive in Karaganda and meet Ava!
10/28/07 Meeting with the Ministry of Education
10/30/07 Court Date - Ava is ours!
10/31/07 Arrive back home from first trip
11/26/07 Second Trip!
12/2/07 Home with our Ava!!!

Introduction

So we are adopting from Kazakhstan. Yes, I said Kazakhstan. It is actually the 9th largest country in the world, and is located in central Asia between China & Russia. If you want to know how to say it, click here. The country has about 15-16 million people who speak Russian and Kazakh. Of course, you could get a lot more detail from Wikipedia or the CIA's fact book, so I won't trouble you with much more details here.
How did we come up with Kazakhstan? Well, once we ended up ruling out domestic because of the long wait, and we thought we could do more good by helping a child in another country. First we looked at the Ukraine because I've got a nice Ukrainian last name, but the laws there were in flux, and they weren't even accepting Americans at the time, so we moved on. We looked at several other countries, but they always seemed to have really strange requirements, or we weren't eligible at all for some reason. Finally we found Kazakhstan where we could adopt a relatively young child (hopefully from 6-12 months old), do it relatively quickly, and it seemed a fairly straightforward process.
In early September 2006, we finally picked an agency, Reaching Out Through International Adoption, and started the process. As I start this blog now at the end of December 06, our paperwork is nearly complete, with the only remaining tasks being getting it all apostilled and submitting it all to the agency. I'm sure we'll put more details out on this later.