Submitted by Carissa (to read more from Carissa, visit her site here)
The easiest way to describe this process is in our own three stages of “pregnancy” (1) the paper chase (2) the wait and (3) travel and child (or children we hope!). The problem with this “pregnancy” is it might be more similar to the gestation period of an elephant, but worth the wait!
Today I will talk about the paperchase as that is where we stand now! The paperchase…how can I put this kindly. Well it all starts when you send in your application to your agency…that is the beginning and then after that you start your homestudy and the USCIS (old INS) paperwork and then after all that you have a dossier! Do all these words sound a bit foreign to you…they did to us as well but at our first meeting with our social worker we came armed with this major list of questions (she assured us we were normal - everyone comes with a list)! So here is what we know:
Homestudy: This is where a social worker interviews you to see if you are “normal” and can handle all of the things that come with parenthood and in our case an inter-racial family! We provide her (in our case it is a her it could also be a him) with a VERY LONG narrative that answers all these questions including about our intimate life!
And then we have to be fingerprinted (as many as four times); checked out by a doctor; letters from our employers; copies of birth certificates, taxes and marriage licenses; a list of our financial resources (important for us as they have to be able to see we can take care of two children); a copy of who we will leave our children in the care of if something would happen to us; background checks; oh yeah don’t let me forget our furry “children”, we have to have proof that they have all of their vaccanations; and finally we have to take classes to show that we understand what will happen and how to bond with our children not to mention how to keep their culture alive in them! There is a reason this process takes what seems like forever! During this process we meet together with a social worker, once together and once for each of us alone and then she will visit our house to check it out!
